Learning

Children living in crisis and conflict settings face many barriers to learning. While schools can provide them a stable and welcoming environment to help them cope with instability, they can also be breeding grounds for peer violence.

Hau’wa loved school. At 12, she dreamed of one day becoming a teacher in her town in northeastern Nigeria, even as Boko Haram’s ruthless grip tightened, and insurgents captured Hau’wa and dozens of women and children.

When countries experience violent conflict, natural disasters, epidemics, or other crises, education is one of the first sectors to be severely disrupted. Governments may become unable to provide public education, as funding is shifted.

USAID’s Accelerated Quality Education for Liberian Children brought accelerated learning to out-of-school children ages 8–15. Look back on lessons learned and see how a Rapid Education and Risk Analysis helped the project.

Even before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, education improved significantly. The return to war in December 2013, however, eroded many of the improvements in access to and quality of education.

Research by FHI360 shows that the likelihood of experiencing violent conflict doubles in places with high education inequality between ethnic and religious groups. Inequitable access to quality education makes the world less safe.

School-to-School International and ECCN raise pertinent questions and spark discussion on measurement standards in crisis and conflict zones.

ECCN’s conflict-sensitive education Training of Trainers featured INEE’s Conflict Sensitive Education Pack.