A highly trained and qualified teacher can modify almost any environment to maximize the potential for learning and this skill is essential to address the challenge of providing quality education to refugees living under stressful conditions and an uncertain future.
However, before we launch a recruiting campaign for the best teachers in the world, there are several design thinking steps needed to ensure that the set up of the education framework meets the needs of the camp. There are many organizations out there that help provide support to volunteer teachers around the world working in refugee camps and humanitarian crisis areas. Unfortunately, these organizations are not well connected and have almost no directive to coordinate with each other.
Based on the model set up by Doctors' without Borders in 1971, my proposal would address this coordination problem by creating highly qualified teams to assess the unique educational challenges of each camp, rapid prototype a solution, staff the 'school' with temporary global teachers aggressively recruited locally and internationally, provide a rigorous training period including refugees in the camp to take on teaching positions, and finalize the school structure by setting up a permanent administration to run the school.
This framework can adopt any of the creative solutions suggested on this platform from online classes via webcam to HELLO library partners. However, from my experience in the last year teaching at a refugee camp, without commitment from key stakeholders such as the local government controlling, UNHCR and other agencies sitting at the table making high level decisions regarding refugees, all the creative initiatives have a higher probability of failing.
