Ensuring education is not forgotten in emergencies

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) This content was published on June 1, 2021 - 14:30 June 1, 2021 - 14:30

Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva for SWI swissinfo.ch as well as the BBC.

All too often our news bulletins are led by an unfolding humanitarian crisis: people fleeing conflict, or natural disaster. Aid agencies rush to the scene, we journalists follow. We hear about the needs; for shelter, food, water, and medicines. We hear about how many tents, food and non-food items, and litres of water have been supplied. These are the crucial things that will, in the immediate days ahead, stop people dying.

But there is something else that's crucial in an emergency, something that the head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit, Ambassador Manuel Bessler firmly believes 'saves lives'' not just during the immediate crisis, but for years ahead. That something is education.

In this week's episode of the Inside Geneva podcast we take an in-depth look at education in emergencies; the challenges, the immediate priorities, and the longterm goals. And we hear about a new venture in Geneva which aims, as Yasmine Sherif of Education Cannot Wait told me, to ''join the dots'' of all the different aspects and agencies involved in education in emergencies.

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Sherif and Bessler join me in the podcast, together with Julienne Vipond, UNICEF Education Cluster Coordinator in Sudan, who provides a detailed and thought-provoking account of her work.

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In 2021, there are an estimated 72 million children worldwide who are not in primary school education – when you add in secondary school, the figure rises to 280 million. The long-term consequences: over 700 million adults who struggle to read and write. Lack of education reduces life choices and perpetuates poverty and insecurity.

One of the United Nations'' key sustainable development goals is to ensure free quality primary and secondary education for all by 2030. Some great progress has been made, with more children accessing education, and staying in school longer. But at the same time old conflicts that continue, and new ones that erupt, are forcing children out of school.

When children have to flee their homes, they are immediately at risk; of sexual exploitation, of being forced into child labour, or recruited into armed groups. That's why Vipond and her team in Sudan work so hard to get schools up and running as fast as possible. Education in emergencies provides not just continuation of learning, but a safe, protected space where children can enjoy at least some normality.

When refugees from Ethiopia's Tigray region began pouring over the border into Sudan, she tells me, the Norwegian Refugee Council managed to assemble schools in just seven days – surely a world record. The shorter the interruption of schooling, the more likely children are to be able to continue their education successfully. The longer the interruption, the more likely they are never to go back to school at all.

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