Education in Emergencies

COVID-19, epidemics, natural disasters, armed conflicts and wars can cause the discontinuation of education, school dropouts and widen education gaps. They can simply prevent children from physically attending the schools or completely destroy education facilities.

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UNICEF reported that education in 93 countries was attacked during 2015 – 2019. Conflicts and wars forced estimated 35 million children to be displaced, amongst them almost half of school-age refugee children are out of school. Girls are 2.5 times more likely to be affected by the situations. Pandemics also cause delay in education. COVID-19 has caused school closures and put more than one billion children at risk of falling behind.

Education is a human right. Education in emergencies does not only try to ensure the continuation of education for people in crisis, but it also can “help child soldiers, internally displaced persons, refugees and all those affected by emergencies to reintegrate cut back into society and overcome the negative effects that emergencies can have on people.”

This section looks into how countries carry out education through emergency situations, as well as the roles of the private and civil sectors in maintaining the access and quality of education in tough times. We hope this page is helpful for the audiences who are struggling with managing education under challenging situations or planning to cope with the cases of emergencies. It will take you through the responses to COVID-19, the education recovery from natural disasters, the movements to deliver the education amongst the violence, and the restoration after the emergencies.

Key Resources

UNESCO

UNICEF