Navigating Displacement, Educational Challenges, and Interventions for Internally Displaced Children in Oromia and Amhara Regions of Ethiopia

Prolonged conflict has caused great internal displacement to Ethiopia and disrupted education in theOromia and Amhara regions of the country. The research paper examines the existing systemicobstacles to education among internally displaced children and explores the possibility of communityand psychosocial factors mediating the efficacy of Education in Emergencies (EiE) interventions. Aconvergent parallel mixed-methods design was used and involved 624 participants (IDP children,caregivers, and teachers). Quantitative data were explored in terms of descriptive statistics, multipleregression, and mediation analysis (model fit: R 2 =.75, F (9,614) = 38.50, p <.001), and qualitativedata were analyzed in terms of reflexive thematic analysis, with the ethical considerations being IRBapproval and informed consent/assent. These findings suggested that Temporary Learning Spaces(0.30 = 0.001) and Accelerated Learning Programs (0.28 = 0.001) were the most significantpredictors of positive educational results. Overcrowding, untrained teachers, and student trauma,along with community involvement and psycho-social support, were found to be the major barriersand the basic mediators of intervention acceptance and sustainability, respectively, identified throughqualitative analysis. The researchers find that successful EiE demands a paradigm shift fromstandalone efforts to integrated and community-based intervention and recommend, among otherthings, multi-year funding of integrated intervention packages, forced training of teachers in traumamodels, formal certification systems of accelerated learning, and investment in community-basedgovernance systems.