Cloe Ofori

A pioneering refugee education programme has been awarded an international accreditation for its work with young refugees and displaced youth.

Amala Global Secondary Diploma (GSD) is a programme is run by Amala, an educational organisation which offers high quality and inclusive education programmes for refugee and displaced youth. Two accreditation agencies, the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), collaborated to jointly accredit Amala and its programme, using the CIS International Accreditation framework to benchmark its quality with international standards and practices.

The accreditation marks an advance in global refugee education as it is the first time either agency has considered and granted accreditation to an organisation working in a refugee context.

According to UNHCR, only 41% of refugee youth and children are enrolled in secondary education, and just 7% access higher education. Amala’s pioneering GSD programme was developed to close this educational gap, and focuses on student agency, wellbeing, and employs non-traditional assessment methods. The programme enables youth aged 16-25 who are out of school and not able to enter national education systems the chance to finish their secondary education. More than 400 students have participated in the GSD in Amman, Jordan and Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya since 2020.

Majd, a Syrian alumnus of the first cohort of the GSD in Jordan, who secured a place to study Psychology at University of Prince Edward Island in Canada said:

“When I graduated from Amala, I applied to many universities and colleges with my Diploma. A number of different admissions officers told me that Amala’s approach to learning was the future of education. The moment I received my letter of acceptance, my hope was reignited. I think that this accreditation will help open up hope for my peers too.”

The CIS and NEASC accreditation will support Amala to develop wider recognition of the programme. With the new accredited status, Amala GSD alumni, most of whom are from a refugee, displaced or otherwise crisis-affected background, will have even more opportunities available for further study and work as more universities and employers recognise the programme. Accreditation will also help Amala to seek the support to enable its long-term goal of enabling millions of refugee youth to access transformative education.

Polly Akhurst, Co Executive Director of Amala said:

“This is a landmark moment for Amala.  Such an important verdict from two of the most highly-regarded peer review accreditation agencies in the world has given us confidence in the education that Amala provides. It is an education designed for the particular circumstances of refugee youth, but we now know that it can be considered a world-class education as well.”