National Education Cluster Meeting minutes

Transcription

1 National Education Cluster Meeting minutes Date: 6 th October 2015 at 11:00, MoEST Boardroom Meeting Participants: ADCORD, AET, ARUDA, Altai Consulting, Apt, BRA, BRAC, British Council, CGA, CHiDO, CHIDDO, CMD, CADA, CAD, CHADO, GHO, GEF, GEPA, HeRYSS, HCO, HRSS, HACO, Intersos, JCI, Mercy Corps, NH, NuSS, SSS, SSUDA, Stromme, SPEDP, TADO, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIDO, WTI, WFP, YTTC. 1. Introduction and Status of Action Points of the Previous Meeting TOPIC ACTION POINTS PERSON/ENTITY in George Ali opened the meeting and welcomed everybody present; Apologies were made by Cleo for the late arrival of the Education Cluster Unit, due to the Inter-Cluster Working Group which takes place just before the Education Cluster meeting; Introduction of Nicolas SERVAS, Education Cluster Coordinator for the UNICEF lead, Nicolas comes from CAR, where he was the Education Cluster Coordinator, following two years as Rapid Response Team member of the Global Education Cluster. Contacts: edclusterjuba.un@gmail.com Action points from the previous meeting: the assessment report for Western Equatoria from ADRA has not been shared yet, the ECU shared the contacts of State Focal Points with the membership. 2. PEG presentation and discussion on national coalition for education The discussion on building a national coalition for education follows the 7-11 September 2015 discussions (re GCE/ANCEFA Coalition Building, Exploratory Visit to the Republic of N/A A summary/report on the 7-11 September discussions N/A PEG (Portia) at the next PEG meeting and in November 1

2 South Sudan) with education actors such as South Sudan MoEST, PEG, ANCEFA, GCE, EDoG, Teacher Union-CES, Research Council-MoEST. This coalition could serve as anchor for Education Rights campaign, policy engagement and provision of options/alternatives through well researched, informed briefs, capacity building of members and its organs, facilitating networking among government and civil society/additional partners, representation of/mobilization for representation of civil society in key education platforms, education research and provision of useful data, accountability, tracking and standards setting in education resource use, public awareness and mobilization for education. See attached presentation for more details. 3. HNO: presentation of indicators chosen and figures will be provided at the next PEG meeting (12 October) discussions will then follow to find consensus on whether PEG members would like to reshape PEG into a NEC (November). Nicolas shares the indicators and figures used for the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO, process led by OCHA). There are two main types of indicators: those directly related to the emergency situation (number of schools occupied by IDPs or armed groups, % of schools damaged/destroyed, % of displaced and host community children not benefiting from education interventions) and those related to the effects of the crisis on the education system overall (% of schools not functioning, % of students attending compared to students registered, Pupils Teacher Ratio). There have been challenges with the collection of data and contradictory figures, e.g., the Pupils Teacher Ratio is 41/1 at the national level, and the number of students attending (SSSAMS) is higher than the number of students registered (EMIS). Meeting participants propose: 1) To use one set of data for the % of students attending compared to students registered, in order to avoid mixing conflicting methodologies; 2) To look at the changes in teachers attendance, as it may reveal the impact of the crisis too; 3) To compare attendance levels between beginning of the school year and now. While the indicators and figures will be reviewed in the coming days, the current version of the document will also be shared by with Cluster members. The Education chapter (indicators, figures, analysis) of the HNO is due to OCHA for October 15. Sharing of current version of indicators and figures, update of indicators and figures Education Cluster Unit, esp. Nicolas and Fred, revised version for the end of this week, final version for October 15. 2

3 The HNO process will be followed by the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) where objectives, indicators and targets will be defined for the sector. 4. Priority tasks for the coming weeks The Education Cluster Unit proposes to focus on the following tasks in the coming weeks: - Definition of standards for TLSs (request from UNICEF Education section): work has been done in this area already, so it may be a matter of harmonizing what the different partners do and what is realistically feasible given the security and logistical constraints; - Thresholds for Education response: in order to maximize the results achieved with the resources available, Nicolas proposes to work on waiting time and beneficiaries numbers thresholds, e.g., that EiE response would take place after 6 weeks of IDPs moving to a new location, or that partners would focus their interventions where the largest numbers of IDPs are. This will be put in writing as part of the Education chapter of the Humanitarian Response Plan in order to avoid situations where large sites are left without response, or where SiBs are distributed but IDPs move to other locations within a few days; - Similarly, Fred and Nicolas will work on a tool to help prioritize sites and locations where EiE interventions should take place; this should be based on number of IDPs, % of children aged 3-18, intentions to return and could also include reports data shared by partners. - Reporting on the numbers of beneficiaries: in order to avoid double counting of beneficiaries, the ECU will work in close relationship with UNICEF Education section and partners active in EiE response to find solutions, e.g., register and keep track of names and dates of birth of beneficiaries from the beginning of interventions. Partners share the definition/documents available, the ECU then harmonizes them and shares them for feedback/validation. Education Cluster Unit, esp. Cleo and Nicolas (standards for TLSs) Nicolas (thresholds for EiE response) and Fred and Nicolas (priorisation tool). 3

4 5. Reporting on 2015 HRP TOPIC ACTION POINTS PERSON/ENTITY in Progress against the HRP implementation is on track resting at 73% of the overall total target. In summary 542 TLS have been established and some rehabilitated, providing access to 76.4% of the children targeted. PTA and teacher/volunteer facilitators training are on track with 78.3% (38.2% females) and 88.8% (24.1% females) trained respectively. However provision of learning materials is still at an average level; thus partners are urged to scale up the provision of basic learning materials especially exercise books and basic instructional materials such as chalk. Access to ECD is below average (<40%). Partners are also encouraged to recruit more female volunteers and promote the participation of females in the PTAs committees since women may be easy to mobilize for educational activities. Fred stresses that partners should report their projects funded in the Financial Tracking Services system managed by OCHA: This will be extremely useful for reporting on the level of financing of the sector and advocacy efforts. 6. Use of assessment tools The cluster has an obligation to build the capacity of its members and one identified capacity gap is on how to conduct assessments and write good recommendations that can be followed up. In the remaining cluster meetings for the year, assessment tools will be discussed in detail so that all members of the Cluster have an idea on how to conduct education related assessments. In addition to this, cluster members were reminded of the need to report any response following an assessment in the 5Ws. The cluster needs to be able to reflect the response against the sector needs. A request was also made for all partners who have conducted assessments to share them with the cluster so that they can be uploaded onto the education website. Share the dashboard with the meeting minutes Partners to share their assessment reports with the cluster ECU All partners, deadline: 19th October 4

5 7. Humanitarian Updates Report from BRAC on the security situation in Western Equatoria: From 31 August curfew has been put in place in Yambio (6pm - 6am). Gun firing has become a normal phenomenon at night and this situation impacted schools supported by BRAC: parents are scared to send their children to the schools regularly and attendance is decreasing. Since September 11 when local youths were shot dead in Maridi, followed by increased violence, all 50 schools supported by BRAC are closed. By now the situation has calmed down a bit and people started coming back gradually. The local government in Maridi has decided to open government schools from next week. In Mundri, since the September 17 ambush and killings of soldiers, the 25 Community Girl s Schools supported by BRAC have been closed. BRAC is especially concerned for the schools materials and the safety and security of its staff. 8. AOBs The CHF secretariat is working on a draft strategy for Southern Unity. However, the decision to fund interventions in this area will rely heavily on 1) level of information available, 2) capacity of partners already present in the area to intervene. If relevant, the ECU will share the draft strategy with Cluster members already working in this area. Restart of education activities will depend on the security situation. The ECU will alert OCHA and ICWG on the impact of insecurity on education. Share draft strategy for Southern Unity BRAC to be ready to resume activities when the situation is stabilized, ECU for sharing and doing advocacy with OCHA and ICWG. Nicolas, once the document has been shared by the CHF secretariat. Next Regular Meeting: Thursday 22 October, 11am, as a meeting is planned with the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator on Tuesday, 20 th October. 5