User:Kinan Turkawi

General information about myself

Hi, My name is Kinan Turkawi. I am CAS DLE student.

I am from Syria. and a former student/graduate from CAS EiE course in 2019. I have learnt a lot from the CAS EiE and want also to expand and deepen my knowledge in the field of EiE and especially the digital part of it (as we are in multiply emergency situation in Syria).

I am working for UNICEF Syria as Education Officer since 2016 and my experiences in the humanitarian work span over more than 10 years.

Provide out of school children in remote areas in Syria with digital learning opportunities

Introduction:

The Syrian children are facing constant challenges to safely access education, they are increasingly either being forced to stay indoors for their safety or to find work to help provide income for their families. One third of all children (2.1 million) are currently out of school, and 1.3 million children are currently at risk of dropping out from schools. 6.8 million school aged children and approximately 228,000 education personnel are in need of education assistance, with 61% of them requiring urgent assistance https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/2021-humanitarian-needs-overview-syrian-arab-republic-march-2021-enar

Theoretic background

Digital learning gains more and more importance and playing a big role in the education field in general especially in situations of emergencies and pandemics like COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, the evidence is clear that digital learning can improve student opportunities to have equitable education and their educational outcomes.

Below I outline six strategic steps that will point school leaders as well as classroom teachers and education personnel toward digital learning success: https://www.digitallearningcollab.com/blog/six-strategic-steps-to-digital-learning-success

1- Determine your educational goals

2- Consider that digital learning encompasses a wide range of tools and strategies

3- Lead with teachers-not technology

4- Engage with stakeholders

5- Monitor progress

6- Be patient, the success will be measured in years.

Objective:

In this project, UNICEF is aiming to provide out of school children with digital learning prospect, especially those who can’t neither go back to formal education nor visit the community centers to get non-formal education support such as children who are working or because of the pandemic closure or in remote areas without access to internet.

The main goal is to prepare students and support them to get ready for the final national exams for the 9^th grade and 12^th grade as per the Syrian national curriculum.

Activities:

This project will include many activities which can be listed as following:

• Establish the digital learning center and install the needed equipment (server, Tablets and needed wiring)
• Train the IT staff in the center to use the digital learning equipment, maintain them and keep them functioning.
• Train the teachers / educational staff on the new technology and how to support the children technically
• Reach the out of school children and their parents with outreach team to raise the awareness about the importance of education, in general, and advocate for the center services particularly.
• Implement pretests for the new students to determine their educational level and group them according to the results of the pretest in order to provide them with the needed self-learning materials.
• Implement posttests after finishing the three months period for the cycle to evaluate the achievements made by students and determine if their educational level qualify them to move to the next self-learning programme level.
• Monitor all activities along the way and take correction measures where and when needed and monitor the whole project after finishing the first year.

Expected results:

The project aims to target and support 5,000 out of school children in the 10 centers (approximately 500 students per center) in the first testing year and keep them in the education system and have their educational level developed.

For the following year the target will be 10,000 out of school children, which mean 1,000 children per center and increase the number of centers and target new areas.