Education in Emergencies (EiE) & Crisis Response

Establishing temporary learning centers in conflict zones. In countries affected by emergencies, children lose their loved ones and homes. They lose access to safe drinking water, health care and food. They lose safety and routine. And, without access to education, they risk losing their futures. Over 470 million children – more than one in six globally – live in areas affected by conflict. Education has been severely disrupted in these conflict zones – by the end of 2024, more than 52 million children in countries affected by conflict are estimated to be out of school. Girls are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be out of school in conflict-affected countries compared to girls in other places.

EiC helps children develop skills to cope with the trauma of crisis, and supply them with learning spaces that are safe, child-friendly and equipped with water and sanitation facilities. Our work builds capacity by training teachers, supplying learning materials and supporting community efforts to reduce the risk of child marriages. At the centre of it, EiC strongly advocates for the right to education for every child and a protective learning environment, forging partnerships at all levels to safeguard learning for every child. EiC monitors and supports the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration and Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict. The State of the World’s Children 2015 by UNICEF – Reimagine the Future – stated that Technology initiatives must be carefully designed to ensure that these powerful tools will connect with and improve the way teachers teach and students learn in each educational context. They must also be cognizant of the local context – taking into account the infrastructure and capacities required to make technologies work. The full technology ecosystem described below will be most viable in contexts that have reliable electricity, Internet access, teacher training in technology use, and sufficient resources to cover the basics. But programme designers and policymakers working in other contexts should consider which components of the ecosystem will best support their educational objectives.

Technology is only a small part of a successful education transformation. Successful e-learning projects require policy changes, new teaching practices, new education resources and additional training and ongoing support for educators – all of which are where the real educational benefit lies. However, it is fundamental to get the technology part right to enable the desired transformations in teaching and learning. While the current discussion on one-to-one learning suggests that the basis is ‘one device’ for every student, the focus should not be on a single technology device, but rather on how to use multiple technologies to reach the more meaningful goals of improving teaching practices, access to educational resources and, finally, what and how students learn. EiC has developed an innovative e-learning program to address some of the learning barriers children face in achieving literacy and numeracy proficiency, access to, and quality of education in emergency situations. The TutaLearn, a digital learning hub whose mission is to enable continuous access to quality education for children, youth, and teachers especially in conflict affected areas to drive improved learning outcomes through high- quality, portable / distance education to support their entry into other education or opportunity pathways, including formal education. EiC also developing data-driven tool, the Education Crisis Response Dashboard (ECRD) to gather real-time education disruption, learning outcomes data to help policy makers, donors and strategic partners in responding to education in humanitarian contexts.