Education in Emergencies in South East Myanmar Project Summary :	This immediate response provides lifesaving education opportunities for newly displaced children, addressing their urgent and unmet educational needs. Children in Eastern Bago (Kyaukkyi), Kayin (Hpapun and Thandaungyi), and Mon (Bilin),) will be able re-engage in learning and recreational activities at home and in non-government-controlled area (NGCA) schools during the emergency, despite the interruption to school and severe education access challenges. NRC will provide teaching and learning materials and deliver non-specialized psychosocial support to teachers/ volunteers and parents, along with essential lifesaving messaging (including on Covid19 prevention, land mine safety and general hygiene). This first-phase education response uses an effective localization delivery model by supporting existing education in emergency (EiE) alliances at the most local level. This design is efficient because it ensures teaching and learning continuity in these townships as local actors are equipped to provide EiE throughout the emergency regardless of operational and access challenges.
 
The arrival of new displaced families and an increase in unaccompanied children from mixed controlled areas (whose parents don’t want them educated under the state education system) has strained the education system in Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD) areas. This sudden strain will be addressed in this project through material support to schools (school kits), covering the costs of the extra teaching personnel required (teacher incentives) and emergency teacher training. NRC’s partner the Karen Teachers Working Group (KTWG) and the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) are the best placed actors to support these services as they have continued presence in the target areas to enable distributions. Furthermore, they are already engaged with teachers and able to ensure a systematic and harmonized approach to providing teacher incentives. Families identified based on need will receive student kits and those families unable or too afraid to send their children to school, will receive support with home-based learning, including home-based learning kits, parental guidance and household visits for educational follow up conducted by trained local volunteers. NRC is well positioned to provide this home-based learning support as an active member of the Myanmar home based learning task force. NRC has adapted its Child Education Pack (CEP) for a learn-at-home modality and is currently being contextualized and translated into Karen language.

The psycho-social impact the emergency has had on learning can be addressed by providing non-specialized psycho-social support (PSS) training for teachers to improve learning outcomes of affected children. NRC will train its partners and teachers on the use on its flagship educational PSS approach: “The Better Learning Programme” (BLP). For families that have chosen home-based education, parental support will be provided. BLP will help parents and caregivers to better identify symptoms of stress on their children and understand how that can impair their learning outcomes NRC Myanmar has already developed a guidance book for this which includes parent-friendly adaptations of the BLP classroom sessions, positive parent messaging tailored for Myanmar and the stresses linked to home-based learning along with low-no literacy follow up visual materials. Additionally, life-saving messaging regarding the risks faced by children due to conflict will be disseminated through classrooms, communities and homes using age-appropriate local language story books on Covid19, land mine risks and hygiene practices. 

NRC proposes a 9 months’ intervention linked to the academic calendar annual cycle and  ensure meaningful access and engagement with local actors to deliver the project to the total targeted 5,350 individuals( 5, 200 school-aged children and 150 adults(teachers, parents, volunteers)