Iraq Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies [EN/AR/KU]

INTRODUCTION

INEE Minimum Standards

The INEE Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery is the only global tool that articulates the minimum level of educational quality and access in emergencies through to recovery and development. The aim of the INEE Minimum Standards is to:

• Enhance the quality of educational preparedness, response, and recovery;
• Increase access to safe and relevant learning opportunities for all learners, regardless of their age, gender, or abilities;
• Ensure accountability and strong coordination in the provision of education in emergencies through to recovery;

The Iraq Context

Currently, Iraq is affected by three crises :

• Since 2012, families fleeing the Syrian Civil War have sought refuge in Iraq;
• Since 2014, families fleeing the insurgency of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq have sought refuge in other regions of the country;
• Since 2014, a generalized economic decline across Iraq due to the recent conflicts and a decline in oil prices, as well as a specific fiscal crisis in 2014 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) due to lack of fiscal transfer from the central government in Baghdad;
• Since 2017, displaced families have began moving back to areas of return and lack basic social services including education;

2018 projections indicate that almost three and a half million children (displaced, host, refugee, age 4-17) are likely to have been affected by the crises. Some school communities have adapted to attend to 2x or 3x the normal number of students, through multiple shifts, longer days, and reduction of hours of instruction for each group. In spite of efforts to accommodate all children in the existing formal education system, many of the crisis-affected remain out of school. Many of the refugee and displaced children are not enjoying their right to education. Barriers to education include: lack of school infrastructure, massive damage to school infrastructure, high contamination with UXOs in schools and areas surrounding schools, lack of teachers, language barriers, economic considerations, insecurity and administrative complications. While the long-term goal remains to integrate these students into the formal system, there exists a real and immediate need to provide emergency education and learning opportunities to the many children out of school.

Working to fill this immediate education need for hundreds of thousands of school age children is a community of United Nations (UN) agencies, international nongovernmental organizations (INGO), local nongovernmental organizations, the Ministry of Education of the Kurdistan Regional of Iraq (MoE KRI) and the Ministry of Education of Federated Iraq (MoE Federal). Each actor has a unique mandate, way of working, geographic area presence, and package of education strategies.

To meet the education needs of so many children, Iraq’s education stakeholders need to increase coordination of their efforts around an agreed framework or set of standards. Such an agreed education in emergency set of standards may help the stakeholders to identify gaps and areas where greater coordination is needed, as well as agree to a shared understanding of key ways of working on issues such as non-formal education, temporary learning spaces, and teacher training and certification in emergencies. Such standards may help stakeholders identify gaps, address areas where improved coordination is needed, and develop a common approach around key issues such as non-formal education, temporary learning spaces, and teacher training and certification.

Contextualizing the INEE Minimum Standards for Iraq

The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is an open global network of over 11,000 practitioners, students, teachers, and staff from UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, donors, governments and universities who work together, in 170 countries, to ensure all persons the right to quality education and a safe learning environment in emergencies and post-crisis recovery. Created by the Network, the 19 INEE Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response and Recovery provide a framework for education good practices to improve access to safe, relevant and quality education in contexts affected by crisis.

Because each country context is unique, the INEE Minimum Standards should be contextualized or customized to be relevant to a country’s local reality. As of 2018, twelve countries (Afghanistan, Somalia, Vietnam, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo) have defined the INEE Minimum Standards for Education in ways that are relevant to the local context.

In support of the Iraq Ministry of Education Law No. 34 of 1998, which mandates the Ministry with the development of education standards, the Education Cluster agreed in early 2015 to contextualize the INEE Minimum Standards for Education. Save the Children, in collaboration with UNICEF, organized a 5-day INEE workshop to: a) introduce the INEE Minimum Standards; and b) contextualize them for Iraq. This workshop included MoE KRI, MoE Federal, UN agencies, local NGOs, and international NGOs. Arabic, English and Kurdish were used for all workshops and available materials.

The document that resulted from the workshop was presented to workshop participants, for written feedback. For a complete list of people who contributed to the contextualized standards document, please see the ‘Acknowledgements’ section of this publication.