The Education of Former Child Soldiers: Finding a Way Back to Civilian Identity

The paper examines the types of education programmes for former child soldiers. These may entail integration into existing school programmes, accelerated learning, or vocational studies. These interventions, however, have been limited in several ways. In particular, the majority of attention has focused on how best to separate child soldiers from armed groups. Much less attention has been paid to how such children can make successful transitions to civilian life, even though this latter phase is the most challenging and important dimension of programmatic interventions. The paper reviews available research on education of former child soldiers in order to identify successful program components (content, strategies, and implementation techniques), their potential impact on learner experiences and outcomes, the challenges these programs encounter, and the relevant policy implications.