Education for Refugees

The issue faced

An influx of refugees from Afghanistan into Iran is placing intense pressure on Iranian education infrastructure and services. In areas hosting large numbers of refugees, class sizes have increased, and schools are running out of physical spaces to host newly enrolled pupils. The quality and breadth of the education provided at many schools have been adversely affected.

Access to quality education by children in Iran is also being restricted by economic and geographical barriers, alongside a lack of transportation and gender disparities. The impact of this situation on the education outcomes for children in Iran is exacerbated by broader systemic concerns regarding quality of learning, and a lack of ICT equipment and upskilling opportunities aligned with labour market demand.

The actions taken

UNICEF is helping to ensure access for all children in Iran – including refugees and children with special needs – to quality education and learning services, in a participatory environment (and adapted to the emergency setting, as necessary). Interventions undertaken by UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and other partners, to achieve this objective include:

Expanding education system capacity to accommodate refugee children and adolescents, achieving educational inclusion for all boys and girls.
Upgrading educational facilities by constructing additional classrooms, rehabilitating WASH (Water Sanitation Hygiene) facilities and providing equipment to enhance the quality and capacity of schools to host refugee and host community children.
Promoting inclusive education with a focus on children with disabilities and refugee children, including through support for the development of digital inclusive learning platforms and digital textbooks.
Boosting retention and learning among pupils (from both host community and refugee populations), by providing classes catered to the learning needs of each child.
Increasing the capacity of the education system to effectively prepare for and respond to natural disasters and emergencies, by building resilience response mechanisms and capacity.

The partners engaged

UNICEF partners involved in implementation of the programme in this focus area include the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and the National Organization for Migration, as well as INTERSOS, Relief International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The impact sought

UNICEF aims to strengthen the resilience of the public education system across Iran, making access equitable for all children and improving learning outcomes, deploying its resources in a highly strategic and targeted manner in pursuit of this change. Drawing on strong partnerships, UNICEF aims to ensure that every child in Iran, including refugee children, can fully partake in quality education and thrive academically, regardless of their legal or social status, or economic or ethnic background. Following an inclusive approach, UNICEF will particularly help disadvantaged children to obtain enhanced learning outcomes, including children with special needs and disabilities, boosting the resilience of this group (and their future contribution to) Iranian society at large.

Monitoring and Accountability

In adherence to principles of accountability, UNICEF enriches its programme designs and adaptations through systematic assessment and monitoring of the child’s rights deprivations, operating environment, partnerships and progress towards planned results. The implementation of Harmonised Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) ensures both financial and programmatic compliance through a combination of micro and macro assessments, spot checks, audits and programmatic visits. Leveraging sophisticated and integrated enterprise platforms and tools, UNICEF maintains a consistent monitoring of its programme implementation assessing quality and coverage, identifying risks and challenges, highlighting best practices and lessons learned, fostering stakeholder participation and engagement and conducting end user monitoring of supplies. Additionally, UNICEF remains committed to its costed evaluation plan which includes external evaluations of its projects, partnerships, and/or strategies primarily aiming to enhance relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of its programmes.