School Doors: Bringing out-of-school children back into the classroom in Yemen

The program, which began on August 15, 2018, and concluded on May 14, 2022, focused on improving access to quality education in the region. In October 2021, the general security situation in Al Dhale’e Governorate remained calm, with no major security incidents reported. However, a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) was detonated at the main gate of Aden Airport on October 31, resulting in six fatalities and up to 50 injuries. Despite this incident, the IRC's national programming and this project were not impacted. The Security Belt, a Yemen government department, started relocating IDP camps from Al Dhale’e district to Qa’atabah district without communicating the justification, timeline, or purpose for this decision with NGOs and other human rights actors. By the end of October, some camps were still active, and IDPs were not yet relocated, causing anxiety in the IDP community and disrupting Home-Based Learning (HBL) activities. The exchange rate in areas controlled by the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) continued to depreciate, with the US dollar trading at 1500 YER at the end of October, the highest rate since the war began in 2014. The fluctuation of the YER led to a continuous increase in prices for basic goods, including fuel, food, and medicine, resulting in less purchasing power for families and less household money available for non-essential items. The IRC conducted community scorecard training for 564 Father-Mother Councils (FMCs) in all five supported districts, including Al Dhale’e, Qa’atabah, Al Azareq, Al Shuayb, and Al Hussein. The FMCs applied their training to work with school administrators and Ministry of Education (MoE) facilitators to prepare and implement Joint School Improvement Plans (JSIPs). Additionally, 81 FMC members participated in a one-day training on community outreach, aimed at equipping them with key messages and techniques for increased advocacy on the importance of education. The IRC distributed scholastic materials to 324 IRC-supported teachers and 496 MoE teachers, including schemes of work, lesson preparation sheets, learner’s progress records, classroom attendance registers, whiteboard marker pens, whiteboard dusters, and biro pens. The materials supported teachers in lesson planning and preparation for effective teaching. The IRC also distributed 1,918 student kits to 1,918 learners from Al Azareq and Al Shuayb schools and those accessing HBL in Al Dhale’e and Qa’atabah districts. The IRC produced 80,000 copies of teaching and learning materials (TLM) to be used by learners in schools, Community-Based Centres (CBCs), and HBL as supplementary textbooks in the absence of MoE textbooks. The TLM supported improved quality education by providing teachers with content and materials to provide child-centred learning and engage children in lessons and complete classroom assignments after the learning sessions. The IRC distributed 422 large classroom whiteboards to schools in four districts, including Al Dhale’e, Al Hussein, Al Shuayb, and Qa’atabah, to support teachers with a surface to provide classroom instruction with clear writing and drawing visible to all students. The IRC also distributed 494 pieces of office furniture to the Governorate Office of Education (GOE), District Office of Education (DOE), and schools in all five supported districts, supporting GOE and MoE officers and schoolteachers to have an established workstation and storage facilities of education materials. Teacher in-house capacity building was conducted for 38 teachers, and seven peer-to-peer sessions for 63 teachers through coaching in Al Hussein and Al Shuayb districts. On October 24, learners from schools and CBCs from all five supported districts participated in a football league as part of recreational activities. The IRC provided refreshments for players after every match, and children wore uniforms previously provided to the CBCs in the recreational kits delivered in September 2021. The IRC supported the GOE to conduct a workshop for 30 staff from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), the Ministry of Social Affairs and (MoSAL), and the MoE from Al Dhale’e Governorate. The workshop aimed to inform participants on the IRC’s education activities, achievements, and support needed. The GOE expressed their appreciation for the IRC’s support in educational interventions in the governorate and requested the IRC to increase the number of supported schools, construct additional classrooms and schools in locations with less or no schools at all, and support the rehabilitation of dilapidated classrooms and WASH facilities in schools across all districts within the governorate.