Accelerated Education in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda

In 2017, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (INTPA) allocated significant funding to support multi-year education projects under their Building Resilience in Conflict through Education (BRICE) initiative. Through the BRICE programme, the European Union aims to improve quality education in pre-school and at primary and lower secondary levels for children in fragile and crisis affected environments. BRICE is currently being implemented in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda from 2018 to 2021 and totals EUR 24 million.

This report focuses on Accelerated Education (AE) in DRC, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, where BRICE funded partners provided AE to conflict-affected children. AE is a crucial intervention for over-age, out-of-school children and youth aged 10-18 years. Accelerated Education Programmes ( AEPs) are flexible, age-appropriate programmes, run in an accelerated time frame, aiming to provide access to education for disadvantaged, over-age, out-of-school children and youth – particularly those who missed out on or had their education interrupted due to poverty, marginalisation, conflict and crisis.

Globally, accelerated education programmes are being employed more frequently to address this need and provide access to flexible education opportunities for large numbers of over-age out-of-school children and youth. However, in practice, there is an incredible diversity of programs labelled AEPs; to address this, the Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG) was established to strive for harmonisation and standardisation