countries is important, yet it is controlled by regions, which do not provide enough information about the programmes and efficiency. In Italy, though the number of refugee students is 9 percent, refugee education policies differ from school to school, and budget programmes are severely limited.
Most refugee programmes aim to integrate students into the regular education process and quickly transition them to normal classes. Yet low budget priority makes it difficult for such programmes to run efficiently. Refugee education in OECD countries is built around three types of programmes: language courses, introduction courses, and support programmes.
KEY POINT TO BE CONSIDERED
Refugee children and youth in transit countries should have access to these countries’ school systems
Language programmes are important since inclusion is one of the major principles of refugee education. And although language courses for forced migrants are developed in most OECD countries, in the least affected countries, such as Poland, they are not sufficient and not wide-spread. In many countries there is a severe lack of skilled language teachers, as well as budget deficit in this area. In the United Kingdom the number of running language programmes is in decline due to financial cuts, and the same problem exists in Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy. Often governments tend to employ less skilled native speakers for that purpose, while training language teachers of national language is barely a priority. As for Integration programmes, they do not exist in every country. Germany has “welcome classes”, the United Kingdom is home to special schools for immigrants, Sweden hosts preparatory classes, Spain offers introduction classes, and Greece has reception classes. Other programmes may run on a local basis, funded by schools, local authorities, or NGOs. Special support is the least developed refugee education programme variation. It exists in Spain and concerns psychological health and the well-being of refugees. In some form such programmes locally exist in other countries as well.
Most common problems of refugee education include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Lack of skilled teachers Lack of special training for teachers in refugee education Lack of funds High mobility of forced migrants, both inside the country and beyond Age limit of compulsory or guaranteed education. In most countries this is 18 years, but in Spain and Italy this is just 16. 6) High number of unaccompanied minors. 7) Lack of accurate data about refugee students, their success and dropping out rates.
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