The Influence of Educational Recreational Kits on Participation and Attendance of Students in Emergency under Accelerated Learning Program (ALP); a Mixed Research Article conducted in Mekelle IDP Sites, Tigray

This paper analyzed the influence of provision of education recreational materials on the participation and attendance rate of internally displaced children in 8 selected internally displaced people (IDP) sites with accelerated learning programs (ALP) out of 26 sites camping in Mekelle, Tigray using mixed research type and sequential explanatory design.  Sequential mixed methods sampling was used to select 8 IDP sites for quantitative conveniently and 4 IDP sites for qualitative purposefully. The data collected from secondary and primary sources have been analyzed using paired samples statistics and T tests in the quantitative part and using thematic descriptions in the qualitative part. The study revealed that the provision of educational recreational materials to children in ALPs significantly increases the participation and attendance rate of the ALP children for which the mean of the attendance rate after provision (M = 68.50) is greater than before provision (M = 59.25), and T tests t(7) = -9.839, p = .000,  p < 0.05 which is also supported by the qualitative result that students, teachers and parents  also assured that. As a result, the provision of educational recreational materials to ALP children has a significant influence on their participation and attendance rates. This recommends governments, philanthropists, local and international humanitarian and development agencies, and others to initiate with this intervention and conduct further study on how it meets the cognitive, psychosocial, and developmental needs of the children beyond its influence on participation and attendance rates of children attending education in emergency programs.