On the Precipice of Progress: National Policy Openings that Increase Forcibly Displaced Adolescent and Youth Enrollment and Retention in Secondary Education
Plan International, Secondary Education Working Group (SEWG), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2024, Henderson, C and Hough, W
National-level policies are vital to the realization of forcibly displaced adolescent and youth engagement in secondary education. As multiple global-level frameworks and commitments are non-binding, national-level laws and the policies formulated within them help provide the political, social, and material conditions that adolescents and youth need for their right to secondary education to be achieved.
National policies can improve demand for secondary education by strengthening a system’s capacity to receive and support forcibly displaced adolescents and youth, thereby making the outcomes of secondary education more meaningful and lasting (UNESCO and UNHCR, 2023). This may extend to enforcing class-size limits, building additional classrooms, or recruiting extra teachers.
By increasing self-reliance, for which secondary education plays a key role (Henderson et al., 2023), progressive refugee and migrant inclusion policies can reduce the longterm costs of refugee hosting and incentivize adolescents and youth to complete their schooling (UNESCO and UNHCR, 2023). However, refugee and migrant regularization and inclusion within national education systems requires strong normative frameworks: this means that broad consensus on principles, legal instruments, standards, and accountability processes is needed so that policies can be implemented through relevant legislative mechanisms.
In light of these realities, this publication draws upon four case studies from the host-country contexts of Colombia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Rwanda. It contributes towards an emerging evidence base and informs an action agenda to increase forcibly displaced adolescent and youth enrollment and retention in national secondary education systems.