The Education Imperative: Supporting Education in Emergencies

LEFT BEHIND : REFUGEE EDUCATION IN CRISIS, 2016

"This report tells the stories of some of the world's 6.4 million refugee children and adolescents under UNHCR's mandate who are of primary and secondary school-going age, between 5 and 17. In addition, it looks at the educational aspirations of refugee youth eager to continue learning after secondary education, and examines the conditions under which those who teach refugees carry out their work. Education data on refugee enrolments and population numbers is drawn from UNHCR's population database, reporting tools and education surveys and refers to 2016. The report also references global enrolment data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics referring to 2015." UN Refugees Agency

This study investigates the impact of education on twenty internally displaced out- of-school children over a period of nine months in a rural area of Pakistan. Two focus areas of the study were to observe (1) Change in participants’ perception towards education, and; (2) Skill development of participants. Internally displaced children were enrolled in a local school and their performance was measured against non- displaced students attending regular school. An educational strategy developed by UNICEF specifically for IDPs was used to structure the study along with a hybrid learning framework to measure children’s performance in three knowledge areas: foundational, meta and humanistic skills. The overall findings suggested that after eight months, the children had an increased interest towards learning; their parents were more supportive of their children’s education and the children learnt life skills to financially help their families while continuing school.

2014

The priority for people displaced during war and crises is to find safety, food and shelter. Once these have been achieved, they look at the future of their children, a process that births diverse educational programs. Education then, becomes a futuristic endeavor by adults towards children. The question being asked by researchers and humanitarian organizations in emergency contexts is ?should an emergency education focus on short-term and immediate relief, or be conceived as a long-term objective?? (Kagawa cited in Wright, 2011, p. 29) Should education mitigate or exacerbate the conflict? What is education for, especially for refugees in protracted conflict situations where there are no clear signs or hopes of ever returning home? Moreover, what is it not for? There seems to be a tension between what education should be for and what it is yet to be. That is, to culture and adapt students into the pre-existing orders of society (sociological function) and the acquisition of skills a...

1995

This report documents efforts to educate children who fled their homes in the 1990s because of civil war in Sudan. Current estimates place the number of displaced people at about two million. The document states that the displaced come from over 60 different ethno-linguistic groups. Many of these people do not speak Arabic and reside at present in the southern states, including the Transitional Zone of the Nuba Mountains and southern Dafur and the four official camps for the displaced in Khartoum State. The report states that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Emergency Education Program works with 480,000 school-aged children in the principal regions with displaced communities. According to the report, there are an estimated 65,000 children who are "unaccompanied," either orphans or children separated from their families, and many live in territories still in conflict. The report gives the results of a case study on Sudan, in which education officials were interviewed and four official camps for displaced persons were visited. The case study reports the following: (1) an analysis of the principal partners and how they are involved in educating displaced children; (2) a consideration of the crucial question of language and curriculum; and (3) a development of the themes of the second section through a set of proposals that recognize a special opportunity to turn the education of displaced children into a chance to promote long-term peace. (BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

PROSPECTS, 2011

Education for All (EFA) was a promise made by 155 countries and about 150 representatives of humanitarian organizations in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. This promise was reiterated in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, where six broad goals and targets were set to be met by 2015. In 2011, the international community is far from achieving these goals; yet, as the 2011 Global Monitoring Report shows, considerable efforts have been made and achievements are visible. For example, some of the poorest countries are doubling their primary enrolment rates and narrowing their gender gaps. The articles published in this special issue on Education and Armed Conflict are based on selected background papers, which were commissioned for the 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report. The 2011 report highlights one of the greatest barriers to reaching the EFA goals: conflict. Many countries suffer from continuous or spontaneous conflict, which creates unstable conditions for civilians, and particularly children, who are too often forced to leave behind the little education that they were receiving in order to escape from the conflict. Due to the nature of conflict, humanitarian efforts must, more often than not, focus on the immediate survival of victims, by providing shelter, water, food, and medical care. However, some of these conflicts are continuous, forcing people to live for years in temporary arrangements, where, without education, they may completely lose hope for a better future. The Global Monitoring Report stresses that education is life-saving, especially for those living in conflict, and should therefore be treated as such in the humanitarian response. As Ms. Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, expressed it at the official launch of the report in New York on March 1st, ''education cannot remain the poor cousin of international efforts to manage conflicts''. Providing education in a post-conflict context helps national reconstruction, in a different and more profound way than meeting only basic needs such as food, water, and shelter. Furthermore, an education that promotes human rights and civic values can go a long way in helping the next generation to work towards a self-sustaining and peaceful society. In fact, more often than not, it is the populations affected by conflict that demand an education so they can actively create a better future for

2019

Differences between the humanitarian and development sectors are long-standing and seemingly intractable due to the sectors' distinct mandates, time frames, funding mechanisms, and relationships with political actors (Mendenhall, 2014). However, the division of labor between humanitarian and development programming seems increasingly unsustainable due to a dramatic rise in protracted conflict.

PROSPECTS, 2011

In recent years, Save the Children, a non-governmental organization, prioritized education for children affected by conflict through its Rewrite the Future Campaign. By significantly scaling up the resources allocated to programmes in conflict-affected countries, the organization has grown its education programmes in these contexts. Thus it has enabled 1.3 million more children to have access to education and improved the quality of education for more than 10 million. The campaign also had an international impact by analysing and advocating for increases in aid flows to conflict-affected countries. This has made the international community more aware of the need for access to education for children affected by conflict and more willing to ensure it. The article highlights the achievements of Save the Children UK, and the challenges it faces, by looking at funding volumes and sources of funding for country programme activities, along with its international influence on the global funding for countries affected by conflict. Keywords Conflict Á Emergencies Á Education Á Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Á Aid Á Save the Children Á Rewrite the Future campaign Save the Children, a non-governmental organization, has been fighting for children's rights for over 90 years. Ensuring access to education has always been a key part of the organization's mandate; in recent years, however, education, and particularly education for children affected by conflict and emergencies, has taken a high profile. In 2004 the International Save the Children Alliance agreed to launch several five-year global challenges; Alliance members made these a priority and worked on them together. This article is based on a background paper for the 2011 UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report, The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education.