UNICEF’s informal learning programme helps children to catch up with their peers

Almost eight years of fighting have taken a toll on children’s education in the governorate of Aleppo. Multiple displacements, fighting and lost livelihoods have forced children out of school, putting their future at risk.

UNICEF’s self-learning programme allows out-of-school children to catch up with their peers by studying at home or in community centres with the help of volunteers or caregivers. In Aleppo, regular schools serve as learning centres for the programme, over weekends, and after regular school hours.

Children benefitting from the programme learn English, Arabic, math and sciences including physics and chemistry. The programme allows children aged 6 to 15 to study with the help teaches and volunteers. Children enrolled in the programme also receive school bags, stationary, textbooks and mine risk education sessions to help them protect themselves against the risk of unexploded ordinance. The programme also offers children recreational and sports activities, to help them regain a sense of normality in their lives and reconnect with their childhood. In Qaramel village, 23 kilometers north of Aleppo, UNICEF’s self- learning programme helps 230 children from nine neighbouring villages. “Most of the children who benefit from the programme have lost at least three years of their education” says Rand, the learning centre coordinator. “We keep encouraging children to go back to school once they feel ready. Our goal is to reintegrate them in formal education,” she adds. Thanks to the generous contribution from Educate A Child, UNICEF has reached over 16,000 children through the self-learning programme, allowing them to reconnect with their peers and reach their full potential in life.