Workshop Presentation

1. Education Access for Syrian Refugee
Children with Disability in Jordan
Prepared By AHS ED:
MS. Annie Medzhagopian Abu Hanaa

2. • AHS is a non-governmental organization (NGO)
working in the field of physical challenges. AHS was
established in 1971 when it initially began its
services aiding government-run orphanages. Once
involved in a volunteer program, AHS became aware
of the need to address the lack of services for those
with physical disabilities. Thus over the years, AHS
evolved into the leading organization in Jordan that
provides rehabilitation and educational services to
persons with physical disabilities.

3. Development of the AHS to become the regional Centre
of Excellence for Specialist Training in Rehabilitation is
part of the larger AHS organizational strategic vision to
contribute in improving the quality of rehabilitation
services available for persons with disabilities in
Jordan through providing high quality development
programs that are sustainable and meet international
standardized criteria within the available resources.
This strategy is consistent with the direction of the
National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities

4. “We need another revolution in the Arab
world. We need an education revolution.
If there's one thing we need to focus on,
it's redesigning our educational systems.”
Queen Rania of Jordan
The Harvard Arab Weekend, 2013.

5. Gender/ Education Primary Secondary
Girls 96% 86%
Boys 98% 89%
Education access as reported by the SOWC(The State
of the World Children Report, 2015).
• 98% of children aged 6-15 have access to schools, with 41% of
the age group 5 years are out of pre-primary education, and
30,000 of the children are out of the primary and lower
secondary education (UNICEF, 2015).
• Factors of poverty, disability and child labour are some of the
main reasons for non-attendance(UNICEF, 2015).

6. Jordan Statistics 2016
Distribution of Syrian Refugees
Amman 435,578
Irbid 343,479
Mafraq
207,903
Zarqa
175,280

7. Education for Syrian Refugees
• Syrian refugee children are allowed free access to
Jordanian governmental primary and secondary
schools.
• 61.6% of Syrian refugee children are enrolled in
schools, of whom 63.5% and 59.8% are girls and
boys respectively.
• However, attendance rate decreases with higher
education, indicating high dropping-out.
• Reports from Zaatari camp indicate lower level of
education enrollment for children with disability.
• Lack in the official statistics in regard to children
with disability enrollment in host communities.

8. • Lack of sufficient information.
• Fears of inclusion among parents, students
and school staff.
• Lack of adapted transportation for PWDs.
• The lack of environmental facilities and access
of 95% of public schools.
• Lack of trained teachers who are familiar with
people with disabilities.
• Lack of awareness among the community and
school staff about the potential of persons
with disabilities - mostly negative attitude.

9. Disability As a Barrier
• 10% of refugee children have at least one
disability (mental, physical or intellectual) (a
report by the, ESWG(Emergency Services
Working group, 2015).
• Education is influenced by marginalization of
children with disability according to their
gender, type of disability, and
socioeconomic status.

10. The responsibility for inclusion of Syrian
refugees and Jordanian citizens lies with
the Ministry of Education. However, this
includes only vision, hearing and
physical disabilities.

11. Organization working towards Integration
• In the refugees camps, the efforts are directed
toward inclusion by the UNICEF and several local
and international organizations.
• Outside the refugees camps, the efforts are
scattered due to lack of coordination and
insufficient information shared among the
different organizations.

12. • Education is for all!
• The increased load on the public school
Double-shifted schools segregation!
• Lack of vision and services provided to
children with disability.
• Our responsibility towards our children as
well as avoiding the high risk of an under-
educated generation among Syrian refugee
children in general.

13. Goals expected to be achieved by AHS
• Environmental adaptations of public schools in the region that
will be selected to become friendly and inclusive for all types
of disabilities.
• Change negative attitudes among school staff about disability
• Awareness of the capabilities and potential of persons with
disabilities
• Awareness about the rights and disseminate international and
national legislation.
• Awareness about services available
• Capacity building of school staff on different types of
disabilities.
• The staff to be trained on how to deal with persons with
disabilities
• Provide psychosocial support to school staff members.

14. Evidence of Impact
• Knowledge , Attitude , Practices Survey Pre
and Post Project implementation Period
directed to the involved stakeholders mainly
school principles, teachers, parents.
• SMART indicators included into the project
design associated with each activity
• No of integrated children with disabilities pre
and post project duration
• Performance indicators tested pre and post
project duration.

15. • AHS adopts comprehensive holistic aproach in dealing
with persons with disabilities
• Specialized department for Inclusion and Integration is
available.
• Technical procedures are available to rehabilitate all the
concerned in the process of inclusion starting with the
students with disabilities, their families and ending with
the staff and the students of the schools embracing
inclusion
• Training packages and comprehensive training manual
are available in the field of inclusion with a focus of
including persons with disabilities.
• Qualified trainers to train schools teachers are available.
• Counselling programs and trained staff are available to
transfer knowledge in the field of psychosocial
rehabilitation and training persons how to deal with
persons with disabilities.
• AHS has also trained staff in advocacy and awareness
raising.

16. Whatqualifies (AHS) to implement provide
comprehensive inclusive services
• AHS integrates 35-40 children with disabilities on annual basis
into the mainstream schools from age 3 till 14 since 1984.
• Trained and qualified staff to implement environmental
adaptation , according to local and international standards
• The AHS team implemented number of environmental
adaptation in many schools in Amman and Al Zarqa within
several development projects carried out by the Society.
• AHS partnership with the concerned ministries (Ministry of
Education ,Higher Council for the Affairs of Persons with
Disabilities, Ministry of Social Development) paves the way to
get official approvals to have access to the public schools and
collect relevant data.
• AHS is a member of disability task force at UNHCR to ensure
coordination and for referral purposes at two levels inside and
outside the camps.

18. Adaptation work at governmental schools
implemented and supervised by AHS staff.