Rights holders analysis of educational accountability for displaced children in Bishan Gurracha Ethiopia

Abstract This study investigates educational interventions for internally displaced (IDP) children in Bishan Gurracha, Ethiopia, through the dual lenses of Katarina Tomasevski’s 4A’s Framework and the New Sociology of Childhood. Moving beyond a descriptive account of resource shortages, the research theorises a “Sociology of Neglect” based on the lived experiences of children as active social agents. Employing qualitative narrative design and an exploratory qualitative approach, the study engaged 16 purposively sampled IDP children (9 of them female) to co-construct accounts of their educational experiences. Data gathered via semi-structured interviews and field observations were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal a systemic “rights-gap” characterised by “Hollow availability,” where duty bearers provide structural availability while failing to ensure economic accessibility, acceptability and adaptability of the learning environment. This results in linguistic dispossession and functional exclusion. Crucially, the data exposes how children exercise “burdened agency” to navigate a precarious survival–education trade–off caused by the State’s failure to transition from transient emergency aid to developmental permanence. The study concludes that realising the right to education requires a radical shift from a charity- based mindset to a Rights-Restoration Model that centres the agency and accountability demands of displaced children.