Provision of life-saving and equitable access to quality education services in NW Syria. Based on the recent assessment conducted, the project aims at delivery of life-saving interventions targeting the displaced and the vulnerable host community in NW Syria, feeding into the overarching goals of ensuring access to safe, equitable and quality education services for children affected by the crisis in Idleb (Dana, Qourqeena) and Aleppo (Azaz, AlBab), targeting 16 schools with formal and non-formal education services for about 5520 school boys and girls (aged 5-17yrs) and about 212 education personnel (50% female).
The project will maintain the following two main objectives:
 scaling up equitable access to education services, and
 enhancing the quality of education services
where all supported schools will have safety and security plans established, resourced and practiced, and all activities will be age and gender disaggregated, as done in the needs assessment, where Shafak humanitarian response is guided by two main parameters: protection and vulnerability criteria of groups at risk and geographical severity of needs.
Overall absorption capacity will be increased through the following main interventions:
Formal and Non-formal Education
Shafak will provide children, including children with disabilities (5-17 years, b/g) with school supplies, teaching and learning supplies, resources, and guides, school bags and textbooks. The supplies will be selected to be culturally relevant, age-targeted and equally empowering of girls and boys. Moreover, a focus on increasing access to non-formal education at age appropriate levels and increasing the absorption capacity of education services will be made through the provision of catch up, remedial and literacy and numeracy classes. These classes will run in 1 cycle in the summer for out-of-school children who have lost years without education to allow them to transition to formal education in the beginning of the school year. The project will use the standard curricula of the Syrian Interim Government or Curriculum B. These non-formal activities will start immediately building on existing capacities on the ground.
Psycho-social Support (PSS) and Life Skills
Shafak is an active member of the Child Protection Sub-cluster, and this activity has been discussed with the CP Sub-cluster specialist. The curriculum used (I-DEAL) is endorsed by UNICEF and the CP Sub-cluster.
Parent-Teacher Associations
Shafak will establish PTAs, where teachers and parents will meet twice each semester to discuss main challenges and ways to let children improve their education.
Establishment, repair, and improvement of temporary and permanent learning spaces will be limited to establish or repair of classrooms, gender-sensitive and disability-friendly WASH facilities on a small scale as needed in line with WASH sector guidelines (such as repairing toilets and sink, titling, taps, etc.) This component will be discussed further with the WASH Cluster coordinator during the planning stage. Contractors will be engaged through a local tender process that follows Shafak standards and procedures. This minimum scale repair will take place in two stages: at the beginning of the project, to enable students to continue their learning without disturbing the educational process, and in the midterm of the educational year, when school is on break.
Professional Development
Teaching staff in non-formal education will be delivered a training on life skills, PSS, PSEA and child protection referral mechanisms discussed with CP cluster to ensure they are in line with shared guidelines (email of discussions attached). The trainings aim at supporting teachers for better learning outcomes and ways of identification and referral of children who could access education, where disability-responsiveness is being incorporated into teacher training and classroom management. The trainers’ costs will be provided from Shafak resources.
All recruited staff and education personnel will not be paid by any other party.