Learning

Children living in crisis and conflict settings face many barriers to learning. While schools can provide them a stable and welcoming environment to help them cope with instability, they can also be breeding grounds for peer violence.

When countries experience violent conflict, natural disasters, epidemics, or other crises, education is one of the first sectors to be severely disrupted. Governments may become unable to provide public education, as funding is shifted.

Even before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, education improved significantly. The return to war in December 2013, however, eroded many of the improvements in access to and quality of education.

ECCN’s conflict-sensitive education Training of Trainers featured INEE’s Conflict Sensitive Education Pack.

ECCN’s foundational course, Essentials for Education in Crisis and Conflict, focuses here on the Latin America and Caribbean region. They are joined by field practitioners from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

"My mother was born and raised in Aleppo. My maternal family roots are deeply tied to the past 150 years of Syria’s history. Watching the annihilation of Aleppo has been heart-wrenching, as have the images appearing daily on our televisions."

Violent conflict poses one of the gravest threats to human development. Nearly half of the 1.4 billion population living in fragile and conflict-affected states are less than 20 years old. Equitable education builds young people's capacities.

Many countries face new and divisive tensions as economic and other forces affect different ethnic, linguistic, religious, and other groups, leading to instability and sometimes armed conflict. Education policies, however, can promote peace.