Inclusion and education

BOX 3.2: 
Contextual factors affect estimates of the internally displaced and their education in Georgia and Ukraine
In conflict-affected countries, internal displacement puts a huge 
light on displaced populations’ needs (Right to Protection et al., 2017). 
strain on already struggling education systems. According to 
The 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan focuses on actions in areas 
the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), there are 
within 5 kilometres of the area the government does not control and 
2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region (IDMC, 
throughout the area it does. Provision of equipment to damaged 
2020). However, estimates are often contested as a result of social 
schools, social and emotional learning, and teacher training on stress 
and political context. In Ukraine, for instance, where IDP registration 
management are among the activities envisaged. The plan also involves 
is necessary to be eligible for access to social benefits, the IDMC 
efforts to recognize the certification of all students whose education 
estimate of 730,000 IDPs reflects those living in government-
was interrupted (UNOCHA, 2020).
controlled areas, while the government estimate of 1.5 million 
includes those living in areas that it does not control (IDMC, 2018; 
Crimean Tatar IDPs have been widely dispersed throughout Ukraine. 
UNHCR, 2020b).
Official procedure dating from 2002 states that there should be at least 
eight children learning a national minority language for a school to 
Conflict has heavily affected education infrastructure: 280 education 
organize classes. This limits Tatar children’s opportunity to be taught in 
institutions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions had been damaged 
their language (OSCE, 2016).
by October 2015 (UNICEF, 2016). In the cities of Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kiev 
and Zaporizhzhia, which host the most IDPs, education institutions 
In Georgia, the IDMC estimate of 300,000 IDPs is difficult to verify. 
faced challenges such as shortage of classroom space and lack of 
Some returnees may still be counted as IDPs because IDP status, 
resources to provide food and transport. While grassroots volunteer 
as in Ukraine, entitles people to some benefits (IDMC, 2009). In the 
organizations, civil society and host communities responded to 
case of those displaced from Abkhazia, the government established 
IDPs’ immediate needs, poverty reduced the likelihood of youth 
separate IDP schools in segregated neighbourhoods and even a 
attending upper secondary and tertiary education. IDP households 
separate education administration in the mid-1990s. This approach was 
earned 30% below the subsistence level set by the Ministry of Social 
criticized for deepening the Abkhaz population’s exclusion and offering 
Policy (IOM, 2017).
lower-quality education (Loughna et al., 2010). A 2007 strategy aimed 
to gradually close these schools and shift their students to mainstream 
Government responses included creating additional preschool and 
schools (IDMC, 2011), but data on IDP enrolment rates have been 
secondary places, moving 18 state universities from the east of the 
hard to obtain. The only sources of data on IDPs have been learning 
country and Crimea, and simplifying IDP admission and transfer 
achievement surveys (Machabeli et al., 2011) and household surveys, 
procedures (Right to Protection et al., 2017). Under legislation passed in 
such as the 2013 Integrated Household Survey and the 2018 MICS. 
May 2015, the government partly or fully covered tuition for registered 
According to the latter, IDPs represent just below 5% of the population. 
IDPs below age 23 and provided other incentives, such as long-term 
While children and adolescents have the same primary and lower 
education loans and free textbooks and internet access (Council of 
secondary completion rates as their non-displaced peers, 74% of IDPs 
Europe, 2016). A 2016 Cabinet of Ministers circular approved a unified 
complete upper secondary education, compared with 81% of non-IDPs 
IDP information database under the Ministry of Social Policy to shed 
(Georgia National Statistics Office, 2019).

---

difficulty’, ‘Yes – a lot of difficulty’ and ‘Cannot do at 
all’ (WHO and World Bank, 2011). Broad-based adoption 
of the Washington Group questions would not only 
bring disability statistics into line with the social model 
but might also resolve the comparability issues that 
have plagued global disability statistics (Altman, 2016). 
Estimates of disability prevalence currently vary with 
differences in definitions and methodology (Mont, 2007; 
Singal et al., 2015).
One limitation of the Short Set of Questions was that it 
was developed for adults and did not adequately capture 
developmental disabilities in children. After extensive 
consultation and testing, a Module on Child Functioning 
was developed in collaboration with UNICEF (Loeb et 
al., 2018). Crucially, the module asks about difficulties 
with learning and recognizes the importance of freedom 
from anxiety and depression (Braddick and Jané-
Llopis, 2008).
2
Its first large-scale application is in the sixth wave of the 
UNICEF MICS, in which nine countries and territories in the 
region have participated since 2018. Prevalence estimates 
of functional difficulty among 5- to 17-year-olds vary by 
domain and, within each domain, by country.
In the sensory domain, the average prevalence of seeing 
difficulties was 0.3%. In the mobility domain, walking 
difficulties affected 0.8% of children. Cognitive and 
psycho-emotional difficulties were far more common.
In total, 1.6% of children and adolescents were depressed 
and 4.4% suffered from anxiety (
Figure 3.7a
). The share of 
those with a functional difficulty in at least one domain 
was 7.5%, on average, varying from 2.5% in Turkmenistan 
to 11% in North Macedonia (
Figure 3.7b
).