EENET asia Newsletters : Symposium
issue April 2006 Contents
Child Friendly Tent-School
for Refugee Chidlren in Pakistan
Terje Magnussønn Watterdal
Earthquake Catastrophe
In the morning of 8th October 2005 the earth shook violently and within
seconds the lives of tens of thousands of children in the mountains of
Pakistan, India and Afghanistan were lost. The lives of many more were
changed forever. No government, no schools, no communities can possibly
be prepared for a catastrophe of such magnitude. In fact, many of the
children that died during that horrible morning died in their classrooms.
Refugees
Thousands of women, children and youth are accommodated in the refugee
camps, an enormous tent village, in Islamabad (Sector H-11). Most of the
men have returned to their villages to rebuild their houses and safeguard
their property. The tent village was established with support from the
Al-Khidmat Foundation in Pakistan, UAE Red Crescent Society, UNICEF, USAID
and many other Pakistani and international organisations and individuals.
Soon after the refugees arrived in the tent village Brig. (R) Maqsud-ul-Hassan,
Director General of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) established
a child-friendly tent school for more than 2,350 children from grade 1
to 10 with support from Mr. Mohammad Rafique Tahir (FDE), Ms. Samina Nadeem
(FDE) and Ms. Talat Anjum (principal of a model school for girls in Islamabad).
Child-Friendly Tent School
More than 20 child-friendly model schools in Islamabad support the tent
school with 35 full time teachers. In addition 35 teachers, selected among
the refugees, have been appointed as assistant teachers. These teachers,
often from small village schools in Kashmir and the Northwest-Frontier
Province of Pakistan receive a practical in-service training and re-orientation
in inclusive and child-friendly classroom practices through team teaching
with the experienced teachers from the model schools.
Much of the learning in classes is done through play, games and art, linking
school with after-school activities. The classrooms (one tents for each
class) were decorated with drawings and balloons and the children were
sitting in rows or groups (depending on the activities) on colourful woven
mats. In one of tents I saw a small boy, maybe just three of four years
old, sitting right next to his older brother. The teacher told me that
the brothers had lost their parents in the earthquake. The little boy
was frantically afraid to loose his brother to, so he refused to stay
behind with his neighbours while his older brother went to school every
morning. The teachers accommodated them, allowed the little boy to join
his brother, found activities the little boy could participate in, realising
the trauma the boys had experienced. Throughout the school the atmosphere
was interactive and participatory. In many ways I believe that many established
‘child-friendly schools’ in Pakistan could learn a thing or
two on inclusiveness and child-friendliness from this tent-school. Another
proof that the quality of a school does not depend on expensive school
structures but rather on the interaction between children and teachers
inside the classrooms, whether they are made from wood, brick, mud …
or in this case cotton!
For more information you can
contact Terje Magnussønn Watterdal on: watterdal-terje@idp-europe.org
or mail: IDP Europe, P.O. Box 447, N-3101 Tønsberg, Norway
EENET asia
Newsletters : Symposium issue April 2006
Contents
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