The EU and UNICEF organised a joint monitoring mission to Misrata, Libya, last week where they visited a school and the local offices of the Ministry of Education. This initiative comes within a comprehensive programme of reform to expand access to quality education for all children.
The programme started in January 2012 and has a budget of €3.1 million. This endeavour, which is led by the Ministry of Education, places a strong emphasis on the most vulnerable children.
Through the project and under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, substantial support has been provided towards improved data collection and analysis, a review of education policies and the school framework, and strategies to increase administrative and teaching capacity for inclusive quality learning.
In Misrata, as well as in Ajdabiya and Sirte, 103 schools were rehabilitated and cleaned from rubble and approximately 52,000 children now learn in these schools.
Significant progress has been made towards creating awareness on the risk of mines and unexploded ordnances in Libya. Mine Risk Education (MRE) messages were very visible in the primary school that was visited and countrywide over 300 teachers have been trained on MRE.
In addition 26,777 pupils received safety briefings in schools. As a result of this nationwide MRE intervention, more than 500,000 children, adolescents and their families will indirectly benefit.
(Source: EU Neighbourhood Info Centre/EU)