Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes a community co-creation model for provision of functional education among displaced populations. It draws data and insights from Northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram insurgency has displaced more than three million people and driven majority of the children out of education.

Paper long abstract:

This paper proposes a community co-creation model for provision of functional education among displaced populations. It draws data and insights from Northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram insurgency has precipitated forcible displacement of more than three million people, and driven majority of the children out of education.The significant challenge of limited access to education in the region is exacerbated by low uptake, underpinned by negative cultural attitudes, religious beliefs, and, crucially, the fact of limited impact and low returns to existing education provision. Given this background, this model synthesises ideas from the Activity-Based Learning (ABL) approach and the theory of transformative entrepreneuring to explore and examine the impact of a community-co-created enterprise-based education among the displaced in Northeast Nigeria. The new model entails the inclusion of vocational skills, entrepreneurial skills and promotion of enterprise attitudes; and in which members of the displaced community are co-opted as co-designers and resource persons. In addition to mobilising community members as co-owners, in a corrective to the narrative of a foisted western model, It also energises students as co-producers of knowledge and ideas. In the enterprise-based learning, students will be better positioned to link academic knowledge with real-life examples and practical tasks carried out in the vocational sessions. Overall, it is argued that this approach will facilitate better access for out-of-school children, including girl children; improved quality and better livelihood outcomes among the households; and increased resilience within the community.