Learners in Difficult Circumstances PDF

**Learners in Difficult Circumstances** What are Learners in Difficult Circumstances? \- Learners in difficult circumstances refers to students who face significant challenges in their lives that hinder their ability to learn and succeed in school. \- Learners with difficult circumstances needs a...

**Learners in Difficult Circumstances** What are Learners in Difficult Circumstances? \- Learners in difficult circumstances refers to students who face significant challenges in their lives that hinder their ability to learn and succeed in school. \- Learners with difficult circumstances needs a lot of support both physically and mentally, they\'re experiencing hardships that makes them difficult to live. \- There are people who are unfortunate to have the life that they\'ve dreamed of, and a lot of people doesn\'t have the money to sustain their family's life on which it adds more difficulty them. There are five (5) types of Learners in Difficult Circumstances: - Living in Remote Places - Victims of War - Products of Broken Family - Street Children/ Children from Impoverished Family - Victims of Abuse **Living in Remote Places** Students in remote areas often lack access to quality schools, qualified teachers, and adequate learning resources. Traveling long distances to school, often over difficult terrain and in harsh weather conditions, can be physically and mentally taxing. Remote communities may also have fewer educational and economic opportunities, impacting students\' future prospects. **Accessibility**: Students in remote areas often lack access to quality schools, qualified teachers, and adequate learning resources. **Distance**: Traveling long distances to school, often over difficult terrain and in harsh weather conditions, can be physically and mentally taxing. **Limited Opportunities**: Remote communities may have fewer educational and economic opportunities, impacting students\' future prospects. **Victims of war** Experiencing war can lead to severe trauma, affecting students\' mental and emotional well-being, making it difficult to focus on learning. Forced displacement from their homes and communities can disrupt education, leading to interrupted schooling and a lack of stability. War-torn areas often suffer from a shortage of educational resources, including schools, teachers, and learning materials. ** Trauma**: Experiencing war can lead to severe trauma, affecting students\' mental and emotional well-being, making it difficult to focus on learning. **Displacement:** Forced displacement from their homes and communities can disrupt education, leading to interrupted schooling and a lack of stability. **Lack of Resources**: War-torn areas often suffer from a shortage of educational resources, including schools, teachers, and learning materials. Impact on Education: Learners in difficult circumstances face significant challenges that impact their education. They may require additional support and resources to overcome these obstacles. For example: **Special Educational Needs**: Students may need specialized instruction, counseling, or other support to address the unique challenges they face. **Culturally Relevant Education**: For students from indigenous groups, culturally relevant and inclusive education is crucial to foster a sense of belonging and engagement. **Community Involvement**: Engaging families and communities in supporting students\' education can create a more supportive learning environment. **\ ** **Product of Broken Family** Broken Family Is a family that has an unhealthy relationship within the family unit. In a broken family, one or both parents may be absent due to death, divorce, separation or desertion. It is often associated by divorce, but it can also occur in intact families where various members are in conflict or estranged from each other. This can lead to children being raised by single parent, step-parents or others not related to the biological parents. Types of Broken Family: - **Divorce** - this occurs when a married couple legally ends their marriage through a divorce process. This can be initiated by one or both partners and often involves the division of assets and custody arrangements for children. - **Separation** - in this type, a married couple decides to live apart without legally ending their marriage. Separation can be temporary or permanent. - **Single-parent family** - occurs when one parent has sole responsibility for raising the children. It can result from divorce, separation, or the death of spouse. - **Remarriage** - when one or both parents remarry after divorce or separation, a blended family is formed. - **Absent parent** - in some cases, one parent may be absent may be absent from the family due to factors such as work commitments, military service or personal reasons. Characteristics of a broken family - Lack of communication - Financial hardship - Lacking empathy - Prone to addiction - Mental health issues - Overly Controlling behaviors - Criticism - No emotional support - Abuse or neglect What is the effect of broken family to the students? The effects of family breakdown on children include difficulties in school, stress, early engagement in sexual activities, insecure and afraid of the future, depression and fear of being abandoned. HOW CAN TEACHERS HELP AND SUPPORT CHILDREN WHO HAVE A BROKEN FAMILY? Useful and effective actions teachers can do including: - having private conversations with children, asking if they are OK, being a good listener, letting children talk, and providing reassurance - being available for children and parents to speak to - developing friendships with children and families so they can feel safe and secure to talk to them - communicating with parents about how their child is going emotionally, socially and academically at school **Street Children/ Children from impoverished family** Street Children Street children are one of the most vulnerable groups of urban poor. They face difficulties while living in the streets and they also develop their own ways to overcome such difficulties. They have some common characteristics with the urban poor in general, but they still have their own different characteristics that distinguish them from other urban poor groups. Who are Street Children? UNICEF has defined three types of street children: - **Street-living -** children are those under the age of 18 years old who spend most of their time on the streets. These are children who cut ties with their families and live alone on the streets. Many children may leave their families at a young age, because of physical and emotional abuse. They are mostly between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. 20% of them are girls. - **Street-working -** children are those who spend most of their time working on the streets to provide income for their families or for themselves. These children have a home to return to and do not usually sleep on the streets. It is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 of these children in Phnom Penh alone. They are mostly between the ages of 6 to 15 years old. 50% of them are girls. - **Street-family -** children live with their family on the streets. They are of all ages. 50% are girls. Characteristics of street children: Street children face difficulties in providing themselves with good sources of food, clean drinking water, health care services, toilets and bath facilities and adequate shelter. They also suffer from absence of parental protection and security due to the missing connection with their families. In addition, there is a lack of any kind of moral and emotional support. How does living in the street affects the leaning of learner? Street children can have complex circumstances and are very vulnerable to exploitation and violence. It's hard to reach them with vital services such as education and healthcare. They miss out on their right to education because they are trying to support themselves or their families, so less formal approaches might be needed to try to get them into learning. **Victims of Abuse** Child abuse is not just physical violence directed at a child. It is any form of maltreatment by an adult, which is violent re threatening for the child. This includes neglect. When child abuse occurs in the home and the abuser is for example, the child's parent or care-giver, this is a form of domestic violence. Types of Abuse - **Physical Abuse** -- all form of physical violence. - **Physical Neglect** -- the child does not receive the care and nurturing that it needs. - **Sexual Abuse** -- it is a sexual contact where an adult forces a child. - **Emotional or Psychological abuse** -- an adult regularly berates the child, acts in a dismissive and hostile manner toward the child or intentionally scares the child. - **Emotional or Psychological neglect** -- continuous lack of positive attention for the child. Ignoring the child needs for love, warmth and security. This category also covers cases in which child witnesses to violence between their parents or caregivers. Characteristics of Victims of Abuse - Many children are victims demonstrate some form of self-destructive behavior. They may develop physical illnesses such as asthma, ulcers, severe allergies or recurring headaches. Also, they often experience irrational and persistent fears or hatreds and demonstrate either passive or aggressive behavioral extremes. - Traumatic experiences can initiate string emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting pr loss of bowel or bladder control. Teaching strategies in victims of abuse: 1. Teacher should be aware of and recognize when their students appear happy, angry, sad, upset and etc., and discuss the reason with them. And in addition, the maltreated children need to see their teachers display their genuine emotions so that they can learn from this modeling. 2. Display visual reminders around the classroom and integrate rules into classroom activities to provide opportunities for rehearsal. Adapt assignments for children with trauma. Shorten assignment, give extra time and give permission to leave class if the child is overwhelmed by the task. 3. During lesson, the teachers must make opportunities for the abuses child to draw and do creative work. This will help them express their inner feelings, Group activities are very helpful in getting abused children to stop isolating themselves. References: \ \