Rebuilding refugees' lives with mobile teaching tools

Missing an education

It’s really hard for refugee children to get a proper education. They can spend years out of the classroom. There are 600,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan right now and approximately 1 in 10 of them are children who are not in school.

Teachers are optional

Orange Jordan wanted to do something about this. Their solution was to create, ‘Zidini Elman’, a self-learning app for a smartphone or tablet that means the students can study at their own pace without having to be in school or even have a teacher with them. This flexibility is so important because one of the biggest challenges of teaching refugee children are the varying age and education levels in the same classroom because the kids have all missed different amounts of schooling.

The tablets are on us

Orange have donated thousands of free tablets to refugee centres in Jordan so the kids can use Zidini Elman catch up with their education. The tablets are designed purely for educational purposes so they are safe to use and do not require internet access. The education content itself is designed around the Jordanian curriculum to help the students integrate into the country’s public school system.

Top marks

And it’s working. Currently more than 20,000 young Syrian refugees are benefiting from Zidini Elman in 146 UNICEF refugee centres in Jordan.

“I hadn’t been to school for a long time and was scared I’d forgotten everything, but mum made me go. I wanted to make new friends. It was so cool using the tablet, it makes lessons way more fun. I always compete with my friends to get the best marks.”

Haya, aged 12, Syrian refugee