Children’s essential right to a safe, inclusive, quality education does not end in times of emergencies. But overlapping and intersecting global crises including conflict, hunger, disease and the climate emergency are resulting in increasing education needs which require a response on a scale we’ve not likely seen before. Although education is a top priority for children and parents in crisis, all too often it’s the first service to be suspended and the last to resume.
As one of the largest humanitarian events, the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks begin this week in Geneva, there must be greater recognition of the lifesaving role that education in emergency settings provides.
Some of the current huge education in emergencies needs are highlighted below.
The climate crisis and El Niño
- Recently, extreme heat in Bangladesh, the Philippines and South Sudan forced over 33 million children out of school for several weeks due to high temperatures exceeding 42°C.
- Zambia has been negatively impacted by the El Niño global weather pattern, with a prolonged drought resulting in projections of 2.04 million people facing high acute food insecurity and in urgent need of support. Inadequate early nutrition undermines cognitive development and negatively impacts educational attainment. Concurrently, the country is experiencing its worst cholera outbreak in 20 years. In early January, every school-aged child - 4.3 million – remained at home following school closures in a bid to stem the outbreak. Schools reopened in February.
- In Malawi, El Niño heavy rainfall led to widespread flooding and displaced more than 14,000 people. At least nine schools are being used as camps for displaced families, affecting access to education for thousands of children.
Conflict and violence
- A spike in violence in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced 190 schools to close since early 2024, with 130,000 children forced to flee their homes since February alone.
- In Haiti, a deadly combination of escalating violence, worsening political and economic turmoil, widespread poverty, growing food insecurity and a cholera outbreak has left over 3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance and is disrupting children’s education. Since January, more than 1,000 schools have been severely affected, with 403 of these schools completely closed, 129 relocated and 135 occupied by displaced families or armed groups.
- Sudan faces a generational education crisis because of prolonged conflict, with 19 million children out of school. Approximately 8.2 million people, half of whom are children, have fled their homes, but there are few education services in their places of refuge. While an additional 1.8 million have crossed international borders – making this a regional crisis with ramifications for education inclusion for refugee children. Over 320,000 children have crossed into South Sudan, which as already highlighted, has its own education challenges.
- In Gaza, in oPt, all schools have been closed for 625,000 students for 6 months. Nearly 90% of school buildings in Gaza have been damaged by attacked by Israeli forces. It’s been reported that millions of dollars will be needed to clear unexploded bombs.
These specific emergencies and others should be seen within the wider global education crisis which sees 70% of children in low- and middle-income countries in learning poverty and 250 million children out of school, largely due to the mass exclusion of girls from education in Afghanistan but is also a result of stagnation in progress across the world. The pandemic has also had long-term impacts including lost learning.
Education in emergencies needs to be recognised as lifesaving
The examples above highlight why a quality child-focused response, which includes education is so essential within the first phase of a crisis.
We know that education in emergency situations saves lives. It protects children in a safe space, providing a sense of stability and a chance to regain essential cognitive skills such as self-control and concentration – vital for managing the everyday reality of a crisis. It provides lifesaving learning, including how to stay safe from unexploded bombs, how to prevent the spread of disease and what to do if you become separated from your caregivers. And also access to other lifesaving services, including water and sanitation, school feeding, family tracing, health and protection referrals, and Mental Health support.
Shockingly in 2023, total humanitarian spending on education fell for the first time since 2012 (according to the FTS).
It was encouraging to see the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies; an alliance of member states and organisations, release a joint statement demonstrating their commitment to education provision from the first day of a crisis. We now need to see this commitment amplified into practical action and investment.
We urge all states, multilateral institutions and NGOs, including those participating in HNPW to:
- scale up equitable financing to fill the education in emergencies funding gap, invest in anticipatory action and quickly disperse funding so first phase multi-sectoral education in emergencies can be scaled. Donors should fully invest in the main multilateral fund that is working to deliver rapid education in emergency response – Education Cannot Wait,
- take RAPID action to avert a learning catastrophe,
- take an inclusive approach to keeping children safe in and around schools through endorsing and implementing the Comprehensive School Safety Framework and the Safe Schools Declaration,
- support better, timely and transparent data collection to improve responses to crises,
- shift power including resources, capacity, and ownership to local actors, and
- improve the recruitment, professional development, and wellbeing of teachers and education staff.
Children's learning is suffering as the era of polycrisis unfolds, with crises becoming deeper, more complex and more frequent. Delivering education services must be recognised as lifesaving and embedded within the first phases of a crisis response. Countless lives will be lost if it's not.
