Passage of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has affirmed a global commitment to leaving no one behind, and to start with those furthest behind. With more than 75 million children and young people (aged 3-18) currently out of school in 35 crisis-affected countries, the need for educational responses to better consider the needs of these learners and ensure that they too have equitable access to quality education, is more important than ever. Over the past 20 years, educational provision in emergency and crisis situations (EIE) has moved from a periphery issue within humanitarian, reconstruction and development efforts, to a key focus in and of itself. The result is increasing standardisation, consolidation and coordination of EiE activity, with accompanying global advocacy efforts such as the new Education Cannot Wait funding platform. On one hand, there is a strong belief that this approach will lead to more effective and appropriate solutions which address some of the key programmatic and policy gaps currently facing educational provision in conflict-affected contexts. On the other, there are significant concerns that the specificity of context, and the unpredictable and complex nature of conflicts themselves, leads to standardisation being overly reductive, managerial, or compliance focussed in what results. This symposium explores these competing viewpoints by presenting a number of different constituency voices within EiE. In doing so the panellists will present their perspectives on whether having standards, principles and practice notes for EiE can serve the intention of improving teaching and learning outcomes for children living in conflict, and disrupt cycles of marginalisation and exclusion.
Mai Abu Maghil, Arabic language facilitator at the Inter-agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE), will discuss how the development and application of the INEE Minimum Standards (MS) from 2003 onwards, has led to a globally agreed framework for quality and accountability in education responses in emergency contexts. She will also suggest how it has led to professionalization of the field in the past ten years. Ongoing and future work around the INEE MS will be shared in light of current challenges and the shifting EiE landscape.
James Lawrie, Senior Education Advisor at Save the Children (SC) UK, will share the rationale, pros and the cons of SC increasingly moving towards developing and using Principles of Practice and Common Approaches to ensure improved quality, consistency, and replicability across its education programming globally. The complicated trade-off between using standards, principles and models of “best practice” to enhancing programme quality and performance, and affording relevant local contextualization and adaptation will be explored.
Ritesh Shah, Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland, will reflect on recent field testing he led for global principles and guidance that have been written for accelerated education provision by the inter-agency Accelerated Education Working Group. The research revealed, through interviews with those involved in designing, implementing, coordinating or assessing AE programmes in four different contexts (Afghanistan, Mali, Sierra Leone, Kenya) several key tensions. Tensions are due to the aspirational nature of these principles; an issue that sits in contradiction with the specificity provided in accompanying guidance and assessment measures.
Peter Simms, Director of Programmes for Children in Crisis UK will provide some comments on the presentations, and what this means for EiE academics and practitioners moving forward.
