Humanitarian Action for Children 2021
supplies to facilitate school communities to adhere to COVID-19 SOPs, and providing incentives to 34,881
teachers to resume teaching and keep schools functional.
In total, 2.7 million school children re-enrolled into schooling, from 2.35 million in March 2020 when schools
closed. The significant enrolment of 350,000 out-of-school children could be attributed to the intense
mobilization conducted by UNICEF's Communication for Development (C4D) team, the inspiration from radio
distance learning, and the improved security situation allowing displaced communities to resettle and demand
quality education services.
Children in humanitarian situations face challenges in registering and sitting for the national examinations that
enable them to transition to higher levels. Some children in areas previously controlled by the opposition did not
get the chance to sit their examinations and were forced to repeat Primary 8 or Senior 4 for several years.
Others were denied the chance to attempt examinations because their locations were cut off and the National
Examinations Council had no capacity to airlift and deliver examination materials and invigilators to those
locations. In 2021, UNICEF enabled 67,247 Primary 8 candidates (29,414 girls) to sit their national examination
through support including transportation of examination materials and government examiners to different
locations across the country, and transportation of candidates from IDP camps to examination centres.
To enhance the delivery of the curriculum, UNICEF trained 3,245 teachers (617 women) on basic EiE principles
and conflict sensitive learner centred pedagogies. Cumulatively 12,035 teachers (3,254 women) have been
trained on EIE and learner centered pedagogy since 2019. A competency-based school inspection framework
will lead to 700 school inspectors being trained to reinforce teacher accountability and professional support.
Further, 1,283 School Management Committee (SMC) and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) bodies were
functionalized and 14,113 SMC/PTA members (5,360 women) received training to enhance parental and
community engagement for quality education services.
The school closures due to COVID-19 provided any opportunity to explore new partnerships with media houses
and mobile network operators to support distance learning through radio programmes in the country. It also
revealed the gaps in interventions for children with disabilities and children in vulnerable households. The
distance learning programme inadvertently excluded children with disabilities and children in areas that did not
receive South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) or Radio Miraya signals. The pre-primary television
learning programme which targeted urban children excluded thousands of children in urban areas who had no
access to televisions, and rural children were not catered for in the intervention design.
This requires a sharpened approach to reach the most vulnerable children with education, including increased
advocacy for disadvantaged children. There is a need to capitalize on UNICEF's supported radio programmes
and make distance learning a credible pathway for learning through investments in children's access to digital
technologies.
Table 6: Key indicators table for education
Indicators
# of children accessing quality
formal or non-formal early learning,
pre-primary, primary or secondary
education
# of teachers trained on education-
in-emergencies basic pedagogy and
centred methodologies
Cluster/sector
2021 Target
Cluster/sector
total results
UNICEF
2021
Target
UNICEF
Total
results
93,27131
797,024
292,879
(117,705 female)
770,000
(34,264
female)
4,355
2,583
4,000
472
Note: UNICEF, as cluster lead agency, is responsible for information management of cluster partner results and sharing
overall results achieved by cluster members collectively.
31 In 2021 UNICEF supported more then 948,428 children (435,121 girls) with pool funding (Global Partnership for
Education; KfW Development Bank; thematic funding; European Union; and African Development Bank). But this figure
(93,271) represents results from specific emergency funding only. In 2021 it was discovered that many partners did not
report under the 5Ws tool (Who is Where doing What, When and for Whom), managed by the cluster team, hence the
seemingly low result.
14View entire presentation