With funding from European Union Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), this project aims at increasing access to equitable and inclusive quality education for 64,937 (35,074 boys and 27,289 girls) conflict affected children in in Rhino Camp, Imvepi and Palabek refugee settlements in West Nile Sub-Region of Uganda. It is implemented by a consortium led by World Vision (WV) together with Windle International Uganda (WIU), and two local organisations, namely; Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment – West Nile (RICE- West Nile) and Community Empowerment for Rural Development (CEFORD).
The project will specifically;
- Address barriers that prevent most vulnerable out of school children from enrolling in formal and non-formal education programmes at both primary and secondary levels.
- Use a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to address child protection concerns in schools identified under the different needs assessments through prevention and response mechanisms at individual and school.
- Strengthen education systems through training of school management structures to improve their management and leadership skills.
Secondary Accelerated Education Program (SAEP)
Under the EQUATE project, Windle International Uganda is taking lead in implementing the Secondary Accelerated Education Program (SAEP).
The Accelerated Education Program (AEP) is a flexible, age-appropriate program that promotes access to education in an accelerated time-frame for disadvantaged groups, over-age out-of-school children and youth who missed out or had their education interrupted due to poverty, marginalization, conflict and crisis. The goal of AEP is to provide learners with equivalent certified competencies for basic education and learning approaches that match their level of cognitive maturity.
It provides the learners with the opportunity for a second chance at education, and to complete the given cycle of education in which they dropped out from. The programming arrangements are as follow:
- AEP for Primary is programmed at Level I (for those who dropped out in P.1, P.2 and P.3), Level II (P.4 & P.5), and Level III (P.6 & P.7). Each level has opportunity to complete the given class in just one year. Technically, a learner who dropped out at the lowest level in primary, has opportunity to complete the Primary cycle of education in only three years in total through the three levels.
- AEP for Ordinary Level (O’Level) education is programmed in two levels; Level I (for S.1 & S.2 drop outs), and Level II (S.3 & S.4 drop outs). So, a learner who dropped out at lowest level of Ordinary secondary has the opportunity to complete that level of education in only two years.
- AEP for Advance Level (A’Level) Secondary is programmed at only one level.
The program is being implemented in Imvepi Secondary School in Imvepi Refugee Settlement, Ofua Secondary School in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement and in Palabek Secondary School in Palabek Refugee Settlement. The Cumulative AEP enrolment is 215 learners
Our Target categories for the program are:
- Over-aged children who have dropped out of school
- Child mothers
- Pregnant girls
- New Arrivals (critically important to ECHO programming) – and this was the reason for choosing the three settlements, because they are receiving new arrivals.
- Other marginalized Orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs).