Background:

El Wabour School, the first experience for AUEED in Non-formal education, started 1986 in El Bayadeya village, Mallawi, Menya governorate. The Czech Monk Eugene invested his spare time to help shepherds. In the afternoons, he gathered the village’s young children in an old building to teach them reading and writing. AUEED adopted this experiment and provided him with a blackboard and some materials. This was the start of the parallel school experience. It was followed by other community education experiences carried out by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF: one-classroom schools, community schools, and others. AUEED also gave special attention to Adult Education through Literacy classes, based on the philosophy of Paulo Frère and “Learning to be Liberated” curriculum. Over the years, the program has evolved to include a special activity for those who are at Risk of Dropping out from schools, continuing preparatory education, and informal nurseries

Overall objective:

The program aims to provide educational opportunities for those who have not joined or dropped out of schools in Upper Egypt - mostly girls and women - in a learner centered. environment through active learning and dialogue. AUEED also develops its ownself-learning skills, life skills, and crafts that enable them to develop themselves, gain their basic and civil rights and participate in the development of their community.

First: Parallel School

Parallel Schools aim to provide non-formal education opportunities for children in Upper Egypt (9 to 14 years) in order to attract students who dropped out of schools or never joined through 17 parallel schools in the governorates of Menya, Assiut, and Sohag.

Second: Continuing to preparatory education

Given opportunities to continue to preparatory education.

Third – Classes for Children at Risk of Dropping out

The phenomenon of dropping out of school is one of the major problems that hinder the educational process in third-world countries. The activity aims to identify children at risk of dropping out, through observing the student's frequent absence, and preparing the necessary preventive and treatment programs. The classes for children at risk of dropping out include children of lower grades - first, second and third primary - who have learning difficulties and poor acquisition of the basics in Arabic, mathematics, and English, which - if not addressed - will drive them to drop out of education.

Fourth - Informal nurseries:

The Association runs 3 non-formal nurseries, one in Sohag (Sawamaa Shark - Akhmim) and two in Luxor/Qena (Hegaza and Naqada), consisting of 81 children, 33 out of them are females, 48 males. A two-level formative educational program is implemented to acquire reading, writing, arithmetic, and English language skills, and is based on active learning strategies (games, songs, and education through art/drawing/music/clay/story formation).