Fr. Frank Bird:

We found access was important with free education. As more and more students began to join the education programme we hit the quality issue. The quality education programme is based on a quality teacher. How can we get quality teaching in fragile contexts? Misean Cara supported us in adopting an integrated model. After a secondary education, we had an online university programme which trained teachers. It is not a scholarship model that sends a person away out of his or her community, which is very expensive. We train locally, using online university programmes for training teachers. They taught and they were learning and becoming educated teachers in their community, not sent away for four years and possibly never to return.

Quality education can be accessed through online university systems and it builds hope, especially for the teenage girls, that they can become teachers. With girls, parents want them to be safe, and they are safe at home, sometimes at school. Teaching is a very well-regarded role in the community and it provides very positive role models. There are university online systems that are providing teacher education. We have benefited from that and it has grown the quality of our education programme because we are not just asking for volunteers or having a secondary graduate, but having someone who is trained. Online university has been a very significant part for us to bring quality education to our migrant education programmes.