Govt starts recognition of prior learning for refugees at all levels

For most refugees, fleeing their home countries is an experience marked by uncertainty.

The absence of relatives and decent livelihood opportunities often leaves them stranded in host countries with little hope for the future.

An initiative has been launched to help refugees rebuild their lives by recognizing their academic, professional and vocational qualifications through the UNESCO Qualifications Passport (UOP), writes YUDAYA NANGONZI.

A 28-year-old Ethiopian woman arrived in Uganda a year and three months ago. She lived in the Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second-most populous region, when conflict erupted among local militias and armed forces. The endless fighting forced her to flee alone, as her relatives struggled to relocate to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, for safety.

“I arrived in Uganda as a refugee after my sister was raped and killed during the skirmishes in Amhara region,” she said on condition of anonymity as she continues to grapple with her loss while seeking job opportunities in Uganda.

Before she left Ethiopia, she worked as a midwife for three years with a degree in Midwifery. However, she has struggled to secure employment in her field due to lack of recognized academic credentials.

To make ends meet, she turned to making handicrafts with beads but failed to find customers. As Uganda embarked on a journey of recognizing prior learning for forcibly displaced persons, the midwife was among the 49 refugees who received the first UNESCO Qualifications Passport (UQP) certificates at Fairway hotel in Kampala last week.

The initial stages of the program, which began in May 2024, received 220 applications from three refugee settlements and Kampala. Of these, 60 applications were assessed and 49 were successful. More applications are still pending assessment.

Launched in Uganda in late 2022, the UQP is an initiative designed for individuals displaced by crises who completed or partially completed their studies at the upper secondary or higher levels. It allows refugees to have their qualifications recognized even if they lack official documentation to prove their educational history, free of charge.

The program is led by the Education ministry and coordinated by the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO and the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB).

GLIMMER OF HOPE

With her UNESCO certificate, the midwife finally sees a glimmer of hope to advance her dream of helping mothers through childbirth.

“The UQP certificate clearly shows my skills and I hope to reapply for jobs because my passion lies in midwifery. I may not get a job immediately, but at least I have a document that I can use to seek employment in Uganda or elsewhere as a qualified person,” she said, displaying some of her handicrafts, which she plans to give away as she embarks on job hunting in Uganda’s hospitals.

Another successful applicant, a 20-year-old male refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is eager to pursue his dream of becoming a pharmacist. Despite completing secondary education with Biology and Chemistry as his core subjects in the DRC, the lack of documentation blocked his path to university after arriving in Uganda in 2022.

“I am the firstborn of five children and I have to study and make their lives better,” the Congolese refugee, who declined to be named after fleeing war in Goma, said.

Asked why he plans to enroll for a degree in Pharmacy once he gets a scholarship, he said: “My village in Goma has too many unqualified pharmacists. People are dying not just because of war but also due to poor medical treatment. I want to change that by studying in Uganda and returning to practice professionally in my country.”

The state minister for Higher Education, Dr John Muyingo, who presided over the event said that the UQP certificate is critical in closing the inclusion gap for refugees and other vulnerable persons.

“This program will provide a structured and sustainable approach to integrating refugees into the country’s education system and labor market,” Muyingo said.

“We are committed to ensuring that this initiative is expanded, not just for refugees but also for Ugandans returning from conflict-stricken countries who need their qualifications recognized or seek to continue their education or work in Uganda.”

He added that the ministry would advocate for a national policy on the UQP in cabinet and parliament soon. Muyingo, however, expressed concern about the diminishing international support for refugees despite the country’s open-door refugee policy.

He urged foreign partners to renew their commitment to Uganda’s inclusive education initiatives and refugee programs to create sustainable solutions that empower refugees to rebuild their futures.

According to the UNHCR representative in Uganda, Matthew Crentsil, Uganda is home to over 1.8 million refugees as of January 2025. Of these, 956,000 are children under 18 years while half a million refugees are between 19 and 25 years, mainly from South Sudan, DRC, Ethiopia and Somalia.

“Uganda remains the most popular haven for refugees because of the peace and security they enjoy here. I have not observed this in 10 other countries where I have served. The refugees should not take this generous open-door refugee policy for granted because the situation is much tougher in other countries,” Crentsil said.

RIGOROUS SELECTION PROCESS

Moses Mugizi, the head of equating foreign qualifications at Uneb and a credential evaluator under the UQP program, described the extensive process of verifying refugees’ qualifications as rigorous yet fair.

The entire application is free of charge. However, the evaluators conduct background checks by engaging authorities in refugees’ countries of origin.

“The successful applicants are then invited for physical or online interviews conducted by at least two credential evaluators from different countries. Each evaluator writes an independent report and sends it to UNESCO headquarters in Paris,” Mugizi explained.

The overall decisions must be unanimous. If evaluators disagree, the application is re-evaluated. If consensus is not reached after the second attempt, the applicant does not receive a UQP certificate.

The interview process, similar to a job interview, lasts about an hour but can extend to two and a half hours if a translator is needed. Currently, eight credential evaluators operate on a part-time basis, limiting the number of applicants who can be assessed despite the increasing demand for the certificates.

UNEB executive director Dan Odongo noted that host countries often struggle to acknowledge refugees’ skills and knowledge without proper documentation. He said many refugees either abandon their academic documents while fleeing or arrive in Uganda with inadequately documented qualifications while some institutions that issued their documents ceased to exist.

“Some refugees come from countries whose education system we do not fully understand. Uneb’s efforts to gather this information has often proved extremely difficult,” Odongo said.

Before the advent of the UQP, Uneb struggled to verify qualification from DRC due to varied documentation formats.

“The documents are handwritten, others typed, and some are issued by schools or districts. We asked whether DRC had a central institution similar to Uneb, but that question remains unanswered,” he added.

Without the UQP certificates, he said, refugees from countries like DRC would face significant challenges joining Uganda’s education system. The UQP now enables refugees to pursue education in Uganda or seek employment opportunities elsewhere.

To date, the UQP certificates are issued in Zambia, Kenya and Uganda. UNESCO plans to expand the program to other countries. Statistics from the UNHCR indicate that only 7% of refugees globally have access to tertiary and higher education, compared to just 3% in Uganda.

At the primary and secondary levels, refugee enrollment stands at 65% and 42% respectively worldwide. UNHCR continues to cite lack of recognition of their prior learning, qualifications and credentials as major obstacles.

nangonzi@observer.ug