New Classrooms Built to Raise Education Quality for Refugees in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABEBA – Officials hope for education quality to increase after eighty-four classrooms have been inaugurated in Gambella region of Ethiopia today.
The classrooms were built through funding from Education Cannot Wait(ECW), a global fund dedicated to education in emergencies.
Various UN agencies and the Ethiopian government have partnered ECW in the school construction project.
The classrooms built in refugee camps in Nguenyyiel, Terkidi, Kule, and Jewi refugee camps, will enable children both in the host and refugee communities to receive quality education, says the UN children’s fund or UNICEF.
The Fund says the classrooms will allow 8,500 refugee children, 38 percent of them girls, to receive education on a double shift basis.
The facilities have been constructed as part of a US $15 million two-year investment from Education Cannot Wait.
Their construction intended to expand education opportunities for children affected by emergencies and protracted humanitarian crisis in refugee camps and host communities in Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, the UN children’s fund said.
In addition to these classrooms, Education Cannot Wait is supporting the construction of three new inclusive model secondary schools and 41 classrooms in eight secondary schools.
The facilities will benefit 3,600 children from refugee camps and the surrounding host communities in the two regions. The schools will be fully fitted with water, toilets, and furniture.
Since April 2017, Education Cannot Wait’s investment has surpassed its targets and reached over 138,000 children in refugee and host communities in the two regions.
The support has included training of 683 teachers at certificate and diploma level, distribution of 500 education and recreation kits and provision of school grants to improve education quality.
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Image: Inauguration 84 classrooms built through funding from Education Cannot Wait in refugee camps are being inaugurated by the Gambella Regional Government and UNICEF. [UNICEFEthiopia/2019/NahomTesfaye]