Department

Public Policy Hub

Description or Abstract

A transit, destination, and sending country, Egypt generously hosts more than one million refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR, 2025), in addition to several migrants estimated at nine million in 2022 (IOM, 2022). Against this backdrop, the country is currently facing growing challenges in ensuring access to quality, inclusive, and equitable primary education for migrant and refugee children, particularly following the arrival of Sudanese nationals since April 2023, when the conflict in Sudan erupted. Egypt’s new Asylum Law No. 164 of 2024 grants de jure access to basic education for all refugee children until the age of 14, yet the law has not been enacted, since it was only issued last December. Currently, only a few nationalities, including Sudan, are granted access to basic education based on bilateral agreements. Furthermore, substantial legal, administrative, financial, and psychosocial barriers continue to hinder these nationalities’ de facto integration into the public education system. These include overburdened school infrastructure, discrimination, lack of legal documentation, and the absence of a unified policy framework for community -based learning centers. As a result, many Sudanese migrant children1 remain excluded from education or are enrolled in informal systems that lack regulation, sustainability, and pathways to formal certification.

This policy paper focuses on school-aged Sudanese migrant children, especially at the primary education level, with an emphasis on high-density migrant communities across Greater Cairo. The paper draws on stakeholder interviews, roundtable discussions, and existing research to assess and build on current efforts, such as those implemented under the Joint Platform for Migrants and Refugees (JPMR), and propose actionable policy options aligned with Egypt’s legal obligations and development goals.

The paper presents two policy alternatives designed to facilitate both short-term and long-term educational inclusion of migrant children. First, the development of Hybrid Learning for Equitable Access to Education is proposed, aiming to introduce a blended approach that combines in-person and digital instruction, thereby enabling flexible and scalable access to education. This particularly benefits children with disrupted learning histories, language barriers, or limited access to school facilities. Second, Supervised Community Learning Centers (CLC) Engagement is proposed to allow children to register in the homeschooling track in public schools, sit for public school exams, while attending CLCs. This option integrates CLCs as transitional education spaces that follow the Egyptian curriculum, allowing Sudanese migrant children to prepare for and take national exams while gradually transitioning into public schools. The model is community-driven, overseen by the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE), the Joint Platform for Migrants and Refugees (JPMR), and the Education Working Group (EWG), and includes teacher training, enrichment programs, and legal recognition mechanisms.

Keywords

Migration, Migrants, Education, Sudanese, Refugees, Public Policy Hub, IOM

Faculty Advisor

Noura Wahby

Content Type

Other

Extent

41

Language

eng

Publisher

The Public Policy Hub, GAPP School

Publisher Location

The American University in Cairo

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