GBC-Education Report Outlines 5 Ways Technology Can Enable Learning for Syrian Refugee Youth
Photo by ©120512_Herat EQUIP School project_018.
Coinciding with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by the US Department of State in Silicon Valley last Friday, GBC-Education has released a working paper that highlights emerging thinking on the critical role that technology can play in enabling access to affordable, relevant, and quality education for Syrian youth displaced by conflict. The paper also details how technology can help youth overcome barriers to the development of relevant skills required by a 21st century workforce. As the conflict draws into its sixth year, Exploring the Potential of Technology to Deliver Education & Skills to Syrian Refugee Youth comes at a crucial moment as world leaders convene in London at the Syria Donors Conference this week.
More innovative and bold approaches, pilots, and investments are urgently needed and at scale, particularly for refugee and at-risk youth. Just one-third of Syrian youth are enrolled in formal education and less than 1 percent are able to access higher education. Technology can offer viable solutions to provide youth with new ways to access learning and skills development, ultimately rebuilding their futures and communities.
Highlighting the urgent need and clear opportunity, GBC-Education Executive Chair Sarah Brown notes that “greater efforts to harness technology on behalf of these youth have the potential to change the future of a generation,” calling for the public and private sector to think, innovate, and collaborate in an unprecedented way.
The working paper outlines broad principles to advise stakeholders on how to invest in and leverage tech-enabled learning opportunity and highlights emerging opportunities through which technology can enable Syrian youth to increase quality access to education such as through Intel’s Edison initiative. Other examples of opportunities include access to quality, non-formal secondary education alternatives and bridge programs to continue post-secondary education.
