EDUCATION AND SCHOOL To promote children’s potential fully

“Education overcomes poverty” is the motto of Jugend Eine Welt. Nevertheless, this does not mean any type of education. The focus of all Don Bosco educational measures is an individual child, an individual adolescent, and their potential, which should be promoted and developed in the best possible way.

In this respect, education at Don Bosco does not only include “normal” subjects such as reading, writing, or arithmetic. Great attention is also paid to the area of "heart education", or an education in human values that are closely linked to the Christian image of a man. This includes helpfulness, a sense of responsibility, and following appropriate rules, as well as respect for "being different" from other people and a clear "no" to drugs, inhumanity, and violence.

To foster such values, fun and games are indispensable in Don Bosco projects and are used specifically as pedagogical tools. In almost all Don Bosco facilities there is a space for playing, dancing, singing, doing sports, and exercises. In particular, football is very popular among children and often serves as the first point of contact to get into conversation with street children or young workers.

Jugend Eine Welt particularly supports school and educational projects for children and young people who would otherwise have no or only very limited opportunities for education due to their social situation. For example, in cases when children come from poor families that cannot afford to send them to school or when parents are dependent on their children’s help and additional income. This also applies to orphans, refugees, or street children who were left on their own and dropped out of the formal education system. In addition, millions of children have no access to primary or secondary education due to conflicts, environmental disasters, discrimination, disability, or other barriers, and there are simply too few schools in many regions.

Don Bosco’s educational opportunities give disadvantaged children a key that unlocks the door to a better life. Based on the knowledge and skills provided to them, they can later learn a profession that secures their livelihood and enables them to live in dignity.

The Jugend Eine Welt project partners assist children and young people when possible along their entire education path until they are able to stand on their own two feet professionally and socially. The following applies: No child should be left behind, each of them always deserves another chance! In practice, this means, for example, that a child who fails to graduate from elementary school is invited to complete an apprenticeship. Another example is that a young person who has never attended school can catch up on elementary school even when this person is older than the compulsory school age.

Don Bosco educational measures include, for example:

• Pre-school promotion
• Literacy courses
• Bridging courses for re-entry into the regular school system
• Tutoring or remedial education
• Elementary schools, secondary schools, high schools & universities
• Vocational training and job center

• According to the 2020 World Education Monitoring Report, nearly 258 million children and young people were out of school before the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.
• More than 168 million children worldwide have been excluded from school for more than a year due to measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic. 214 million children missed more than three-quarters of their classes. Experts speak of a "catastrophic educational crisis".
• According to a new joint report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 1.3 billion children between the ages of 3 and 17 have no internet connection at home, which makes virtual learning impossible.
• Attacks on educational institutions, which are one of the most serious violations of children's rights around the world, have increased dramatically. In the summer and fall of 2019 alone, 20 direct attacks on educational institutions were reported in the central Sahel. There are regular threats to schools, teachers, and students. In the surrounding countries, in Central and West Africa, school attendance is also impossible for many children due to insecurity.
• For children in crisis and conflict regions, in particular, school means much more than it does for many of their peers in affluent societies: for these children, a school is a place where they have their most important meal and access to clean water, where they can find important information about hygiene as well as participate in health programs and get special support or protection.
• In many countries, for example in Afghanistan, Mali, Pakistan, and Somalia, girls are threatened and attacked simply because they want to go to school.

(Source: UNESCO, UNICEF)