2.2 Who is a Refugee?
2.4.3 Refugees’ Right to Education
2.4.3.3 Grouping of Refugee Children
Different schools in various countries group refugee children in a way that may not be appropriate for learning and integration. UNHCR (2011d) postulates that the way refugee learners are placed in grades when they join a new school is very consequential. When children are inappropriately graded, that would hamper their academic studies and this often results in learners dropping out of school.
There is a lot of inappropriate grade placement of several refugee children, given their age and educational history. For example, one student aged 18 was placed in a class of the Czech Republican pupils aged 14 (Bacakova & Closs, 2013). Schools tend to downgrade learners or just place them into higher grades without carefully considering their prior education levels. Sarr and Mosselson (2010) argued that education institutions should properly assess previous levels of studies of refugee children joining their schools. This is because the inappropriate groupings of refugee children exacerbates their horrific experiences and makes adaptation very difficult for them in host countries.
There is a one size fits all approach in which all children, regardless of their ages and educational backgrounds, are subjugated to the same treatment. Sirin and Ryce (2010) asserted that refugee children are placed into one group and treated as if they have similar problems, with common backgrounds. In school, they are grouped into one class regardless of their prior educational backgrounds and experiences. They are treated as if they are a homogeneous group. However, refugees are not a homogenous group, they have a range of different needs, experiences and expectations and backgrounds (Hek, 2005; Sarr & Mosselson, 2010).
53 Refugee learners’ education experiences vary a lot depending on their backgrounds such as socio-economic status, religion, gender and pre-flight encounters (Walker, 2011), and should not be treated as if they went through similar challenges. Some would have experienced health problems, trauma and poor education backgrounds, but they will all be treated the same (Walker, 2011). In the context of the USA, Congress Report (2010) stated that irrespective of important factors such as education level, health condition or psychological background, each refugee child is initially afforded one-size-fits-all assistance. Children are treated as if they went through similar traumatic experiences and require a common way of overcoming their problems.
Sarr and Mosselson (2010) argued that Congolese and Sudanese refugee children arrived in the USA with little or interrupted schooling experiences. Some had higher levels of education in their home countries, whereas others had little or sometimes no educational background at all.
This is because they came from war torn nations and they spent a long time on journeys to a country of refuge. Regardless of the different school experiences of Congolese and Sudanese children, they were treated as if they had never been to school (Sarr & Mosselson, 2010). This was a disadvantage to children who had obtained a high level of quality education in their home country.
Sirin and Ryce (2010) argued that some newly arrived refugee learners in the USA enter schools with minimal prior formal schooling experiences, but with extensive informal education and knowledge. This requires special grouping of learners so that they may have a smooth continuation of their schooling rather than placing them into one homogenous group. A study about refugees in the Czech Republic conducted by Bacakova (2011) revealed that there was inappropriate grade placement of learners. Learners’ placement was unsuitable in terms of children’s age, educational history, academic performance and cognitive development.
Placement of learners was done randomly without any prior assessment to support learners’
grades (Bacakova, 2011).
Similarly, Roxas (2010) maintains that in Australia, many refugee learners were also grouped inappropriately. They were placed in special education classes where there were learners with diverse learning barriers. Such placement does no good to refugee children as their chances of
54 advancing with their studies would be minimal. Some children had strong educational backgrounds, but they were placed in special classes (Roxas, 2011). The heterogeneous and diverse natures of refugee children defy generalization (Sarr & Mosselson, 2010). In the 21st century, classrooms all over the world are becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse (Miller, 2009), hence, the need for teachers to be conscious about differences that exist, especially among refugee children. Some children may need special health care such as mental therapy prior to resuming classes.
Beiser (2009) argues that not all refugee children suffer from mentally related problems.
Depending on the nature of trauma that they experience, some may have mental problems and some may not. Those who develop mental problems will require specialist attention. Refugee children encounter different experiences and should not be treated in the same way. According to Papadopoulos (2007) the only aspect that all refugee children have in common is the loss of home that each one of them experienced. Homelessness is not a choice that children make freely (Couch, 2011). They will share the loss of homes because it is an inevitable experience that is caused by intensive persecution in their home countries. Other than that, refugee children’s experiences are different and they should not be afforded the same treatment or grouped into one.
Christie and Sidhu (2006) asserted that refugee children who came to Brisbane schools in Australia did not have similar characteristics which the government policies state. Some children had been to school for a very long period of time while others had not been in any learning institution for many years. Sidhu et al. (2011) revealed that teachers reported that at their school in Brisbane: “they had a large number of refugee learners who had significant gaps in prior education. They said some students were coming to join the school with virtually no prior education” (p. 13). Some talked about having been to school but this was often in a camp, irregular, and perhaps without a trained teacher (Sidhu et al., 2011). Some children were traumatised so much that they required psychological support in order to cope, but others did not want such support.
55 Hoot (2011) argues that it is imperative for teachers to have correct information about refugee children’s backgrounds including their age and sex before placing them in a particular grade.
One teacher did not know the age and sex of her refugee children. She thought one of the children was a boy, and later discovered that it was a girl when learners were on the queue to use bathrooms (Hoot, 2011). Similarly, a study of Somali refugees conducted by Roxas (2011b) indicates that teachers did not have detailed information about refugee children’s families and academic backgrounds. According to Roxas (2011b) one interviewed teacher said:
We never get this kind of information when these [refugee children] students are put in our class. The students are just dropped in our laps, and we are never given any idea of what they already know and how they know it (p. 521).
Bacakova (2011) argues that one of the major setbacks faced by the interviewed refugee children and their families in schools in the Czech Republic is that principals and teachers lack information about refugee learners. The schools receive very little and sometimes no information concerning the educational background of learners that they teach. Teachers do not get any information that may help them group learners into appropriate grades, neither do they get indications about the specific needs of each child. Making matters worse, teachers do not get information about the availability of materials for the Czech Republic as an additional language (Bacakova, 2011). It is vital for teachers to be familiar with individual refugee learner’s experiences and needs. That will enable teachers to be in a better position of knowing how best they can place and help refugee children.
It is important to know individual refugee learners and to provide appropriate psychosocial support rather than placing them into one group and assuming they have similar needs (Sarr &
Mosselsson, 2010). Learners should not be taken as having common experiences which can be addressed by grouping them into one. Some learners may require psychosocial support (Miller, 2009), some learners may need help with language and others may need to go to school for the first time. Learners who may have had interrupted education because of instabilities in their countries may be sent for Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs).
56 UNHCR (2011d) argues that when learners have not been in school for many years, ALPs are an ideal alternative to placing children into grades which are lower than they should be in.
According to UNHCR (2011d) an ALP, as the word ‘accelerated’ suggests, is a speedy learning programme that is offered within a mainstream school. ALPs enable children to compensate for the time they have not been in school by quickly learning the new information so that they may move to their appropriate grades. It enables older learners to complete an academic course in a short period of time, and it also helps refugee children who may be having language barriers to do intensive learning of the language prior to joining other learners in mainstream classes.