Uganda hosts 1.6 million refugees who have fled conflict and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. However, as one of the world’s poorest countries, resources for their support are stretched. Early years provision is particularly underfunded, so thousands of marginalised young children are lacking education at the most critical stage in their development.
Children on the Edge’s Cluster Learning programme in the Kyaka II refugee settlement is providing a low-cost, sustainable solution. With generous support from The Lewin Trust, we are currently providing Early Years Education to over 4,000 Congolese children and will expand access to around 4,000 more in 2025. In the Cluster model:
- Groups of 15 children play and learn in outside spaces, close to their homes. The low teacher:child ratio leads to excellent learning outcomes and the proximity of Clusters to children’s homes makes them accessible to disabled and very young children.
- The curriculum is linked to the Ugandan national framework but with a stronger focus on child-led free play to build independent thinking, resilience and social skills.
- The end goal is full community ownership and sustainability. Teachers and Teacher Trainers are refugees trained from within the settlement. Local volunteer committees manage the teachers, monitor child welfare, resource learning areas and run savings groups to provide teacher stipends.