The Learning Landscape: Adult learning in seven refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border

Description: 

Executive Summary: "This assessment set out to 1 map the learning landscape in the seven refugee camps served by ZOA, showing points of learning, and if and how they are connected and/or integrated; 2 identify learning needs and interests of the camp communities, including but not exclusively literacy, foreign language learning and resettlement needs; 3 understand the barriers that learners face in gaining access to learning.... Fieldwork was conducted in the seven camps served by ZOA. The sample of respondents was selected using both random and snowball sampling. The provision of adult learning activities: The bulk of learning activities available are languages (English and Thai), technical skills training (agriculture automechanics, sewing), professional development and community issues. There is some provision for literacy, numeracy, and basic and continuing education for adults but that is patchy... Learning needs and interests: Refugees in the camps need literacy, numeracy, workplace skills and general education to upgrade their basic skills and to enable them to grasp and master technical and craft skills, English for resettlement and Thai for possible integration. The majority of respondents were interested in learning English, Thai, computing, agriculture and sewing... Barriers to learning: The most common barriers to learning were misconceptions about the content, form and relevance of learning programmes, the scheduling of the programmes and the lack of widely available course information... Recommendations: It is recommended that ZOA: A uses current provision more efficiently and effectively; B adds literacy, numeracy and workplace skills to current provision; C expands basic and general education provision for adults and young people.

Creator/author: 

Su-Ann Oh with Toe Toe Parkdeekhunthum

Source/publisher: 

ZOA Refugee Care

Date of Publication: 

2007-11-00

Date of entry: 

2008-03-27

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

557.8 KB