Education in Emergencies and Refugee Contexts
Overview of Education in Emergencies
Definition and scope
Education in emergencies refers to the planning, delivery, and monitoring of learning opportunities in situations of crisis that disrupt ordinary schooling. This includes wars, natural disasters, forced displacement, and other events that threaten access to quality education for children, adolescents, and youth. The aim is to protect learning time, minimize disruption, and help learners regain a sense of normalcy and purpose during upheaval. In practice, education in emergencies covers formal schooling, non-formal programs, safe learning environments, and psychosocial support that together support a holistic development pathway for learners facing instability.
Key stakeholders and roles
Effective education in emergencies requires a coordinated network of actors with distinct but complementary responsibilities. Governments set policy and provide sector leadership, while humanitarian agencies mobilize rapid funding and resources to maintain learning continuity. UN organizations, non-governmental organizations, and local civil society organizations implement programs on the ground, adapting models to context. Teachers and school leaders adapt curricula, deliver instruction, and support learner wellbeing, often under challenging conditions. Donors, researchers, and the private sector contribute funding, data, and innovation to scale effective approaches. A strong coordination mechanism at local, national, and regional levels ensures alignment with protection and humanitarian principles.
- Governments and ministries of education
- UN agencies and international NGOs
- Local civil society and community leaders
- Teachers and school staff
- Learners and families
- Donors and humanitarian financing bodies
- Private sector partners and technology providers
Contexts and Challenges
Refugee contexts
Refugee contexts present distinct educational needs. Learners may carry trauma, have interrupted schooling, or arrive with limited literacy in the host country’s language. Access barriers include documentation, school fees, transport safety, and cultural differences. Programs often integrate arrivals into host-country systems through accelerated learning, recognition of prior learning, and flexible enrollment policies. Camp settings and urban shelters each require different delivery models—camp-based schooling may rely on temporary facilities and non-formal curricula, while urban displacement emphasizes inclusive options that integrate with nearby schools and community learning spaces.
Conflict and displacement, IDPs, and crisis-affected areas
In conflict-affected regions and among internally displaced persons (IDPs), education must be resilient to ongoing risks such as shelling, insecurity, and displacement waves. Proposed approaches include protective school environments, community-based continuity plans, and multi-sector collaboration to ensure safety, nutrition, and psychosocial support. Crisis-affected areas demand flexible timetables, portable learning materials, and simple assessment tools to monitor progress when standard school cycles are disrupted. Data collection and real-time analysis help adjust programs as conditions change.
Access, financing, and data gaps
Access to education in emergencies is uneven. Some learners are excluded due to distance from schools, gender-based barriers, or language differences. Financing often relies on short-term humanitarian funding cycles, which can hinder long-term planning and teacher retention. Data gaps hinder the ability to measure learning outcomes, track enrollment, and identify vulnerable groups. Bridging these gaps requires integrated data systems, joint budgeting, and shared indicators that reflect both immediate relief and longer-term educational development.
Legal and Policy Frameworks
International commitments and norms (SDGs, Education 2030)
Global commitments frame education in emergencies within the Sustainable Development Goals and the Education 2030 framework. These norms emphasize inclusive, equitable quality education for all, even in crises, with targets on access, completion, learning outcomes, and safe school environments. International guidance promotes the protection of learners in emergencies, the continuity of education services, and the need for data-driven planning to prioritize the most vulnerable students.
Rights-based policies and national adaptation
Rights-based policies anchor education in emergencies to child rights, safeguarding, and protection standards. National frameworks adapt international norms to local realities, ensuring refugees and IDPs can access schooling on equitable terms, irrespective of nationality or status. Policies encourage multilingual education, flexible enrollment, recognition of prior learning, and support for teachers and school leaders to operate safely in volatile environments.
Access, Equity, and Quality in Crisis Settings
Learning access and safe learning environments
Safe learning environments are foundational for learning in emergencies. This includes secure buildings or shelters, safe transport, appropriate class sizes, and psychosocial support for learners and teachers. Programs prioritize removing barriers to enrollment for girls, marginalized groups, and newcomers, while ensuring that schools function as protective spaces where students can heal and develop resilience alongside academic skills.
Curriculum adaptation and multilingual learning
Curricula in crisis contexts are adapted to be relevant and attainable within disrupted timelines. Accelerated learning programs help learners catch up, while bilingual or multilingual approaches support language transition and comprehension. Education systems increasingly adopt flexible pacing, modular content, and locally meaningful examples to maintain engagement and achievement despite upheaval.
Teacher training and wellbeing
Teachers bear an additional burden in crises, balancing instruction with protection, psychosocial support, and rapid curricular adjustments. Practical training focuses on trauma-informed pedagogy, classroom management in unstable settings, assessment adaptations, and the use of radio, print, and digital resources. Supporting teacher wellbeing—through supervision, workload management, and safe working conditions—improves both retention and instructional quality.
Inclusion in Emergencies
Gender, age, and safeguarding considerations
Inclusive programming explicitly addresses gender norms, adolescent needs, and safeguarding. Schools become spaces where girls’ attendance is safeguarded through safe transportation, flexible hours, and female role models. Programs for older learners emphasize relevance to employment opportunities and life skills, while safeguarding policies protect all learners from exploitation and abuse and provide clear reporting mechanisms.
Disability-inclusive education
Disability-inclusive approaches ensure accessible facilities, materials in multiple formats, and teacher competencies in inclusive pedagogy. Assistive technologies, adapted assessments, and inclusive classroom layouts help learners with disabilities participate meaningfully. Stakeholders strive to remove stigma and build an accessible education culture within humanitarian responses and host communities alike.
Language and cultural mediation
Language is a key barrier in crises where learners arrive with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Programs employ multilingual teachers, interpreters, and translated materials, while also recognizing and validating home languages. Cultural mediation supports smoother integration, reduces dropouts, and enhances communication with families and communities.
Financing and Resource Allocation
Emergency funding mechanisms
Emergency financing includes rapid-response funds, resilience-oriented grants, and pooled humanitarian appeals. Flexible funding mechanisms enable quick procurement of learning materials, classroom setups, and teacher incentives. Donor alignment around common indicators supports coherence across programs, avoiding duplication and gaps in service delivery.
Budget planning, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency
Budgeting in emergencies emphasizes cost-effectiveness without compromising learning quality. Simpler teaching materials, community-based learning spaces, and blended delivery reduce costs while preserving impact. Regular reviews of cost drivers, efficiency indicators, and value-for-money assessments help humanitarian actors redirect resources to where they produce the greatest learning gains.
Public-private and humanitarian funding
Public-private partnerships can mobilize technology, training, and infrastructure for learning in emergencies. Collaboration with telecom providers, publishers, and local enterprises expands access to digital tools, offline content, and affordable devices. Humanitarian funding remains crucial for initial scale-up, with ongoing development investments to sustain education systems beyond the emergency phase.
Data, Monitoring, and Evidence
Data collection in insecure contexts
Data collection in insecure contexts requires safety-first approaches, minimal intrusion, and ethical considerations for learners and families. Remote data gathering, community reporting, and rapid assessments help capture enrollment, attendance, and learning progress without compromising protection. Data quality is enhanced by triangulation across sources and transparent reporting.
Measuring learning outcomes and indicators
Learning outcomes in crises are tracked using practical indicators such as completion rates, literacy and numeracy benchmarks, and problem-solving skills. Context-appropriate assessments, including oral and performance tasks, provide timely feedback to program design. A balance between summative and formative measures supports ongoing improvement while acknowledging disruption levels.
Evidence-based programming and learning analytics
Evidence-informed approaches guide the selection of interventions that yield measurable improvements. Learning analytics, when feasible, help map student trajectories, identify at-risk groups, and forecast needs. Sharing best practices and lessons learned strengthens the overall EiE ecosystem and informs policy development at national and regional levels.
Case Studies and Best Practices
Refugee camps and camp-based learning
Camp-based learning often leverages temporary facilities and community volunteers to deliver core subjects, literacy, and numeracy. Successful models integrate protection, WASH, nutrition, and psychosocial support within learning spaces. Flexible timetables, teacher incentives, and community ownership contribute to higher attendance and more stable learning progress among camp populations.
Urban displacement and alternative learning spaces
In urban settings, displaced learners may attend host-country schools or participate in community centers, learning hubs, and after-school programs. Urban models emphasize integration with local systems, safer routes to learning, and support services that address housing, livelihoods, and social integration. Partnerships with urban authorities and NGOs help scale capacity and adapt to shifting migrant patterns.
Cross-border and returnee contexts
Cross-border displacement and returnee movements require recognition of prior learning, transitional curricula, and portable records. Joint accreditation processes, standardized assessment criteria, and collaboration between sending and receiving countries facilitate smoother reintegration. Programs focus on language transition, civic education, and social cohesion to promote durable settlement and continued educational progress.
Recommendations for Practitioners
Digital and remote learning
Digital and remote learning options should be embedded as complements to face-to-face instruction. Low-bandwidth resources, offline content, radio and TV modules, and mobile-friendly platforms expand reach where schools are closed or unsafe. Support for teachers to design and deliver remote lessons, along with family engagement strategies, helps maintain learning continuity during disruptions.
Community engagement and local ownership
Community involvement ensures programs respond to local needs and gain legitimacy. Engaging parents, youth, religious and community leaders builds trust, improves enrollment, and sustains attendance. Local ownership supports adaptation, resource mobilization, and continuity across political or security changes.
Partnerships and coordination mechanisms
Effective EiE requires robust coordination among ministries, humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and communities. Shared data platforms, joint planning, and synchronized indicators reduce fragmentation and duplication. Coordination also strengthens protection and safeguarding across all learning interventions, ensuring a safer environment for learners and educators alike.
Trusted Source Insight
Source: https://www.unesco.org
Trusted Summary: UNESCO emphasizes that crises should not halt learning. It advocates for resilient education systems that ensure safe access, inclusive curricula, and trained teachers. Data-driven planning is essential to protect the most vulnerable learners and maintain learning continuity.