Cooperating for sustainable education solutions in the Syrian conflict

The conflict in Syria has led to large-scale destruction of education infrastructure at the same time as unprecedented internal displacement. This has increased the demand on systems that are not equipped to cope with high... [ view full abstract ]

The conflict in Syria has led to large-scale destruction of education infrastructure at the same time as unprecedented internal displacement. This has increased the demand on systems that are not equipped to cope with high volume of students and the needs of providing education in an emergency. In addition, there has been a systematic reduction of resources in all opposition and contested areas. After four years, 3000 education facilities are no longer functional and nearly three million children and youth are no longer attending school. Even where children are in school, inadequate classroom facilities, depletion of teaching and learning supplies, insufficient number of teachers and reduction or cessation of salary payments have impacted the quality of education.
DFID’s Tamkeen programme helps to build governance capacity within Syria and meet basic service delivery needs, in the face of pressure from regime attacks and from extremist groups. In a process that seeks to echo a local government budget process, the programme offers grants to communities and enables them to prioritise needs within these budget envelopes. The programme then supports them to develop and implement these projects. To support education, Tamkeen has helped establish local education committees to oversee design and implementation. Through this, Tamkeen has become one of the largest providers of education services within Syria. The programme has demonstrated the potential for the community driven development model for service delivery, and generated useful evidence around education programming in such contexts. This paper provides lessons learned and recommendations for future programming.