Contact details

Submitted by: Concepción Gallego, Global Partnerships Team, ProFuturo

Email: [email protected]  

Website: profuturo.education/en/

Social:

• @ProFuturo_
• Youtube channel

Introduction to the project 

Country

Lebanon and Malawi

Duration

2017-2020

Description

ProFuturo is an education program launched in 2016 by Telefónica Foundation and "La Caixa" Foundation, whose mission is to narrow the education gap in the world by providing quality digital education for children in vulnerable environments in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

ProFuturo’s Digital Education Framework enhances the technological appropriation and pedagogical skills of teachers. It provides children with the necessary competences to face the digital era by focusing on key elements that impact directly on the quality of education, such as:

• Training, pedagogical and technical support for teachers, school directors and coaches.
• A Digital Solution (that works with or without connectivity) that includes technological equipment, adapted to the needs of each school and innovative learning experiences for children that allow for personalized learning within the classroom.
• A monitoring and evaluation system.
• A community of observation and exchange of knowledge.

ProFuturo has adapted its digital education program to refugee contexts, aligned with the principles of the International Network of Education in Emergencies (INEE), with the goal of contributing, in both formal and non-formal education contexts, to three pillars:

• Guarantee access to a safe learning space for children. Providing nutrition, materials and other tools that facilitate learning and children well-being.
• Improve quality of education through teacher training and digital education, leveraging innovation and technology for teaching and learning.
• Strengthen resilience through psycho-social support and community participation to involve the teachers, parents and the whole community.

Project aims

ProFuturo aims to provide access to quality education to refugee children that will enhance their holistic development and psycho-social well-being and resilience.

Main activities of the Good Practice

Learning Spaces:

• Construction of secured school blocks and classrooms
• Facilitate equipment for the classroom
• Construction and installation of WASH facilities and solar panels/access to electricity.

Quality education:

• Teacher training on general pedagogical skills, innovative methodologies and Computer-Based Learning Environment (CBLE) to improve 21st Century Competences.
• Pedagogical and technical accompaniment and support.
• Distribution of education materials, a Learning Management System (LMS) and digital resources.
• Supply of technological equipment.
• Monitoring and data analytics.

Resilience:

• Community mobilization and awareness
• Meetings with parents and teachers
• School feeding program
• Recreational activities
• Individual and family counselling
• Distribution of hygiene materials

Partners

• Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)
• Kayany Foundation
• American University of Beirut
• Mensajeros de la Paz

Challenges & how they were overcome:

Level of instruction and motivation of teachers and headteachers:

ProFuturo train teachers, head teachers and leader teachers, through blended methodology, with face-to-face and digital training, to develop both pedagogical and digital skills. The educational community is supported by a group of coaches that periodically visit the schools.

ProFuturo aims to enhance the professional development of teachers. The Foundation has developed a Teacher Competency Framework for Teachers building on existing competency frameworks such as the UNESCO ICT Competence Framework for Teachers, ISTE Framework, DigCompOrg, and the UNESCO Global Framework on Digital Literacy Skills.

On the other hand, the teachers can lose their motivation if they face technical and use experience incidences. That why ProFuturo’s accompaniment is key to make the inclusion of digital education in the classroom a success. The school´s head teachers need to be commited to the program and to the use of innovative methodology to improve the quality of the education given to the children.

Poor infrastructure:

- Access to connectivity: ProFuturo provides an offline solution but it needs connectivity to upload the initial activities for the children and download new contents and new releases of the platform.

- Security: Keeping the equipment safe.

- Access to electricity: ProFuturo´s equipment is autonomous during the school day but it needs to be charged during the night.

Local curricula and local languages:

ProFuturo wants to adapt its solution to the local context and promote local content and mother tongue-based multilingual education. Its platform allows the teachers to upload their own activities and share them with the children in the classroom. ProFuturo wants to partner with local stakeholders to complete the offer with local digital resources.

Results of the Good Practice

During 2019, ProFuturo reached:

• 297 Syrian children at the non-formal education center in the Bourj Hammoud neighborhood (Beirut), run by the Jesuit Refugee Service
• 1,432 children at 13 learning centers supervised by the Kayany Foundation and the American University of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley. In 2020, the project will benefit 4 new schools in Bekaa Valley
• In Malawi, at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp, 1,844 students benefitted from the program (in partnership with the Jesuit Refugee Service).
• In Jordan, the project will benefit 149 Iraqi refugees in non-formal education settings. This project will start in the first quarter of 2020 (in partnership with Mensajeros de la Paz).

Next steps

ProFuturo will have its first evaluation results during 2020. The monitoring carried out so far is centered in continuous feedback from the partner organizations to better understand the needs of the specific refugee population.