Attachments
INTRODUCTION TO TEXT
1. Rationale of the EiE Handbook
The right to education is most at risk during emergencies and during the transition period following a crisis. In conflict-affected countries, 28 million children of primary school age were out of school in 2011 – 42 per cent of the world total. Only 79 per cent of young people are literate in conflict-affected countries, compared with 93 per cent in other poor countries. Moreover, children living in conflict are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday as children in other poor countries.
The Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action – the CCCs – constitute UNICEF’s central humanitarian policy to uphold the rights of children affected by humanitarian crisis. They are a framework for humanitarian action, around which UNICEF seeks to engage with partners. The updated CCCs continue to promote predictable, effective and timely collective humanitarian action and to clearly outline the areas in which UNICEF can best contribute to results including education.
In addition, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has developed the Minimum Standards Handbook. The Handbook is designed to give governments and humanitarian workers the tools they need to address the Education for All movement and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is the first step toward ensuring that education initiatives in emergency situations provide a solid and sound basis for post-conflict and disaster reconstruction. Both instruments have been complementary and critical in the preparedness and response of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Humanitarian Reform launched in 2005 that established the education cluster approach.
UNICEF believes that education is not only a basic human right; it is an instrumental strategy for supporting recovery. It not only restores schooling and all its related benefits to affected people, it also helps countries transform and rebuild the institutions and systems destroyed during the emergency. Re-establishing education after an emergency not only safeguards children’s fundamental right to education, it also plays a critical role in normalising their environment. This helps them overcome the psychosocial impact of disasters and conflict.
Back-to-School (BTS) Initiatives: a strategy to put into action the CCCs
UNICEF and partners coordinate with Ministries to provide safe temporary learning spaces; teaching and learning materials; and training of teachers, parents, education officials and others to provide quality education, reduce drop-out and promote student retention. In essence, the BTS initiative offers a way to put the CCCs into practice.
With the introduction of the first UNICEF-supported BTS Initiative after the Rwandan genocide in 1994, these initiatives have become a powerful first response and strategy in facilitating access to protective learning environments for approximately 27 million children affected by conflict and natural disasters. These initiatives have been implemented with great success in over 55 countries in the period 1994-2012, including Afghanistan, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Lebanon, the State of Palestine, South Sudan, and Uganda. BTS Initiatives are characterised by 1) the establishment of robust targets for numbers of children to return to some form of education as quickly as possible after the onset of the emergency, 2) rapid deployment of education supplies in the form of kits as well as teaching and learning materials to aid in resumption of education, 3) establishment of some form of temporary learning infrastructure as needed, combined with the rapid vii UNICEF Education Kit Handbook Recreation Kit Guidance repair of damaged schools, and 4) intensive advocacy, communication and social mobilisation efforts with governments, communities, donors and partner organizations.
The Handbook aims at providing training and curricular guidance related to existing pre-packaged materials or kits. It is intended to strengthen the impact of UNICEF from the initial first response of pedagogical supplies to one of fostering learning, growth and development. With the Handbook, the education kits, and proper teacher training, it will be possible to extend the utility of the individual kits, improving the quality of the initial education response in BTS initiatives.
- Objectives of the Handbook a) To provide curricular guidelines and instructions on how to use the teaching aids contained in the kits for teachers, caregivers and instructors working in emergency contexts. A printed copy of each curriculum is contained in the related kit.
b) To provide training guidelines for the trainers involved in the emergency response.
The complete Handbook is available for download via the UNICEF website.