Providing displaced youth
with a pathway to university through a tailored high school qualification

Only 7% of refugee youth aged between 17 and 23 attend university, well below the global average of 42% for non-refugees. Although many have the academic ability, roughly two-thirds lack formal secondary school certification due to disruptions in their education often caused by displacement. Today, this affects around 500,000 young refugees, a number expected to reach 1.1 million by 2040.

Alsama’s research shows that existing secondary school certificates are ill-suited to refugee realities: they are expensive, culturally irrelevant, and often inaccessible. This conditions NGOs to rely on ad hoc scholarship pathways and makes it difficult for universities around the world—many of which are willing to admit refugee students—to fairly assess candidates. The result is an “educational cliff” that prevents many displaced youths from pursuing higher education or formal jobs, despite their potential.

In response, Alsama has developed “G12++”, a new high school-level qualification tailored to the needs of displaced youth and the operational realities of refugee settings. G12++ is designed to be:

• Curriculum agnostic: allowing wide applicability across displacement contexts.
• Holistic: assessing both academic skills (in English, Arabic, math, and science) and relevant life skills.
• Affordable: with a target cost of US$20, to be covered by NGOs.
• Context-adapted: enabling administration by NGOs in refugee communities.
• Digitally scalable: using a secure platform with AI-supported marking and remote proctoring.

Since September 2023, the G12++ team has developed a prototype, engaged with stakeholders, and tested scaling strategies. With support from the FID, Alsama will focus on:

• Finalising the content and beta-testing the certification
• Conducting global outreach and partnership-building
• Establishing legal and governance frameworks for scale and sustainability

The objective is to have G12++ formally validated, accredited, and adopted by universities and employers as a recognized secondary qualification for refugee youth.

The G12++ project aims to become the first internationally recognized secondary-level qualification tailored to refugee youth. The team will beta-test the exam with 50 students and analyse both quantitative and qualitative data to ensure the test’s validity. In partnership with Cambridge Assessment, Arizona State University, and MeasureED, the Alsama Project will assess the feasibility and reliability of AI-based and human-supervised invigilation and marking systems through a digital platform. Insights from this beta phase will guide improvements before scaling the project to allow 5,000 youth refugees to take the G12++ exam by 2030.

Ultimately, the ambition is for G12++ to become a credible and recognized alternative to traditional secondary certificates—enabling tens of thousands of refugee youth to access higher education and formal employment.