Since the onset of the Syria crisis in 2011, some 1.4 million Syrians have settled in Jordan (14% of Jordan’s population), including almost 659,000 registered refugees, most of whom live in urban areas (79%), while the remaining reside in three refugee camps across the country. According to the 2017 CARE Urban Needs Assessment, 82% of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line and the vast majority, 88.9% of Syrian refugees, 80.9% of Jordanian citizens and 79.6% of other minority families, are in debt. Syrian refugee families continue to agree to early or unwanted marriages for their daughters, or to marry a Syrian woman as a second or third wife to a Jordanian man, to ease financial stress. The prevalence of exploitation or the threat of eviction increases where the head of household is a female, a child, or elderly. In 2017, the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) reported that 83,000 Syrian children are outside even the informal education sector, noting the demand for access to and protection of children’s rights to education. Jordan’s provision of free access to public schools to Syrian children has increased the pressure on primary schools in intake areas. The Ministry of Education in Jordan opened afternoon shifts in schools to accommodate new learners, resulting in fewer instruction hours and overcrowded classrooms. 2017 UNICEF research noted that parents and children have reported issues with bullying, sexual harassment of boys and girls, and expressed concerns about educational quality as a result of overcrowded classrooms, and perceptions of teachers’ under-commitment to Syrian students. 41% of adolescents aged 13-15 reported being bullied at school at least once (a world average is 36%). When serious cases of bullying, violence or discrimination by teachers or other students are identified, Syrian parents are often reluctant to report to keep a low profile in a foreign country. Given said challenges, it is safe to assume that a number of families with children with disabilities and/or special needs are hesitant to send their children to school. Many schools also do not have adequate facilities to provide safe and appropriate environment to persons with special needs.

The project builds upon successful past programing funded by ECHO focusing on Education in Emergencies programs implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Madrasati, as a key educational Royal initiative; this program aims at increasing child protection by returning at-risk children to school and its protective environment and creating safe educational spaces, building the capacity of schools‘ principals, teachers and partners to address GBV, bullying and key protection issues. Furthermore, it aims to protect the most vulnerable families, people with disabilities, and children through comprehensive protection programs: information provision, assessing their vulnerabilities, providing them with cash to cover their basic needs, enrolling children back to school and combating early and enforced marriage and child labour issues. CARE will link the education and protection programs with its well-structured livelihood and economic empowerment programs by enrolling those needy beneficiaries in said programs so they graduate from their vulnerabilities and poverty issues.

Expected Results

ER 1: Increased access to safe and high-quality formal and non-formal education and enhanced child protection, via identification, follow-up, provision of Conditional Cash Assistance for Education in Emergencies, the Children’s Education Board, remedial lessons, enhanced access for persons with disabilities and capacity building for teachers.

• CARE will identify and select the most vulnerable children at risk of child labor and/or early/child and forced marriage via CARE’s waiting list/ database and/or through referrals.
• Home visits/follow up with parents of vulnerable refugee children receiving conditional cash and with schools attended by Conditional Cash Assistance beneficiaries.
• Provide capacity building activities for school teachers/ administrators to enhance their teaching strategies and pedagogies.
• Provide conditional cash to families with school-age working children to replace the child’s income and return him/her to school.
• Provide remedial activities for children who have returned to school as part of the conditional cash for education protection activity, as well as for some students in the community who have been targeted to return to school, but need assistance in coordinating their return or need to do catch-up work.
• Provide infrastructural enhancements to schools to increase access for persons with disabilities.
• Identification, selection of 4 CARE Children’s Education Board committees and provision of capacity building activities.
• Implementation and follow up of activities of CARE Children’s Education Board committees and their initiatives.
• Provide capacity building for teachers on GBV, gender equality, relevant safety issues (bullying and discrimination).

Target group/participants

This project will target 1,300 households (6,500 persons) through Conditional Cash Assistance for Education in Emergencies. 2,700 children will be targeted via Madrasati remedial classes, in 18 remedial centres. An additional 126 participants, teachers and school administrators (70 from 10 schools and 56 from 8 new schools, 7 per school; 7 teachers 8 schools), will be targeted through Madrasati capacity-building activities. In total, 30% of the participants will be Jordanian.