Call for international education fund to help refugee children continue learning

Speaking on the first day of the three-day Knowledge Summit in Dubai, the former British prime minister said the world needed to respond in a similar way to how global health problems were tackled.

Gordon Brown, former prime minister of Britain, addresses the Knowledge Summit 2015 in Dubai on Monday. Satish Kumar / The National

DUBAI // Former British prime minister Gordon Brown called for the creation of an international education fund to help refugee children escaping war or other disasters.

He called on philanthropists and governments to create a fund large enough so it could be used quickly to provide education when required.

Speaking on the first day of the three-day Knowledge Summit in Dubai, he said the world needed to respond in a similar way to how global health problems were tackled.

“It’s understandable that the first requirement aid agencies and governments seek to solve are to make sure that people have food and shelter,” he said. “We need a way to solve the problem of a lack of education in a similar way to how we target diseases like malaria or Aids.”

About two million Syrian children are in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon and the vast majority are not receiving an education, he said.

“On average, a refugee spends 10 years in a camp or outside their home country,” he said.

“That means by the time they return home most, if not all, will not have received an education ... they will not be able to get employment or have the opportunities they want.”

He praised an initiative in Lebanon where 200,000 Syrian refugee children were being educated in Lebanese schools. Under a “double-shift” system Lebanese children are taught in the mornings while in the afternoon and evenings refugee children use the same classrooms.

“This is a cost-effective way of providing education and it only costs about US$500 (Dh1,836) to provide this kind of education to a child for the whole year,” Mr Brown said.

The Scotsman also praised the UAE for improving education in such a short period of time.

“To improve literacy from 18 per cent to 82 per cent in just 30 years is a fantastic achievement,” he said.

“To do that in one generation when it has taken countries elsewhere in the world three to four generations is amazing.”

Earlier, Hussain Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, said it was vital that the skills pupils learnt in school had relevance once they joined the workforce.

“We have been working with higher education institutions as well as industry to develop a curriculum that is the most effective possible,” he said.

The National Qualification Authority surveys the labour market on a regular basis to see what its needs are and to look at ways education and the curriculum can meet those needs, he said.

The summit later heard from Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Inc, who said that often “schools educate the creativity and innovation out of children”.

“We tell children that intelligence is based on exam results and getting the same correct answer as everyone else,” he said.

“It means children who look at things differently don’t get the encouragement they need.”

In future, technology could be used to educate children more effectively, he said. “Imagine software on your device that acts and thinks like a human and understands and builds an emotional connection with you,” Mr Wozniak said. “That could be used as your very own teacher and you could learn anything you were interested in.”

The Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award was shared between National Geographic Channel, which receives $500,000; Hiroshi Ishiguro, at Osaka University; and Ahmed Alshugairi, presenter of the Khawatir TV programme, who get $250,000 each.