Education

We address the unique barriers each community faces to education. This might mean helping to refurbish or retrofit schools that have been destroyed by natural disaster, or ensuring that they have safe and dignified facilities for both boys and girls—ensuring that girls who might otherwise miss school while they are on their cycle, due to a lack of facilities, don’t have to. Father’s groups in countries like Malawi help to bring down rates of early marriage, which often mean that girls leave school before they’ve graduated.

We set up smaller and informal learning environments in villages that are otherwise far from the nearest school, allowing children and their parents to develop literacy and numeracy skills closer to home. During the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic, we set up remote learning options via radio to accommodate for quarantines and lockdowns.

At least least 250 million school-aged children worldwide currently do not know the basics in reading and mathematics. This poor level of literacy drives school drop-out and exam failure and blocks students from progressing to secondary school. Ultimately, it puts millions of children at a cruel disadvantage for the rest of their lives.

In order to accurately assess, improve and monitor literacy levels, Concern has refined and expanded the sector-leading Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) tool among the most vulnerable communities. Our EGRA tool – a series of short oral tests taken in the early grades of primary school – allows us to assess and then address children’s learning needs at an early age. It also allows us to identify knowledge gaps, gather robust data and monitor progress so we can accurately evaluate the success of programs over time.

All children require a safe space to learn and develop. Unfortunately, both physical and psychological aggression and gender biases are prevalent in far too many schools. Concern is working to address school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) in education programs across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Somalia, and Malawi. We aim to reduce violence and improve methods for responding to violence, as well as addressing attitudes and influences both within and outside of school, from local to national level.