Prioritize girls’ transition in education: Stakeholders told

Stakeholders in the education and gender sectors have been urged to ensure that girls transition to higher levels of education with more ease.

Speaking during a Policy Makers Advocacy event on Tuesday, Lucy Tengeye,the Co-Chair, EiE Working group at the Ministry of Education said that prioritizing on the girls transition to the next level of schooling will allow them act as role model to other refugees and further accelerating the effort made in ensuring they get educated.

Tengeye commended the work being done by  FAWE Kenya to ensure quality education for girls. “Education can’t wait and if we don’t prioritize on  transition of Urban refugee girls in terms of education then we will be killing their dreams and preventing them from being role models to other refugee girls. A multi sectorial approach is also needed  to first ensure they are protected,” she said.

The identifiable gaps from the research done by FAWE Kenya pointed out data management as well as advocacy approach were some of the key areas to work on.

Dr Loise Gichuhi, consultant who conducted a policy makers survey for FAWE Kenya  said there was need to make use of the available data to make informative evidence based decision to further strengthen the advocacy. “Matters certification and language barriers should be dealt with which will enable refugee girls to fit in and get the most out of their school without fear or mockery,” she said.

The study recommends that schools scale up motivation and mentorship of urban refugee girls. Particularly counseling services for those girls traumatized by past experience. Involvement of private sector in establishing and managing rescue centers that provides shelter for the urban refugee girls ,Instituting alternative learning strategies to enable urban refugee girls to catch up with the demands of the Kenyan curriculum ,tracking and setting up data to enable government to plan, implement and fund inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers as well as enhanced protection of urban refugee girls while in school and out of school ,victims of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and those haunted by past trauma.