The normal practice in refugee schools is to use a curriculum similar to that of the place of origin, or sometimes that of the country of asylum. For various reasons, the refugees present when refugee education programmes were established in the refugee camps in Kenya preferred to follow the Kenya curriculum. In the predominantly Somali camps in the North East, Somali is also taught. In the predominantly South Sudanese camps in the North West, the refugees hope to use an anglophone curriculum on the ‘East African’ model after returning to their area of origin.

The camps include a wide range of nationalities, and the crises from which the refugees have fled seem long-lasting. For these and other reasons, it was agreed that first an environmental and then a peace education programme to enrich refugee education be piloted in the Kenya camps. The objective was to develop materials and methodologies that could help build a better future for the refugees in these camps and that could be adapted to help refugees elsewhere.

The six refugee camps (three in Dadaab and three in Kakuma) have a total population of almost 200,000 refugees. The refugees in Dadaab are predominately Somali but there are also Ugandans, Ethiopians, Sudanese and Rwandans. In Dadaab, there are 15 primary schools with about 17,000 students. A few students attend a local secondary school. In Kakuma the refugees are predominately from Southern Sudan, but a growing number are from elsewhere including Somalia (both Bantu and Somali), Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. In Kakuma there are 21 primary schools with about 20,000 students. There is also an established secondary school in the first camp and secondary classes beginning in the other camps.

For historical reasons the population profile of Kakuma is heavily skewed towards youth. There are a large number of young Sudanese males who arrived as a group acknowledged as unaccompanied minors, who are now reaching adulthood. They are not necessarily recognised as a part of their own cultural group (e.g. there has been no initiation and historically they have remained separated from the general community).

Both areas have an ethnic, cultural, religious, tribal/clan and language diversity. it was felt that if programmes could be designed which were appropriate for each of these groups and useful to all of them, then they might be useful as a starting point for future programmes in the region.

The Peace Education Programme is being developed in response to perceived needs of the refugee communities and the violence inherent in the refugee camps. The Environmental Education programme responds to the situation of these camps which are in arid lands where damage to the fragile ecosystems is a cause of conflict with local people, and where daily life reflects a shortage of fuelwood, water etc. Awareness-raising and skill development in respect of conflict resolution and concern for the environment will be helpful also in the case of repatriation, contributing to peaceful and sustainable reconstruction and development.

The Environmental Education pilot programme began in 1996, and was implemented by UNESCO-PEER, with funding from UNHCR’s environmental trust fund. Phase One of the project (1996/7) comprised the development and pilot testing of teaching materials and methodologies, in the refugee camps in Kenya. Phase Two (1997/9) comprised revision of the educational materials, the development of teacher training programmes and non-formal environmental education. At this stage, the programme was extended to refugee programmes in neighbouring countries, viz. Tanzania, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Based on these experiences, in Phase Three (beginning mid-1999) the programme in Kenya will be mainstreamed into normal education and environmental programmes. Sample materials from the programme will be sent to all UNHCR offices and to many implementing partners, with encouragement to adopt or adapt the approaches used, and the offer of limited technical assistance.

The Peace Education pilot project was designed to follow a similar model, beginning in 1997, when an education consultant (who had recently worked on mine awareness education in the Horn of Africa) consulted at length with the different groups in the refugee community about whether they would wish to have a peace education programme in the refugee schools, and what the concept of peace education would mean to them. The result was that the community groups requested peace education trainings for themselves as well as for the schools. Funded from the UNHCR trust fund for refugee children, the programme comprises:

Phase One (1997 to mid-1999): Development of materials and methodologies through the pilot project in Kenya, and sharing experience with other agencies.

Phase Two(1999-2000): Further development of materials and methodologies through adaptation to contrasted refugee programmes, in Uganda and elsewhere; and sharing experience with other agencies.

Phase Three: Wider dissemination of materials, to UNHCR field offices and other organisations, and mainstreaming of peace education as a normal part of a basic education programme for refugees. If possible, linkage with other agencies to endorse UNHCR and other peace education and related materials as an inter-agency package.

The objectives of the Environmental Education pilot programme in the Kenya refugee camps were:

• To strengthen existing educational and environmental initiatives by UNHCR and its implementing partners
• To encourage a variety of communication and awareness-raising methods, in order to gradually modify the attitudes and behaviour of refugees, so that the environmental impact of refugee influxes may be lessened
• To serve as a trial for the development of similar environmental initiatives, in other countries in the East Africa region and throughout the world.

The objectives of the Peace Education pilot programme were similar:

• To develop a programme of skills, values, concepts and understandings which are structured to meet the needs of the client groups, having regard to the multiple nationalities and ethnicities within the refugee communities, the varied levels of education among youth and adults, men and women and the age-related conceptual development of school children (see box)
• To strengthen and reinforce the conflict resolution activities being undertaken by refugees themselves in the camps, as well as any other initiatives related to peace education
• To monitor and evaluate the Peace Education programme to ascertain its impact and worth
• To support the development of similar initiatives in other refugee situations.

Communication

Better listening
Perceptions
Feelings (emotions)
Understanding the other person (empathy)
Being fair to all sides ( neutrality)
Understanding of bias
Understanding of stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice

Appropriate assertiveness

Understanding of self
Understanding of others
Similarities and differences
Assertion, aggression and submission

Co-operation

Understanding of own and others’ strengths and weaknesses
Trust

Critical thinking

Analysis
Facts opinion (impartiality and bias)
Problem solving

Conflict resolution

Negotiation
Mediation

Peace and conflict
Justice
Human rights and responsibilities
Gender
Interdependence

Self-respect and respect for others
Trust
Social responsibility
Open-mindedness
Tolerance

The Environmental Education pilot project included the following components:

• Formal education: Development of Pupil Workbooks and Teacher Lesson Guides, of simple kits for practical work, and of Training of Trainers Manuals; training of trainers and in-service training of refugee teachers; monitoring and evaluation
• Non-formal education: Development of posters, visual aids, adult literacy materials and use of traditional communication methods, -linked as appropriate to ongoing educational and environmental programmes in the camps.

The school materials were designed in the form of teacher-friendly ‘activity units’ (similar to lessons, e.g. ‘the importance of using dry firewood’) which could be used to enrich the ongoing education programmes of the schools or on a stand alone basis.

The Peace Education programme was developed following extensive participatory action research involving the various community groups. The groups all stressed that a school programme alone was not sufficient. There were specific requests for a similar programme for the adult population as well. This would, inter-alia, reinforce and support the school programme. The programme therefore has several component and inter-linking parts:

As with environmental education, the programme developed from the philosophy that ready-to-use lesson or session plans would be needed, because many teachers would not have the time or ability to develop these plans themselves, based on a generic training. Hence the first materials produced were as follows:

• Community Workshop Facilitators Manual ~ a guide of lesson plans, activities and methodology for the facilitators of the Community Workshops (10 half day sessions)
• Teachers’ Activity Book ~ a series of graded lesson plans covering one period per week for each year of primary school up to Year Seven, for the various concept areas. It includes the methodology both for the lesson and the on-going concept development
• Supplementary Materials ~ story books, pictures/posters to act as discussion starters, role play cards and songs and poetry (traditional or written in the communities)
• Public Awareness Materials ~ posters, songs, poetry, drama for street and community theatre. Almost all of this material has come from the community groups themselves generally as a product of the workshops.

Further materials, for training of refugee facilitators and teachers, for adult literacy etc are in the process of development.

As a consequence of these interventions, over 30,000 school children in the refugee camps in Kenya have benefited from Environmental Education curriculum enrichment and from weekly participative activities under the Peace Education programme. A large number of adults have benefited from non-formal and informal/ public awareness activities in both these fields. As of June 1999, approximately 2,700 youth and adults had participated in the 10-session community workshops for Peace Education and demand for places remains high.

As a result, refugees in some of the most dismal refugee locations have had the benefit of educational and developmental experiences which can help them face their present problems and which help prepare them for return to their places of origin when repatriation is possible. So far, the evaluation of these programmes has been mainly through feedback from participants and teachers/ facilitators, but a more thorough evaluation will be needed in the near future.

Lessons learned include the following:

• Environmental education and peace education are processes and not time-specific activities
• Refugee educators and communities should be involved in the early design phase for each country programme
• Formal and non-formal approaches should be harmonised: using a ‘whole community’ approach, when possible, and involving many community groups and events
• Activities should be linked to relevant ongoing projects e.g. environmental care, newsletters etc
• Activities can be diffused into existing school subjects (as attempted for environmental education project) and/or given separate time periods and teachers to maximise impact (as in peace education pilot project)
• In-service teacher training in use of exploratory/ participative methods for these programmes can reinforce other in-service training in methodology.

The materials and methodologies developed in the Kenya pilot projects are serving as the basis for the development of locally-adapted programmes in other refugee locations. It is intended that these approaches should be mainstreamed into normal refugee education programmes.

In this regard, it may be noted that the largest costs are those of start up. Where there is not expertise already in place, the development work requires the employment of expert staff/ consultants to work through the various stages from participative research to the development of materials, training of teachers and trainers and so on.

Apart from start up costs, there will be some recurrent costs after mainstreaming. These should be integrated into normal education, environmental and other project budgets, but this can be difficult to ensure under situations of budget shortfalls common to organisations working in emergency situations. Ongoing dedicated financial and specialist support of a modest nature, if available, will help ensure the continued development of these programmes.