Provide 1000 schoolbags to schoolchildren in Yemen

EDUCATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT
MARIB GOVENORATE
October 2021
EDUCATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT-MARIB GOV
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Email: [contact@bfdyemen.org] Website: [www.bfdyemen.org]

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Introduction
Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The crisis is the result of a brutal armed conflict that escalated seven years ago, has killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians and which continues today. The protracted humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the continued escalation of violence have had a devastating effect on basic services provision, depleted household, and communal coping capacities, and continue to pose an immediate life threat to the population.
The war has fuelled displacement making Yemen now the fourth largest IDP crisis globally with 4 million people displaced, wrecked the economy, reversed pre-conflict development gains, exacerbated long-standing vulnerabilities, and severely frayed Yemen’s social fabric, causing immense suffering. While Yemen had pre-existing vulnerabilities, the protracted nature of the crisis is resulting in increasing poverty and vulnerability even more.
Conflict and economic collapse have significantly degraded the quality, quantity and accessibility of Yemen’s public services and essential infrastructure. Essential services and the institutions have been seriously weakened in Yemen due to the pressure on these systems, erratic salary payments and dependency on humanitarian aid. As only two-thirds of schools (16,000) are currently functioning.
Approximately 8.1 million school-age girls and boys need Education in Emergencies (EiE) assistance across Yemen. These include 1.65 million internally displaced children, 1.5 million children with a disability and minority groups who face challenges in accessing education. In addition, 171,603 teachers (80 per cent of them male) need support. A total of 2,507 schools are reported destroyed, damaged and/or utilized for non-educational purposes. Conflict and continued disruption of schooling across the country and the fragmentation of the education systems have had a profound impact on the learning and overall cognitive and emotional development of nearly all the 10.1 million school-age boys and girls in Yemen.
More than 2.2 million children in Yemen are out-of-school. While schools reopened after many months of closure due to COVID-19, an additional 3.6 million (for a total of 5.8 million children) children have had their education disrupted. School closures and the worsening economic situation due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 increased the vulnerability of children and women to exploitation, violence, abuse, child labour, domestic and gender-based violence and child marriage where girls are being forced into and they remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and unfulfilled potential. Boys and girls are more vulnerable to being coerced into child labour or recruited into the fighting. More than 3,600 children in Yemen were recruited in the past six years.
Since the beginning of 2020, 106,449 people were displaced within or to Marib governorate with the vast majority being displaced for the second or third time and having no option but to shelter in extremely overcrowded settlements. A majority of IDPs have moved into Marib city (70%) where the largest IDP site in the country- Al Jufainah Camp, hosting 10,000 IDP HHs is located besides smaller settlements scatter in and around the city and neighbouring districts like Marib.
Marib Governorate hosts an estimated one million internally displaced persons (IDPs) – the largest IDP population in Yemen with 490,140 of whom are estimated to be in an acute need including 481,259 IDPs who are in severity phase 4 (extreme) and 8,881 IDPs who are in phase 5 (catastrophic). Given the ongoing fighting, the number of displaced people is expected to increase, including in Marib, which exacerbates already existing needs.
A recent protection assessment by UNHCR found that most displaced families (90 per cent) live in extreme poverty, on less than US$1.40 per day.
EDUCATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT-MARIB GOV
Objectives
The main objective of collecting the data collection is to explore the real needs and to quantify these needs to have a deeper knowledge on how to meet these needs, which including
- Assess the current situation of the targeted schools.
- Identify the learning priorities needed for the targeted schools.
- Alleviating the deteriorating education process in the targeted schools.
Data collection methods
Data collecting tools, which developed by Global Education Cluster (GEC) and GBV and GAM tools including:
- Key Informant Interviews with school management and head teachers, this questionnaire is for surveys with school-level actors to gather standardized information of the targeted schools.
- Key Informant Interviews with DoEs officials
- Focus group discussion (FDGs) teachers and parents. This tool provides questions that help to understand the perspectives of parents about key aspects of education in the area and how they have been affected by the emergency/crisis
Targeted Schools School District Gender
30 November school
Marib City
MS Excel application was used for data entry and analysis. Then, findings which resulted from analysis were interpreted, integrated with findings of FGDs results, and contextualized with secondary data.
Assessment Analysis & Findings
1.Access and learning environment
1.1 Equal access
Enrollment
The total number of students enrolled in the three targeted schools in Marib city and Marib district is 2491. Out of them, there are 1,208 boys and 1,288 girls with average rate of girls 52% in all schools. Which
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13.2% and 4% students enrolled in the primary and secondary grades, respectively. Likewise, children and adolescents were enrolled 59.2% and 60.8%, respectively.
Attendance
Students attendance was checked with school principals and teachers and the results were the average number of days students attend the school is 4-5 days were 64%. However, 36% of the respondents mentioned that their students attend to the school 2-4 days of the week. The following reasons were mentioned by the parents regarding the reasons for their kids to not go to the school due to security concerns mentioned by 20% of the interviewed, need to work 10% and Overcrowding at school 35%.
Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city district
Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city districtMarib city districtMarib city district Marib city districtMarib city district
Marib district-Marib district-Marib district- Marib district-Marib district-Marib district-Marib district-Marib district-Marib district- Marib district-Marib district- Alwadi Alwadi Alwadi
30 November30 November30 November 30 November30 November30 November30 November30 November30 Novemberschoolschoolschoolschoolschoolschool
Salah Aldeen Salah AldeenSalah AldeenSalah AldeenSalah Aldeen Salah AldeenSalah AldeenSalah AldeenSalah Aldeenschoolschoolschoolschoolschoolschool
Muath ben JabalMuath ben JabalMuath ben JabalMuath ben Jabal Muath ben Jabal Muath ben JabalMuath ben JabalMuath ben Jabal Muath ben JabalMuath ben JabalMuath ben JabalMuath ben Jabalschoolschoolschoolschoolschoolschool

Pre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-PrimaryPre-Primary
PrimaryPrimaryPrimaryPrimary PrimaryPrimary
SecondarySecondary Secondary SecondarySecondary
Enrolled Students per gradesEnrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per gradesEnrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per gradesEnrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per gradesEnrolled Students per grades Enrolled Students per grades
BoysBoys Boys
GirlsGirlsGirlsGirlsGirls
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Displaced students
Due to current situation, IDPs movement no clear data regarding the final enrolment rate for current school year, but according to the enrollment records at the visits, 75% of the enrolled students was from the displaced children. There are 966 girls and 902 boys, which 82.6% of them are in the pre-primary grade.
Absorption capacity
According to the analysis of the survey data and schools management interviews, All the targeted schools’ capacity is suitable for the moment with compared number of enrolled students except Muath ben Jabel school in Marib district-Alwadi have been complaining of the huge number of students registered with 20% over the carrying capacity of current TLS, which negatively affects the attendance of students because the overcrowding.
Inclusion of vulnerable
It was found that different vulnerable children groups (displaced children, marginalized, orphans, and disabled are studying in the same school). Which more than 75% of the students in schools are IDPs or marginalized groups and less than 1% as average in the targeted schools are disabled either (physical or sensorial).
1.2 Protection and wellbeing
Distance
Most school sites are found amid populated communities. It takes from them about 10-15 minutes which 90% of boys and girls goes to school walking to reach their schools mostly in small groups.
Safety to and from school
As most schools are situated in centers of populated communities, but as security incidences may happen unexpectedly, parents through FDGs expressed their security concerns when there are gun firing or explosions incidences at the schooling time. females do feel safe going to their school with a percentage of 82% and 18% of them said that they do not feel safe due to security concern. Parents have been complaining that daughter who go secondary school may sometimes be exposed to verbally harassment by youths or loafers in the roads. They mentioned that some girls prefer to stay home rather being exposed to such abuse when going to or getting back from school. Moreover, Parents recommended launching campaigns to raise awareness of people about risks of holding weapons and activating
Displaced studentsDisplaced studentsDisplaced students Displaced students Displaced students Displaced students Displaced students Displaced studentsDisplaced students
IDPsIDPsIDPsIDPs
Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities) Other non-displaced children affected by emergencies (incl. host communities)
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community participation in keeping security to improve children access to school.
Emergency preparedness
It was observed that all schools have no written plan specifying established procedures of what can be done in case of emergency. However, some of school principals and teachers stated that there are some acknowledged procedures followed in case of emergency.
1.3 Facilities
Classroom capacity
All three targeted schools in both districts contain 26 classrooms with the average number of students in each classroom of the schools is 51 Students* (this indicator measures the average # of students in one classroom in one shift) with exception to the first grades for Muath ben Jabal school in Marib district- Alwadi. they are overcrowded (more than 70 students per TLS).
School conditions
It was observed that more than 85% of classrooms in three schools were damaged or partially damaged or not yet considered to be TLSs (incomplete construction or not meeting classrooms education standards) because of direct/indirect impact during the wartime, age of these buildings, and some classrooms built by community with random way or still incomplete.
Furniture
More than 50% of furniture (desks, boards, etc.) in all targeted schools has exposed to damage or loss. 104 desks and 26 black/white boards need to repair and other necessary furniture need to provide.
Recreation and play
According to FDGs and interviews, all schools don't have enough spaces where children can play and perform outdoor activities. And they have not recreational kits to support welling for children. School boys most game that they are used to playing in school is football or stalking game and most school girls can't play freely as sometimes loafers from outside the school jump over the school fence and prevent them from playing. No more games are activated for them.
Water
Some schools have regular access to a source of water within premises and some do not. Most students do not use available water for drinking because it is not clean as it is collected in large water tanks which have not been cleaned for long time, so they prefer to bring water from homes.
Latrines and WASH facilities
Only 7 latrines in Muath ben Jabel school in Marib districts-Alwadi including WASH facility, while the other two schools in Marib city do not have any latrines or WASH facilities. Theoretically, there are 78 students for every latrine on average and the WASH facilities are non-functional or partially functional in Muath ben Jabel and need to provide them with special need, gender-sensitive, child- friendly equipment and accessories.
- Awareness level for schools’ management is still very low with regard to allocate latrines for students to be used on a gender basis.
- Based on observations, interviewers expressed that they are never satisfied with the level of the latrines' cleanliness Muath ben Jabel school and most both boys and girls do not use them because they are not clean and smell nasty.
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Primary healthcare
Children of morning shift is not used to having breakfast early before going to school. They bring food from home, and have it at the break time at nine o'clock. On other hand, some students have not breakfast because poverty and low living condition and income. All schools are located near health facilities. The nearest health facility to a school is only 20 minutes walking, while the farthest is 50 minutes walking, but all schools do not have first aid kits.
Psychosocial support
According to the discussions with parents and schools’ principals through FDGs, Children are still experiencing psychosocial and emotional distress as they have been confronted with insecurity, danger, fear, loss and displacement. Moreover, girls felt more confident and safer the war before and they feel scared when there is shooting or bombing, and their parents sometimes prevent them from going out even to school or for playing. On other hand, when one of them face a problem, they cannot talk to their teacher. Mostly, they prefer to talk to their mothers about things happen in school.
2. Teaching and learning
Gender equality
Parents’ awareness on gender are still low and no related training or topics are provided. However, teachers and some parents mentioned the there is a need to increase awareness through specific topics addressing roles of women, girls, men and boys and encourage girls to go to school and women-led to work in the society.
Loss school material and TLMs
There is a significant loss of school materials in all schools in both districts as more than 50% of schools’ furniture are damage or looting during the wartime. Regarding TLMs, almost all classrooms for the targeted schools in both districts have unusable writing boards and most teachers need to teaching aids. On other hands, over 90% of students need to learning materials and considered on the important reasons of attendance and learning quality decrease.
3. Teachers and other education personnel
3.1 Recruitment and selection
Number, absenteeism, and qualification of teachers
The total number of teachers recruited in three targeted schools is 69 (34 males and 35 females) including 43 volunteer teachers. It is noticed that female teachers of schools form 50.7% of the total teaching staff recruited. Moreover, parents think there is about some of teachers do not go to schools and teach children. However, the absence rate does not exceed 15% according to school principals’ interviews.
- 26 teachers are being paid by the government and 43 volunteer teachers are working without any incentives from government or NGOs.
-Most teachers are not qualified according to MoE criteria (who has diploma/or a bachelor degree in education) and they did not receive any training in EiE, PSS, MHPSS, or other education field.
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3.2 Conditions of work
Code of conduct
Neither the MoE nor any school of the sample has developed a code of conduct document that specify the standards for education personnel behavior.
3.3 Support and supervision
Support personnel
Teachers in all targeted schools had the opportunity to receive basic support either by the school principal. On other hand, GEO and DEO supervisors' visits are very limited as they have no sufficient resources enabling them to perform their tasks.
In-service training and support and PSS
Teachers, volunteer teachers and schools principals cleared that they did not receive any psychosocial support services or other service training to help them deal with education-related issues in light of this crisis.
School management
According to the FGDs with teachers for the three targeted schools in both districts, the staff meetings and TLSs observation conducted by schools’ principles and head teachers but infrequently and sufficiently.
4. Education policy and coordination
Policy formulation and enactment
In light of crisis, all school management and teachers tried to facilitate access to learning and education through simple procedures such as waive the school fees required for registration and documentation required for school relocation for ID children or other vulnerable groups.
Coordination
Education offices (DoEs, GoE) and other local authorities are able to visit and reach the targeted schools in both districts. Even, some visited schools underestimated the value of those visits as there was no real support provided to them.
5.Community participation

Teachers F Teachers FTeachers FTeachers FTeachers FTeachers F Teachers FTeachers F
Teachers M Teachers MTeachers MTeachers MTeachers MTeachers M Teachers MTeachers M
Volunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerTeachers F Teachers FTeachers FTeachers FTeachers FTeachers F Teachers FTeachers F
Volunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerTeachers M Teachers MTeachers MTeachers MTeachers MTeachers M Teachers MTeachers M
Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per schoolNumber of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school Number of teachers and volunteer teacher per school
30 November school30 November school30 November school 30 November school30 November school30 November school30 November school30 November school30 November school 30 November school30 November school30 November school30 November school30 November school
Salah Aldeen school Salah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen school Salah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen school Salah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen schoolSalah Aldeen school
Muath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal school Muath ben Jabal school Muath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal school Muath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal school Muath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal schoolMuath ben Jabal school
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FMCs’ function and roles
Before the crisis, each targeted school has father/mother council FMC and they are still activities but with lower efficient and effective roles despite the community around schools is very helpful where they do some activities e.g. collecting second hand school uniforms and redistributing them to poor children, contributing to buy cleaning tools and materials, and clean the school by themselves, helps volunteer teacher, etc. However, through FDGs with the school principals and teachers, the FMCs or PTAs need to support them with the training, awareness, organize, monitoring and operation costs to be more efficient and play an effective role in the school and community.
6.Gender
GBV
Through interviews/FDGs with school principals and teachers in all targeted schools, the region and schools are still relatively not safe and accessible for at-risk groups especially for women and girls because impacts of war and several culture barriers e.g. many households prevent their daughters complete their learning in primary and secondary grades because their culture or due to such as the lack of TLSs and latrines for fameless in some schools, IDP households encourage their children, especially girls from going to schools because poverty and low income, and other HHs prevents fameless education because security concerns.
-The good indicator in this point is the ratio famel to male in education staff is 51% dopsite the community does not encourage the women-led.
GAM
Only 7 latrines in Muath ben Jabel school in Marib districts-Alwadi and they are non-functional or partially functional and need to provide them with special need, gender-sensitive, child- friendly equipment and accessories, while the other two schools in Marib city do not have any latrines or WASH facilities. Some schools have regular access to a source of water within premises and some do not. Most students do not use available water for drinking because it is not clean as it is collected in large water tanks which have not been cleaned for long time, so they prefer to bring water from homes. Based on the teachers' interviews, the school-aged children observed because poverty and low income and other reasons mentioned in advance in student attendance and the most specific disease that children suffered from them are colds, fever, diarrhea and emaciation. They concluded that the most important concerns of community are rehabilitate and improve school’s infrastructure including WASH facilities, activate and support FMC, increase knowledges and capacity of teachers and FMC regarding to education and learning issues, and provide schools, teachers and students with TLMs.
Recommendations
Based on highlight data in the assessment for the three targeted schools in both districts through interviews and FDGs and interviews with school management, teachers, and parents and in coordination with education offices (DoEs, GoE) the assessment team recommended:
Access
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- Improvement and supporting learning environment for the targeted schools to be safe and accessible through rehabilitation of schools’ infrastructures including TLSs and WASH facilities (WATSAN rehabilitation and hygiene awareness raising activities), and supporting provision and allocation of special need, gender-sensitive, child- friendly equipment for both students and teachers.
- Constructing extra TLSs and WASH facilitates to accommodate the increasing demand for education and to alleviate classroom over crowdedness and absorbing outof-school children. There is a need for at least extra 2 equipped TLS for Muath ben Jabal school in Marib district and 15 latrines for 30-November and Salah Aldeen schools in Marib city.
- Supporting children and adolescents with scholastic materials.
- Supporting vulnerable and poor/ households with income generation and micro-enterprise programs.
- Supporting volunteer teachers with monthly incentives.
- Supporting schools with recreational kits, extracurricular, recreational and play activities in schools, and enhancing students' involvement in students' councils and in varied volunteering work groups for serving the school and local community.
- Supporting Bach-to-school campaigns and promoting students' absenteeism monitoring mechanisms in collaboration with schools, FMCs, and local community.
Protection
- Developing a monitoring, reporting and referral system for protecting vulnerable children in collaboration with GEO and DEO inclusive education departments, schools, and CBOs. In addition to supporting the creation of active database to serve the purpose.
- Providing children with psycho-social support , and training school social workers on how to provide such support.
- Building the capacity of school management staff and teachers in terms of child protection and rights.
- Developing joint programs with local stakeholders to promote the role of local community for improving secure and safe environment for children.
- Developing a practical code of conduct on behavior in the classroom
Quality of Education
- Supporting the quality of teachers, volunteer teachers, and administrators by providing them with flexible systematic in-service training programs, and activating professional development meetings on other hand, make them able to deliver emergency related topics such as life skills; violence prevention; health, nutrition, hygiene promotion and referral program.
- Setting up FMCs and activating their roles in schools as stated in the enhancing community involvement and supporting them with the training, awareness, organize, monitoring and operation costs to be more efficient and play an effective role in the school and community.
- Providing teachers and volunteer teachers with teaching materials.
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• BFDs_Education_Needs_assessment_ReportMarib_Governorate_1.pdf (PDF)