Dealing with learning uncertainties during COVID19 pandemic. Reflections of alone and unaccompanied refugee children in Uganda

Abstract

This paper explores how alone and unaccompanied refugee children in a Ugandan refugee settlement reflected and dealt with the learning uncertainties that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic in Uganda. In the emergence of COVID-19, these refugee children from South Sudan once again found themselves amidst uncertainty regarding their future, especially their education, as they found themselves out of school for nearly two years due to the pandemic. This disruption was particularly challenging for unaccompanied refugee children who relied heavily on education as a pathway to pursue their life ambitions, and also to provide them
with a sense of stability. Having experienced over five years of their childhoods as refugees in Ugandan settlements, children demonstrated their resilience mechanisms. Notable among these was the ability to be absorbed into foster family systems, and the
manufacture of new relations and re-connection with learning through the Ugandan education system. With such levels of childhood resilience, refugee children revealed that once again they were able to build dreams of a greater life ahead of them, which they
learning through the Ugandan education system. levels of childhood resilience, refugee children revealed that once again they were able to build dreams of a greater life ahead of them, which they believed stretched beyond their refugee status. Further, the children revealed different ways they negotiated their learning uncertainties; while some adapted to self-learning mechanisms and anticipated
that schools would reopen soon, others believed that skipping a class or two was a way of recovering the lost school time.