The headteacher of Kasonga Primary School in Kyangwali refugee settlement in Uganda is an inspiring school leader. Their vision and values are exactly what makes a great school environment.  They talk of the school’s responsibility to nurture and develop their students.  Over the last 18 months, the Education Cannot Wait (ECW)-funded Uganda Education Consortium (UEC) has introduced a new model to support teachers with their wellbeing, professional development, and school environment.  Kasonga Primary is one of the schools benefitting from this game-changing work. Their headteacher is acutely aware of why this is needed and enthusiastically explained the impact of the new approach: “Previously, we would receive the same trainings each year. And they would cover every topic. Each year, we were back to square zero and had forgotten everything. This new approach allows us to improve.“

As a humanitarian education community, we must drastically improve the way we support teachers to deliver quality teaching, which is the biggest in-school factor when it comes to influencing children’s learning. It is also extremely cost-effective in comparison to other interventions. Given the funding landscape, how we support teachers is key if we want to be more impactful for children’s learning in emergencies.

A new approach to teacher training

In Uganda, the UEC coordinates a significant number of partners in Uganda’s refugee education response, including a unique mix of international and Ugandan organisations delivering essential support to schools and learning spaces.

Traditionally, humanitarian teacher training covers a vast syllabus at high speed, and our measures of success struggle to track real progress. In a bid to address these challenges in September 2023 the UEC introduced a new evidence-based model to improve how teachers are supported and the quality of teaching delivered in classrooms.  Using Save the Children’s Enabling Teachers approach, the UEC piloted a range of new tools and resources. By the end of the pilot, teachers reported that they had vastly improved in each of the teacher competencies they were supported with.

Improving teaching through a teacher competency framework

Like many humanitarian actors, the UEC previously used pre- and post-tests to measure the impact of teacher training. This involves teachers taking a self-assessment related to the training session content just before and just after the training. The results are then compared to understand how much the teacher’s knowledge has improved and to evaluate the impact of the training.

But there is a fundamental flaw with this methodology: the teacher has not been in a classroom to utilise and refine all the new teaching techniques they have been taught. So it is hard to prove that the teacher has really improved their practice.

During the pilot, the UEC used an adapted version of the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports, Teacher Competency Framework (TCF), which condensed the number of competencies (see below the progression framework for inclusive education competency).

Using the TCF the UEC worked with teachers to deepen their understanding of the teaching competencies they are expected to develop and to conduct a self-assessment against each competency. This enabled the UEC to understand in which areas teachers were less confident, and to provide targeted and blended professional development in these areas. After receiving longer-term professional development in these areas, teachers self-assess again so that the UEC can understand the changes.

Compared to the pre- and post-test model, a TCF has several benefits. It means teacher training can focus on competencies that have been identified by teachers as areas where the most support is needed; teachers get a clear definition of what progression looks like for each competency; and it helps standardise how we measure effective training across the sector.

Focusing on evidence-informed teaching competencies

The UEC used data from the TCF, combined with evidence from classroom observations and discussions with head teachers to pinpoint the competency areas that teachers need the most support with. Based on this, seven competencies that focused on two key areas of i) Inclusion and ii) Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) & Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) were prioritised.

Evidence suggests that focusing on specific teacher competencies means teachers have the time to more effectively improve, by introducing and refining pedagogy that demonstrates their ability in those competency areas. The UEC focused on the two above-mentioned competency areas across a 1.5 to 2 month ‘cycle’ through expert-led workshops. Teachers were then organised into Teacher Learning Circles (TLCs) where they discussed their teaching practice on the target competency areas and learned from others.

What did the results show?

At the end of the cycle, the UEC asked teachers to self-assess against the TCF again. Results were really promising, with teachers reporting that they improved with an average of 89% for each of the target competencies.

Further to this, teachers gave overwhelmingly positive verbal feedback. Focus groups with teachers showed they really enjoyed the longer form of professional development with blended learning through workshops and TLCs. One headteacher even attributed improved Primary Leavers Exam results to this new form of training.

Going forward, the UEC will scale this approach to all refugee schools in Uganda funded by ECW so that more children can benefit from this improved quality of teaching.

Lessons learned for other humanitarian education responses

While we continue to see progress in the support teachers in humanitarian crises receive, there is still a long way to go. Based on our learning in Uganda, we recommend donors, ECW and all partners take the following actions to boost quality teaching in other humanitarian contexts:

• Improving teaching takes time. Multi-year funding is essential to see significant improvements in teaching. The consortium approach allows a coordinated effort to supporting teachers, has a greater impact due to its reach and allows consortium partners to learn from each other’s technical expertise.
• Use a Teacher Competency Framework to measure teaching quality: A TCF should be included in project design from the beginning, ensuring humanitarian actors embrace it. This will drastically improve the way we measure the impact of interventions.
• Focus on longer-term professional development interventions: High-intensity, short-lived training that covers every teaching competency in one go has been shown to cognitively overload teachers. Teachers need time to improve their teaching practices.
• Use blended learning. We cannot rely only on training sessions. They need to be combined with other mechanisms such as Teacher Learning Circles, coaching conversations, classroom observations, self-directed learning, and others.

With these transformations, we will truly support teachers in their life-long learning as educators. As educationalist Dylan Wiliam concludes:

“If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”

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On this International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction, we must remember the power of education in protecting communities from disasters. By empowering the next generation for a resilient future, we can make good on the commitments outlined in the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

The climate crisis is upending development gains and putting an entire generation at risk. The very future of the human race is in the crosshairs.

Last year was the warmest year on record, and devasting floods and prolonged drought in places like the Horn of Africa contributed to a rise in global food insecurity and displacement, while also straining household finances.

In all, 62 million crisis-affected children and adolescents across 27 countries have had their education disrupted by climate shocks since 2020, according to Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Girls are particularly at risk of dropping out of school or being forced into child marriage.

This year’s theme for the International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction is ‘empowering the next generation for a resilient future.’ To achieve this vision, we must increase funding, support and resources to ensure that education continues even in the face of adversity.

In line with the Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSSF), which guides global efforts to ensure that education systems are resilient, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) prioritizes school infrastructure that can withstand disasters. ECW embeds disaster preparedness into programmes aimed to reduce disruptions to education and learning loss and has introduced climate-change adaptation and disaster risk mitigation strategies through schools and education systems.

ECW and its strategic partners have responded to climate-induced disasters like floods in Chad, Libya and Pakistan, and the drought in the Horn of Africa. Disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures have also been integrated into programmes. ECW and partners have trained 32,000 teachers on disaster risk reduction, rebuilt over 1,200 schools and created temporary learning spaces. These efforts will lead to strengthened communities and education systems against future climate shocks.

Investing in disaster risk reduction is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do. Each dollar invested in disaster risk reduction to make education systems climate smart can save up to $15 in post-disaster recovery.

ECW stands with partners including the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES) in calling for governments to endorse and implement the CSSF, and substantially increase funding that connects the dots between climate action, education action, and sustainable development.

In the lead up to Climate Talks in Azerbaijan (COP29), global leaders must ensure that education is fully integrated into climate discussions and receives its share of urgent and substantive funding. We call on them to endorse and implement the CSSF and the Getting Ahead of Disasters Charter by taking measures to avert and minimize loss and damage by investing in disaster risk reduction, and bold climate adaptation and mitigation strategies – with the financing to match.

Furthermore, we call on all governments represented on the Loss and Damage Fund Board to ensure that education receives funding once the Fund is operational.  Education cannot be forgotten when it comes to disaster planning, it must be included in government climate, crisis and funding plans, including National Adaptation Plans, and there must be collaboration and coordination across sectors. Nowhere is this more true than on the frontlines of armed conflict, forced displacement and other protracted crises. This year’s COP is a critical opportunity – bringing together key actors across sectors – let’s use this moment to demand urgent action. Our investment in education, is our investment in a climate resilient future, inasmuch as in the young school-aged generation today.

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In 2022, the UIS and the GEM Report proposed a major improvement in the way out-of-school rates and populations are estimated, making efficient use of different sources of information. Yet, the model has a weakness: when crisis strikes, estimates cannot be updated without new information. Sometimes such new information is collected. For instance, UNICEF carried out a household survey in Afghanistan in 2022/23 shortly after the new regime banned girls from attending school. This information enabled an updated estimate of the global out-of-school population, showing that it had increased to 250 million. Yet, this was an exception. In most cases, monitoring efforts break down in crisis contexts. Lack of security and urgent humanitarian priorities do not allow the usual data collection processes to continue. How can we make sure that children in these countries are counted in our global reporting?

At the UNESCO Conference on Education Data and Statistics last month, a session was dedicated to this issue: how to improve official education statistics and SDG 4 reporting to take into account crisis-affected populations. Two approaches were discussed.

First, a bottom-up and systematic approach would try to improve the annual UIS survey administered to governments so that it captures the impact of crises. Governments need guidance on how to document whether their education data collection is comprehensive or excludes particular regions and populations. Stronger collaboration among government institutions but also between government and humanitarian agencies would be called upon. In its decision, the Conference has requested the Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 indicators (to be renamed Education Data and Statistics Commission) to focus efforts on developing protocols and standards to capture the impact of emergencies and crises on affected populations. This sustainable approach will nevertheless require considerable efforts until government systems can adopt such protocols.

Second, a top-down and ad hoc approach would try to provide a short-term solution. It would focus on using documentation from humanitarian agencies to suggest by how much high-level estimates of flagship indicators such as out-of-school rates and populations would need to be adjusted to reflect the situation on the ground. Such adjustments would focus on the crises with the potentially strongest impact. How could that work in practice?

What do we know about five large humanitarian crises?

The International Rescue Committee has been publishing a list of the gravest humanitarian crises. In its most recent watchlist, the top five crises were Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar.

The largest displacement crisis in the world is in Sudan since civil conflict erupted in April 2023. More than 8 million people, about 15% of the population, have either been internally displaced or fled to neighbouring countries. According to the UIS/GEM Report model, there were 5.4 million, or 41% of children, adolescents and youth out of school in 2022, prior to the conflict. The GEM Report has confirmed this estimate was accurate following a recent analysis of a 2022 nationally representative household survey.

Civil conflict affected mostly the regions of Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum. Of their respective school age populations, about 60% in Darfur and Kordofan and 18% in Khartoum were out of school in 2022. Assuming that no children went to school in the latter two thirds of 2023 in these three regions, 4.2 million would need to be added to the out-of-school population, bringing the total to 9.6 million. A widely circulating estimate that 19 million children are out-of-school appears exaggerated, considering that the school age population is about 13.3 million. It appears that some schools opened in Darfur in January, but at the same time other provinces are being dragged into the conflict.

In Palestine, all the estimated 0.55 million children aged 6-17 years in Gaza have been out-of-school since October 2023 and would need to be added to the global estimate. By late January 2024, it is estimated that 4,500 students have been killed and 9,100 injured. It is also reported that 76% of schools have been damaged. Even damaged schools are still used as shelters: more than half of school buildings are used for this purpose. Another 20% have been used for military operations.

South Sudan has suffered from a seemingly endless spiral of conflict and vulnerability to natural disasters. There are no easily accessible data for triangulation. The UIS/GEM Report out-of-school model estimated that there were 2.1 million children, adolescents and youth out of school n 2022. An estimate by the education cluster in December 2023 raised that estimate to 2.8 million. If verified, an additional 0.7 million children would need to be added to the global estimate.

In Burkina Faso, a crisis of insecurity due to continued attacks has been spreading to almost the entire country although 5 of the 13 administrative regions are disproportionately affected: Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Nord, Est, Nord and Sahel. The UIS/GEM Report out-of-school model estimated that there were 2.9 million children, adolescents and youth out of school in 2022, of which the five most heavily affected regions accounted for 1.5 million. Data from two surveys in 2019 and 2022 were used so the estimate is up to date, although it is hard to know how representative enumeration was in the affected areas.

An estimate by the education ministry in May 2023, with the support of the education cluster, found that more than 5,000 primary and secondary schools were forced to close in these regions, with almost 900,000 students losing access to education. Most likely this estimate overlaps with the existing higher estimates of the out-of-school population; it might be therefore safer to assume that no further upward adjustment is needed for Burkina Faso.

In Myanmar, it is more difficult to assess the situation. The last available official data are from 2018. The model projects that the improvement observed around 2015, when the total number of out of children, adolescents and youth was reliably estimated at around 2.9 million, would have continued, leading to an estimate of just 1.2 million out of school in 2022, but this is less reliable. The latest education factsheet published by UNCEF suggested that 3.7 million lacked ‘access to learning’, which is not the same as saying this population is out of school. It is unlikely that the out-of-school population would have increased by so much. In other words, it is not possible to make an informed suggestion.

In brief, evidence from three out of five major crises for which reasonably reliable and comparable information is available, suggests that the out-of-school population may be underestimated by 5.5 million.

Global out-of-school population adjusted by evidence from three large humanitarian crises

A way forward

Each crisis is different, in terms of characteristics such as intensity, spread and duration, but also in terms of data availability. Education clusters, which are mandated to coordinate humanitarian response in areas where the state may be absent, party to the conflict or not have the resources to identify needs and provide education services, are tasked with estimating the number of People in Need (PiN) of education.

It is important to remember that this is a different definition to being out of school. Clusters, after all, are assessing education needs for purposes other than global reporting. The result is that it is hard to combine and integrate their findings in official statistical reports. But more can be done to cross-check and take into account the data they provide when they can be triangulated with other sources.

There will always be a margin of error when it comes to reporting on education in crisis-affected situations. But the more we know, the less speculation there will be. And, as discussed a few days ago in a webinar organized by the Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) Consortium and the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), the more that an approach can be agreed upon by all parties, the easier it will be to ensure the publication of education statistics that reflect the situation of crisis-affected children and can inform policies and programmes.

Building on the UNESCO Conference on Education Data and Statistics, and under the framework of the Education Data and Statistics Commission, the next steps would involve the following:

• A task force that would propose by the end of this year a process on how to take supplementary information into account for estimating a margin of error in out-of-school population calculations, for a limited number of the most severe humanitarian crises.
• Based on these recommendations, introduce an annual process that will make these margin-of-error estimates.

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Today, saying ‘education is under threat’ is an understatement both nationally and globally.  Education is under severe threat due to the polycrisis of wars, migration, emergencies, climate change, poverty and myopia engulfing societies. It is under extreme threat, when the lives of millions, through blatant aggression, wars and chronic displacement, are snuffed out and there is cruel silence for peace and development. This year’s International Day of Education being celebrated today has been aptly termed ‘Learning for lasting peace’. Almost 2 billion people globally are suffering from conflicts and displacements (446 million children) and the war in Gaza continues unabated with children targeted viciously. In total, 250 million children remain out of school with their right to education violated. Pakistan has 26 million children out of school, up from 22.8 million in 2018, engulfed by multiple crises and runaway annual population growth rate of 2.55 percent.

The combination of many of these crises led the UN Secretary-General to convened the Transforming Education Summit in 2022, which resulted in six bold calls to action for all global and national leaders to act decisively on multiple fronts. One year later, calls to ensure that education and SDG 4 do not remain ‘off track’ were repeated at the UN SDGs Summit.

The genesis of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) or Centre for Education and Consciousness, in 2000 in Pakistan was in response to the severe crisis of learning and underperforming schools in a country with 11,000 years of rich layered heritage. It supports girls and boys in extremely disadvantaged conditions via participatory, evidence-based innovative engagement with schools, communities, students, teachers and parents.

Libraries for lively and meaningful learning were a core program for school improvement and community engagement. I helped launch the Learning Festival in 2010/11 amidst intense domestic violence, extremism and displacement to promote messages of creativity, peace and critical thinking. These learning festivals include multiple learning strands. ITA has enrichment programs including include summer schools, remedial accelerated and second chance teaching at the right level, lifeskills, digital safety, edtech and TVET for livelihoods supporting early years to secondary education and focused on the most vulnerable, especially girls. ITA has reached 17 million beneficiaries.

The 91st festival is now underway in Lahore. Previous celebrations have also covered festivals in Swat during the rehabilitation of the valley from entrenched extremism when schools became the recruiting grounds for suicide bombers, for example. Key messages of education for girls and peace building were promoted during the immersive sessions at the learning festivals with Malala’s Yousufzai’s book ‘I am Malala’ and film viewing by thousands. No one knows peacebuilding through education better than Malala herself a victim and the boldest survivor for girls’ education from Swat, championing the cause boldly and generously across the world. Festivals have also seen thousands of hankies made by school children across Pakistan and India held across the Wagah and Attari borders between the two countries for the Queens’ Baton Relay.

The three most recent learning festivals by ITA have witnessed book launches in collaboration with Room to Read, three publishers and multiple authors. Moving readings of the book ‘Sitti’s Bird – a Story of Gaza’ written by Malak Mattar also received overwhelming response in the Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore Pakistan Learning Festivals in the last three months.

Engagement with seven emergency and peacebuilding initiatives through education have nurtured resilience to adapt and adopt skills, values and attitudes in all solutions. South-South learning and outreach across South Asia, Africa and Latin America have helped blur borders through learning initiatives, such as the PAL Network and the South South Fellowship Program.

Expanding peace education to Afghanistan

Continuing this work, the year 2024 began for ITA with fulfilling a promise to the children in Afghanistan by sharing 28 beautifully illustrated, leveled and adapted books in Dari and Pashto through 30 incredible libraries on buses, vans and trucks. The books come from 10 countries, developed by Room to Read and adapted by ITA through technical assistance since 2020. There are 30 libraries run by Charmaghz (‘Four brains’), which is run by passionate, mission-driven and scarred Afghan youth since 2018, committed to securing a peaceful future for all children through the joy of reading, foundational learning and critical thinking – skills that only 7% of primary school age children in Afghanistan currently have.

Led by the visionary Freshta Karim, an internationally recognized and much-awarded advocate for education and children’s rights, libraries and books have become an agent for hope, peace and learning for a brighter future in Afghanistan. The books reached the libraries on January 13 and by January 18, thanks to technology, a two-day online training designed by Room to Read and delivered by ITA was completed for 8 librarian/facilitators in Afghanistan.

So far, in Pakistan, more than 1.6 million children have been reached through 600,000 books covering 43 titles and distributed in 110 districts, including 900 schools affected by floods, climate change, refugees, host communities. Our efforts are now extending to Afghanistan. When Room to Read partnered with ITA in April 2020, coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our targets were cautious and simple: to set up 20 libraries in government schools of two districts in Punjab, to train 200 personnel and adapt 25 books in Urdu. Today, there are 34 libraries, 4 languages of adaptation (Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Dari), and 1200 personnel trained.

ITA has been committed to peace building through education since 2000. Books and learning remain the most solid bridge for peace building on this International Day of Education 2024. We know it, we do it, and we support it boldly through internal and external border crossings, inclusively and with resilience.

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Join UNESCO on January 24th for the International Day of Education, to highlight the crucial role of education and teachers in countering the rise of hate speech amplified by social media.

Download the GEM Report publication ‘Peace: building sustainable peace and global citizenship through education‘.

The post Building sustainable peace through education appeared first on World Education Blog.

If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.

Girls’ education is important for all: for parents, for every aspect of life, whether it is in a medical field, science and technology, sports, or daily activities. I would like to mention the progress and achievements of girls’ education in our country.  This would allow us to discuss achievements over time, which appears to be the main message from the GEM 2022 Youth Report on non-state actors in education. But this does not represent what has occurred in Afghanistan. I want to mention something more important. Afghan girls say that “we have nothing, nothing at all in every way” because they are banned from education.

It is difficult for Afghanistan to consider the #RightTheRules campaign for free education, given our current circumstances. Over the four decades that there has been war in Afghanistan, thousands of people, including innocent women and children, have died. The basics of war remain social and religious factors, with different groups attached to their own customs, traditions and language, They are fighting and depriving the people of their basic needs, such as education. As per a UNDP report, 97% of Afghans could plunge into poverty in 2022.

Will we move beyond the darkness? When the Taliban last ruled the country in 1996-2001, girls were banned from going to school.  But education for all was a basic issue for the globe. Since then, we witnessed parents trying their best to act as investors in education. According to UNESCO, the Afghan female literacy rate almost doubled from 17% in 2011 to 30% in 2018.

Once again, the door of education particularly for girls and young women has been closed and the world has not done enough to support them. Education should not be used as a form of political coercion because it is a basic human right.  Girls’ education is essential because it’s the backbone of society. An educated mother can lead her sons and daughters on the right pathway.

Afghan girls have much talent, which they have proven to the world in the last few years, as many of them joined robotics and engineering teams, sports teams, and become political scientists and doctors.

The last estimates of out-of-school figures we have in Afghanistan date from 2019, before the Taliban claimed power. Back then, despite great progress, 25% of primary school-age girls were still out of school. Today, girls are completely excluded from secondary education. If girls and young women are not allowed back into school, there will be no female doctors and nurses. The concern is that this will also lead to early marriages and human trafficking. The international community demands that girls are allowed to go to school, as it is their fundamental right, but the Taliban only allows girls to attend primary school.

The time has not run out yet. We need to stand and support Afghan girls. They need your support. Or else, how can we #RightTheRules?

Download the youth report

Join the campaign.

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Notwithstanding strong rhetoric on education in crisis and girls’ education, how the Transforming Education Summit now delivers for the millions of girls whose education is at the risk of collapse is the real test.

Nowhere is this more urgent than in Afghanistan where children, and particularly girls, are facing an unprecedented education crisis and denial of their basic human rights.

Despite the Summit coinciding with exactly one year since adolescent girls were banned from attending secondary school, there was no breakthrough of coordinated diplomatic pressure to ensure the country’s de facto authorities let girls learn or urgent new humanitarian funding for education.

Our new analysis now reveals the extent to which Afghanistan’s education system is at extreme risk of collapse.

Covid-19, conflict and climate change are derailing children’s learning

For the second consecutive year, Save the Children ranked 182 countries by the vulnerability of their school system to hazards – including Covid-19, conflict, climate change and displacement – that threaten children’s right to learn and by deficiencies in preparedness to confront these hazards.

Our analysis unsurprisingly shows that Afghanistan had the highest level of risk, dropping from fourth place in 2021, meaning its education system has significantly worsened since the Taliban gained control of the country.

Afghanistan was closely followed by Sudan, Somalia and Mali, all of which also have education systems ranked as being at ‘extreme’ risk of ongoing and future crises disrupting education. This puts the futures of nearly 49 million children in jeopardy across these four countries.

Girls’ education is at much higher risk

Our analysis shows that while there is often considerable overlap in the threats facing boys’ and girls’ learning and wellbeing, girls’ education is at much higher risk.

During a crisis, girls tend to experience higher rates of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in and around schools. Childbearing and increased domestic work can also surge. Additional barriers include lack of adequate facilities and menstrual hygiene management, lack of female teachers, attacks against schools, families in economic hardship favoring boys’ education, and more.

New research by Save the Children also shows that girls living in conflict are at higher risk of child marriage. The Global Girlhood Report 2022: Girls on the Frontline, which launched today, shows that girls affected by conflict are over 20% more likely to marry as children than those living outside of conflict zones.

Furthermore, girls are less likely to return to school after conflict or a disaster. In conflict-affected areas, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys, and if current trends continue, by 2025 the climate emergency will be a contributing factor in preventing at least 12.5 million girls from completing their education each year.

Building Forward Better

Our Risks to Education Index demonstrates that education – especially for girls – is in crisis. The Transforming Education Summit helped shine a spotlight on this crisis. But the Summit is only the beginning and warm words aren’t enough.

That’s why Save the Children is calling for every country to have a preparedness plan to secure children’s learning and wellbeing in future crises.

Governments with school systems with extreme or high levels of risks must also take rapid action to avoid a prolonged learning catastrophe.

Leaders must put their money where it matters

Donors and the international community need to act too. An early opportunity is Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) High-Level Financing Conference in February 2023, where we are calling on bilateral donors and foundations to provide at least $1.5 billion to ECW.

Meeting this funding target – which would ensure 20 million children and young people affected by crises, including 12 million girls, receive a quality education over the next four years – will require major donors, like the UK, to step up. That’s why we are asking the UK government to pledge £170 million to ECW between 2023 – 2026.

We also want to see the UK and its G7 partners accelerate their efforts to reach the most marginalised girls in the crisis-affected countries with greatest need, including through implementation and transparency about action towards the G7 Girls’ Education Declaration targets.

Act on the priorities of girls

Above all leaders must ensure the voices of girls, and indeed all children, are heard and acted on, not only on International Day of the Girl Children but all year round. That means listening to children like Nagina (name changed to protect identity), 13, who was enjoying school and had dreams of becoming a doctor before the Taliban took control in Afghanistan:

“Before, we had a good life,” Nagina told Save the Children. “I was going to school, and I was happy. School is a very good thing, and all girls should go to school. But now the situation has become worse”.

How the TES has a real and lasting impact for children like Nagina is now what really matters.

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The terrible war in Ukraine has struck all of us. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 6 million people have now left Ukraine to escape from war; many more have stayed in the country but have left their homes. Despite such a dreadful situation we have not lost hope. We have become united as never before and we are willing to fight for our freedom and future -to provide education to those children who are living under the bombs or who are far away from their homes. Just as the GEM 2022 Gender Report shows, this is yet another example of governments and non-state actors working together in times of crisis.

As a result of such a partnership we have the All-Ukrainian school online, a platform initially developed to reduce the impact of the pandemic, but now used as the major educational resource in the country. It contains video tutorials, tests and other materials in 18 major school subjects. It facilitates secondary school students’ self-learning in almost all subjects. Another project provides small distant classes and free webinars for graduates who are looking to enter Ukrainian universities this year; everyone who has access to the internet is able to take free preparatory classes. A set of local initiatives all over the country provide regular school classes and art classes in shelters. Famous educators, scientists and artists are teaching students while they are hiding from bombs.

We have started a project to carry out admission examinations for Ukrainian students who are currently abroad and almost 30 countries have agreed to help us. From July to September they will create testing centres to ensure our students are accepted to Ukrainian higher education institutions and will have the motive to come back home.

We understand how difficult it is to teach students who have come from another country with a different curriculum and educational programmes. Many people who are volunteering as teachers today are refugees who have never worked as educators, and, even if professional educators are involved, there are usually no available textbooks or any other materials. The project Learning without borders allows access to different learning materials. Most of the children who have escaped from war have suffered psychological trauma. These materials also provide instruction on how to help children and adults recover from their experiences.

The most important thing in education is people. However, buildings and infrastructure are also of great importance. Every day a lot of schools are being destroyed or seriously damaged due to the war. By the end of May, 14,126 schools had been totally destroyed, while 1,509 schools had been seriously damaged and might not be rebuilt again. The website saveschool.in.ua shows the current information on that issue.

The level of support to Ukrainians from all over the world is something to admire. What we seek for is victory, but what we have already gained is a strong partnership we could not have dreamt of before. We have seen not only military support, but also a strong support for education. Ukrainian students now study in many countries and they feel at home everywhere. They are receiving the best experience by being a part of so many different school systems.

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Attacks that indiscriminately strike civilian objects, such as schools, violate international humanitarian law and would constitute a war crime. Schools should be entitled to heightened protections as long as they are not used for military purposes.

There are no verifiable statistics given the current circumstances of the number of schools that have been attacked in Ukraine, although one figure circulating on global media cites 211 schools so far. The conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014 had already destroyed, damaged or forced the closure of more than 750 schools, according to Save the Children.

While all evidence online needs to be verified, many individual examples of school attacks can be found on Twitter, including a hole in the wall of a school caused by a missile, a video of a kindergarten blown to bits in Kharkiv, and photos of a kindergarten destroyed in Chernihiv. Amnesty International also confirmed that a 220mm Uragan rocket dropped cluster munitions on the Sonechko nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast, where local people were seeking safety from the fighting.

Despite the mounting evidence, the Russian military is denying targeting residential areas.

Quite apart from the long-term damage this bombardment will cause to Ukraine’s education system, the conflict has also created a more immediate challenge for the education of the country’s children and youth right now. There are well over 1.7 million people already on the move out of Ukraine. As was documented in the 2019 GEM Report on migration and displacement, it is vital that these children are quickly integrated into local schools, and their language and psychosocial needs met. Teachers will also require support to cope with their experiences and to find work in new countries.

There will be no child untouched by this fight. The determination and energy of high school students filmed in this video near the start of the war is something we should support as they cross into neighbouring countries looking for safe havens.

Our latest 2012/2 GEM Report reported against SDG Indicator 4.a.3, which serves to monitor the number of attacks on students, personnel and institutions. The data for this indicator are compiled by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), of which the GEM Report is a member, and are based on observations and reports by various actors on the ground.

In 2011, our team produced the 2011 GEM Report and turned the world’s attention to education in conflict.  The volume of support for the messages in the Report resulted in a new UN Resolution recognizing attacks on schools as violations of human rights.

All attacks on schools are indiscriminate. There is no excuse.

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COVID-19 has upended our world, threatening our health, destroying economies and livelihoods, and deepening poverty and inequalities. It also created the single largest disruption to education systems that the world has ever seen.

Schools also play a critical role in ensuring the delivery of essential health services and nutritious meals, protection, and psycho-social support, which means that their closure has imperiled children’s overall wellbeing and development, not just their learning. At the same time, conflicts continue to rage and the disastrous effects of a changing climate threaten our very existence and are driving record levels of displacement.

Crisis upon crisis

128 million children and youth people whose education was already disrupted by conflict and crises have been doubly hit by COVID-19, with the pandemic creating a ‘crisis upon a crisis’. The length and extent of disruption to education systems around the world due to the pandemic has tested the very concept of education in the context of humanitarian crises.

What does it mean to be dedicated to ‘education in emergencies’ in a world in which 90% of schools were shut due to a global pandemic?

How do we support children get an education in countries affected by conflict and fragility when in peaceful and stable countries millions of children are at risk of never returning to school?

Will the push to deliver remedial education for the millions of children who have lost learning over the last two years stretch to helping the three million refugee children who were out of school before the pandemic?

Breakthrough or breakdown?

These questions underscore a stark and urgent choice. Do we push for an ambitious and inclusive breakthrough or accept that the pandemic has led to an irreversible breakdown in educational progress and will permanently deny millions of children the opportunity to go to school?

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe conflicts, forced displacement, famines, and climate-change-induced floods, fires, and extreme heat, together with COVID-19 have combined to form a fatal cocktail that is robbing children of their education.

Last week on a visit to Cameroon, Education Cannot Wait met some of the 700,000 children there who are impacted by school closures due to violence. If this alone were not bad enough, just a few days before the visit, four students and a teacher were killed in a targeted attack, and, in a separate heinous incident, a young girl had her fingers viciously chopped off just for trying to go to school.

Education is a priority for communities caught up in crises

The bravery and determination of the children of Cameroon is a testament to the priority that crisis-affected communities all across the world place on education. They know that education transforms lives, paving the way to better work, health, and livelihoods. They know that continuing education in a safe place provides a sense of normality, safety, and routine for children and young people whilst building the foundations for peace, recovery, and long-term development among future generations.

They tell us their education cannot wait. But delivering that quality education to these children remains a persistent challenge.

Collaborating to grow political leadership

At the heart of that challenge is a lack of sustained political commitment to education in general and to education in humanitarian contexts in particular. By way of example, eight years after the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative suggested that education should receive at least 4% of short-term humanitarian funding, UNOCHA’s FTS data suggests that less than 3% of the total reported humanitarian funding (including funding flows from government donors, international organizations, NGOs, and other humanitarian actors) was allocated to education.

At the same time, we know that political leadership can make a difference, as evidenced by the EU’s commitment in 2019 to increase aid for education to 10% of its total humanitarian aid. Determinedly led by Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management at the time, the initiative was backed by the European Parliament.

A shared commitment

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), established at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 and the International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd), which launched during the UN General Assembly in 2020 share a commitment to turning around decades of neglect and growing the political commitment to education in humanitarian crises. At the RewirEd Summit in Dubai, we met and agreed to work together to inspire political understanding and commitment so that education is viewed by both governments and funders as a top priority during crises.

Parliamentarians in their roles as representatives, advocates, legislators, budget shapers, and as providers of scrutiny have a vital and largely underutilized role to play in accelerating the delivery of properly funded, high-quality, and inclusive education systems in emergencies and protracted crises.

Focus on financing

A central focus of our work will be increasing the volume, predictability, and effectiveness of international aid to education in emergencies. Acknowledging the specific role that ECW has in increasing and improving the quality of financial support for education in emergencies we will mobilize political support for ECW-facilitated Multi-Year Resilience Programmes and First Emergency-Responses, and work to ensure that Education Cannot Wait mobilizes at least an additional US$1 billion for its next operating period.

Our commitment was underpinned by an affirmation of the promise to ‘leave no one behind’, to support parliamentarians to understand and address the causes of conflict, crisis, and climate change, and to increase the access of those affected by humanitarian crises to political leaders.

Solidarity

More than anything else the pandemic has revealed our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness. It has demonstrated that in the face of a shared threat, cooperation and solidarity are the only solutions, within societies and between nations. We must re-embrace global solidarity and find new ways to work together for the common good in general and to accelerate educational progress in particular. ECW and IPNEd are two new ways of doing this.

ECW exemplifies the potential of collective action on the global stage. Since its inception, ECW has supported access to quality education for 4.6 million children in over 30 crisis-affected countries. Furthermore, 29.2 million children and adolescents (51% girls), have been reached with ECW COVID-19 emergency education interventions. But it undoubtedly needs more and better support to build on these achievements and deliver on its purpose to transform the lives of millions more girls and boys caught in the most challenging circumstances.

IPNEd, on the other hand, demonstrates the appetite from political leaders to be supported in their work to accelerate educational progress and to work together internationally in doing so.

By working together, we can achieve an ambitious and inclusive educational breakthrough in response to the multiple crises the world is facing. There is no time to lose. The future of an entire generation is hanging in the balance.

* Feature image credit: IOM /Allan Motus

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By M Niaz Asadullah, Professor of Development Economics at the University of Malaya, Malaysia and Southeast Asia Lead of the Global Labor Organization (GLO).

Since the return of the Taliban to power, concerns are growing over girls’ education in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Many Taliban Ministers were educated in madrasas in neighboring Pakistan. It is likely, therefore, that the emphasis on Koranic education and Islamic teachings will rise up again in Afghanistan. Many are worried that secular schools will shut down. Girls may end up presented with a choice: sit at home or be sent to madrasas.

But an emphasis on an education system compliant with the Shariah system does not necessarily mean an end to girls’ education.  Taliban leaders now recognize the need for girls’ schooling but insist on complete gender segregation. This is confirmed by a major shift among the leadership which recently announced that Afghan women deserve to be in universities just as men, even if only on the condition that university classrooms remain strictly single-sex and aided by same sex teachers. Their demands also include restrictions on dress codes or forced purdah practice and ban on women’s participation in sports. 

To reach the university level of education, girls will need to work their way through primary and secondary school. Similar to other countries with a large Muslim population such as India, Nigeria, and Turkey, Afghanistan already has a nationwide network of madrasas to educate children, whose role is likely to increase under the current regime. There are 5000 registered madrasas and many more non-madrasa schools. Non-state madrasas remain largely undocumented but we do know that some have opened up to girls’ education in recent years. However, whether faith-based schools teach religious education as well as secular content depends by country and school, as the 2021/2 GEM Report on non-state actors due out this December will explore.

The Talibans are not alone to mix education with religion and demand culturally appropriate forms of education for girls. Many other leading Muslim nations continue to ban co-educational schools and to require mandatory purdah practice. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the government prohibits any mixing of the sexes and even forces private international schools to educate girls in a fully gender segregated environment. Sports such as football are also not allowed for female university students. Yet these restrictions have not held back progress in female education in Saudi Arabia, where equal numbers of boys and girls are in school and universities. Even in other Muslim countries with an emphasis on Islamic schooling, gender parity in education has been achieved. A case in point is Bangladesh, where partnering with thousands of registered madrasas was key to achieving gender parity in secondary school participation. This is also true for Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world.

One key fact is that the Taliban are returning to a very different education landscape than the one they left. Millions of girls returned to school in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban rule. Women’s visibility in public life also increased over that time, including with appointments to political office. The last Minister of Education before the change of regime was a woman, Ms. Rangina Hamidi, who spoke passionately about the importance of girls’ education when on the platform for the GPE Global Education Summit this summer.  The past two decades saw the participation rate in higher education improve as well.

Despite these gains, as in other parts of South Asia, such as the Sindh province of Pakistan, girls’ schooling remains less than universal. In Afghanistan, conditions of war, poverty and poor quality schooling have created an extremely challenging environment for girls’ education. The reality is that, despite USD $ 2 trillion of investment to rebuild Afghanistan since 2001, two-third of girls remain out of secondary education in the country. Even worse, those lucky enough to be in school during that time learnt little. This recent shocking GEM Report graph shows the extent of the work still to be done. It shows that Afghanistan is only now where India was twenty-five years ago as regards gender parity in primary completion.

Against this backdrop, the biggest concern is that these past gains are not lost. Even after 20 years of the US administration of Afghanistan, the country remains a conservative society with deep respect for Islamic traditions. As this blog shows, there is enormous diversity in the way that girls are schooled in different Muslim communities around the world. The debate about the future of education in Afghanistan should not be about madrasa or schools, therefore. International development partners instead should demand that no Afghan girls are left outside the education system, focusing all their energy on protecting the trends in progress so far made on equity and quality wherever that education may take place.

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In 2001, a six-year-old girl in Afghanistan could expect, despite the odds, to attend primary and secondary school, graduate from university, and pursue a profession.

These days might be over if the new order instates a system that institutionalizes discrimination against girls and women, and annuls commitments made over the past two decades to advance education. The consequences would be catastrophic for the people, the country and regional and global security.

Although the country still lags far behind its South Asian neighbours on all education indicators, the progress achieved over the past twenty years – starting nearly from scratch – is nothing short of remarkable. This is documented in trends assessment report published by UNESCO here.

In twenty years, the total number of enrolled students increased tenfold, from around 1 million to 8 million learners. From almost zero in 2001, the number of girls in primary school shot up to 2.5 million in 2018. Today 4 out of 10 students in primary education are girls. Their number in higher education increased from around 5,000 in 2001 to 90,000 – representing 25 percent of the student population. The number of teachers rose by 58% – and that of female teachers by over 100 %. The female literacy rate almost doubled from 17% to 30%, even if it still remains one of the lowest in the world.

Behind these numbers lies empowerment, voice and opportunity – the possibility to participate in society, to contribute to one’s country. Education is a game changer.
Over the past 15 years, with support from bilateral partners, UNESCO led the largest literacy program in Afghan history, reaching 1.2 million learners, including 800,000 women and girls, as well as 45,000 police officers. We supported the development of national strategies for education, established the first ever national institute for educational planning, trained planning officers and contributed to the reform of the education curriculum.

It’s not the time to put a clamp on extraordinary progress but instead to maintain and step up investment in education to consolidate gains, bring down barriers to expand access, improve learning and keep children in school for a full cycle. We need breakthrough not breakdown strategies.

The challenges ahead are colossal. Half of primary school-aged children are not enrolled in school while 93% of children at late primary are not proficient in reading. Child marriage continues to put a pall on girls’ education and future, affecting 1 in 3 girls under 18. The COVID-19 pandemic and conflict have placed additional strain on education development with millions of learners affected by the closure of schools and other educational institutions. The number of internally displaced persons is projected to increase, heightening the risk of learning losses among children.

The system remains heavily dependent on external aid that accounts for half the education budget. A withdrawal of aid could lead the system to implode. We cannot let the Afghan people down but there are red lines. Afghanistan has enshrined the right to education for all citizens in the Constitution adopted in 2004 and guarantees 9 years of compulsory education for all girls and boys. It has signed up to international normative instruments relating to education and the rights of women, including the Convention against Discrimination in Education in 2010 and Convention on Discrimination against Women before this, in 2003.

Upholding these commitments to build on the achievements of the past two decades is the starting point. This means respect for girls’ and women’s rights and their full access to education and training opportunities at all levels, including scientific disciplines. It entails curricula that promote non-violence, appreciation for cultural diversity and peace. It means ensuring safe learning environments for all learners and teachers in line with the Safe School Declaration endorsed by the country. Today’s challenges are global and interdependent, and education must reflect this to help youth build resilience and navigate change to benefit their country.

You can’t take away knowledge that’s been acquired but you can keep a whole nation locked in poverty without making education a foundation for the future. The country needs more education for girls and boys to reduce poverty, make a dent into still dramatically high levels of child mortality, malnutrition and stunting. Afghanistan, together with all the world’s nations, adopted ambitious global goals in 2015 for peace, planet and prosperity. They may seem beyond reach, but as the past 20 years have demonstrated, rapid change is possible. It’s happened through political will and international collaboration – and the shared conviction that education holds the power to transform lives and development trajectories. Nearly 65% of the Afghan population is under 25 – this is the country’s richest resource and its future. We need political will and commitment from the new authorities and summon international solidarity to provide children and youth with their fundamental right to learn. Everyone will win if universal education becomes the bedrock of recovery and peace-building that the Afghan people desperately need.

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