Education Sector Development Program - VLIR-UOS

Education Sector Development Program IV
Education in Emergencies
1. Situation analysis
Education in situations of emergency and
crisis is one of the “flagship” programs of the
global ‘Education For All’ (EFA) campaign. It
was recognized in the Dakar World Education
Forum (2000) that one of the barriers to attaining
the EFA goals was the large population of children
who are forced out of school due to conflict, wars,
rapid and slow onset of disasters such as floods
and droughts.
Education in emergencies (EiE) was recognized
as a key component of humanitarian response
in Ethiopia when the National Education Cluster,
including members from Ministry of Education
and International and national NGOs, was
set up in October 2008. The cluster’s role is to
support the Ministry of Education in ensuring
that children continue to receive some form of
education during emergencies and to develop a
preparedness strategy for future emergencies.
The cluster has been supporting the Regional
Education Bureaus to manage and strengthen
the regional task forces.
Eight regions (Somali, Afar, Gambella, Amhara,
Tigray, SNNPR, Benshangul Gumz and Oromiya)
identified as emergency prone are affected every
year by drought, floods and/or ethnic conflict.
The recurrent nature of these emergencies along
with pre-existing poverty and the complexities
of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities
affect thousands of children every year. The
ability of children to access education is severely
compromised as children drop out of school due
to poverty, schools remain closed for extended
periods of time, teachers leave the affected
areas, school buildings are used as shelters or
are damaged, school materials are damaged,
children and their families are displaced from
their villages and live in temporary shelters for
long periods.
The unavailability of comprehensive information
on the impact of emergencies on drop out,
enrolment rates and overall education status
leads to inadequate and untimely response.
Consequently, thousands of children who drop
out during an emergency continue to remain out
of school affecting the drop out of school age
children as a result of displacement or migration.
According to the seasonal assessment reports
conducted by the national and regional task
forces organized to identify hot spots and to
enable the Government, donors, international
and local NGOs and the local community to act,
there is the likelihood that these emergencies
might continue to occur in the near future and as
a result they must be mainstreamed in ESDP IV.
Main challenges
• Enrolment rates remain low and
drop-out rates remain high in
emergency-affected areas.
• Lack of awareness of the impact
of emergencies on education and
therefore inadequate response
by the education sector to
emergency situations.
• Lack of commitment from sector
actors, and lack of budget to
respond to emergency situations
• Lack of co-ordination at Regional
Level
2. Expected program outcomes
Awareness on education in emergencies
developed through teacher education
Children affected by emergencies will
continue their schooling
Capacity of administrators, communities
and schools to manage education in
emergencies made stronger
Information on emergency situations
included in Education Management
Information System
Education management systems built
to plan and prepare for education
response in an emergency
Key outcome targets
All teachers who work in emergency
context will be able to deliver education
in emergencies
All woreda offices based in emergency
contexts will have participated in capacity
development programs and be able to
implement EiE programs
Collection of EiE data to be strengthened
and mainstreamed into other data collection
exercises carried out within the sector.
Each affected region will have an emergency
preparedness response plan and a task force to
implement and monitor the plan.
Thousands of
children who drop
out during an emergency
continue to remain out of
school affecting the drop
out of school age children
as a result of displacement
or migration.
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