Syrian Teachers' Academy (STA)

STA is a training program for Syrian teachers, designed to contribute in solving Syria’s education crisis.

1. Identify the problem _ Syrian Teachers: The Syrian humanitarian crisis remains one of the largest humanitarian crises since the end of World War II. According to UN, nearly 3 millions Syrian children are out of school today in Syria and in host countries. Yet, since, the world started addressing Syria's education crisis, most of the education responses have been adopting a humanitarian-emergency approach by focusing on the enrollment of children in schools at the expense of addressing the needs and the situation of the Syrian teachers. The impact of the conflict on the Syrian teachers is estimated by UNICEF (2015) to a loss of 52,500 teachers, 22% of the teaching work force in Syria. The lack of opportunities for professional development along with the recruitment of unqualified teachers on a temporary contractual basis is seriously impacting the provision of quality education. Moreover, Syrian teachers who fled to neighboring countries are not allowed by the host governments to be employed and work legally as teachers; Syrian teachers are rather mobilized by local NGOs and private sector as volunteers with small compensations. And despite the number of training and empowerment programs that are being offered for Syrian refugee teachers by various sources, these training programs remain ad hoc and sporadic. Consequently, Syrian teachers continue to struggle from being marginalized and excluded from being key players in driving education process, which is critically leading to a growing phenomenon of the "de-professionalization" of Syrian teachers and the risk of losing one of the most vital human capital for Syria's recovery.

2. Proposed solution _ STA Program:

The Syrian Teacher's Academy (STA) is a progressive teacher-training program that aims to address the Syrian education crisis from a strategic perspective, going beyond an emergency response approach. With its holistic and sustainable vision, STA is designed to create a paradigm shift in the teaching field, nurturing an on-going, collaborative community of practitioners, experts and leaders in the field of education, focusing not only on emergency needs but also on the needs of post-conflict Syria.  

3. How will the STA solve the problem? The STA aims to provide high-quality, systematic professional development opportunities for Syrian teachers working with refugee Syrian children and youth in Lebanon, as well as in Syria. The STA will offer a rigorous, multi-faceted year-long training program for teachers based on 21st century pedagogic, civic, and psycho-social principles and practices, to be followed by an optional one-year Advanced Leadership Program for selected STA participants. The STA aims to target up to seventy Syrian teachers, a third of whom will come from inside Syria to take part in the four STA Institutes over the course of the school year. Each Institute will be followed by regular online and face-to-face enrichment opportunities. Furthermore, the STA aims at contributing to the national education reform in Syria by providing indigenous teacher-training programs with a credible, field-tested, and innovative teacher-training program

STA is innovative because it addresses Syria's Education crisis from a strategic and sustainable perspective at time of crisis while most of the humanitarian educational responses continue to focus on emergency education and school access. Moreover, STA is innovative due to its:  
1. Structure: Institutes & Online Platform. The year-long training program will be divided into 4 Institutes, each of which will be complemented by regular online learning and enrichment opportunities. 
2. Content: Proficiency in a number of areas including those that responds to the specific needs and challenges of Syrian teachers in the context of crisis and conflict.

Technology is integral to the STA at two levels:
1. Technology is one of the core training courses that all teachers must take irrespective of their area of specialty because all must improve their IT skills and learn how to best integrate technology into their teaching.
2. Technology will be a form of delivery as the program will not be limited to its 4 institutes throughout the year, but will also be complimented with a regular e-learning platform to emphasize self-reflection, peer support, and serve as a tool to foster Teachers Learning Community, and to providing a participatory-based monitoring tool.

The goals over the next 12 months is to set-up and finalize all the components of the STA in order to kick-off the first training institute of the program by summer 2019, and provide a successful pilot that aims to set the foundation for a future expansion in post-conflict Syria. This would entail finalizing the detailed training curriculum for each subject and with each partner, as well as setting up the online platform, the teachers' recruitment process in addition to all the logistical matters related to the implementation of the training program. 

The vision of STA Program is to provide a solution that ensures that Syrian teachers are empowered and equipped with World Class 21st century teaching and leadership skills in order to deliver equitable and high-quality education to all Syrian children and, thereby, to contribute to the ultimate reform of Syria’s Education system and of the overall development of post-conflict Syria. In order to achieve this vision, the STA aims to establish an independent Academy that works towards effecting a transformational change of Syria’s Education system through the investment in World Class training of and on-going professional development for Syrian teachers

The STA is currently championed in its inception-kick-off phase by the American University of Beirut with a consortium of academic institutions such as Notre Dame University, Lebanese American University, and Harvard Graduate School of Education and ESCWA among others, in order to ensure a solid foundation of the program. It aims to target up to 70 Syrian teachers, 1/3 of whom will come from inside Syria, all through a rigorous recruitment process. Graduates can also apply for a 2nd year of participation, during which those selected will receive advanced leadership training and serve as mentors for the subsequent STA cohort.

Currently, the STA Program is at an inception phase under the championing of the American University of Beirut (AUB) with a consortium of local and international academic institutions and organizations. Target launching date is Summer 2019.

The target of the STA Program is seventy Syrian teachers beneficiaries at the pilot phase. The Syrian teachers will be selected based on a set of criteria and through a recruitment process in order to ensure teachers' commitment and effective results and outcomes. 
While at the pilot phase, many of the teachers who enroll in the STA will be working in non-formal educational (NFE) settings, the long-term goal of STA is to use its training to lay foundations for the transition into formal schooling.

The STA team is formed by two experts mainly in the area of education provision and policy studies. Dr. El Ghali is a professor at the AUB in education policies and runs the Education & Youth Policy Research Program at IFI at AUB.  Massa Mufti is a consultant at ESCWA on the education policies for the National Agenda for the Future of Syria (NAFS) Project, and founder of Sonbola NGO. By bringing academic experience and grassroots practice together, we believe we have the best skills to develop and lead on a program like the STA

STA is not a profitable program.

We are applying to Solve because Teachers & Educators is one of the major areas that Solve is dedicated to support, and because the STA Program is aligned with Solve's educational and innovative mission.

Some of the key barriers for the STA Program is the lack of certainty with regards to conflict situation in Syria.