Ensuring right to education
	The right to education in emergency situations has not been fully recognized in the past. The Dakar Framework for Action thus represents a step forward for the international community. UNESCO advocates with donors to include education among the priority sectors for humanitarian response. UNESCO sensitizes all partners to the need to pursue the right to education in emergency situations with concerned governments of Member States and with national institutions. Linkages to country-level reporting on children’s and women’s rights under relevant human rights instruments would be helpful here. Refugees and asylum-seekers UNESCO advocates for refugees and asylum-seekers to enjoy their right to education under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments. UNESCO field offices facilitate the recognition of studies previously undertaken by refugee students and asylum-seekers, so that they may gain admission to education institutions in their country of asylum. UNESCO advocates for refugee students to be admitted free or at the same fee level as national students, rather than at the higher fee levels sometimes charged to foreigners. UNESCO works with other agencies to establish a database or observatory regarding the application of the right to education in situations of crisis and post-crisis reconstruction. This includes the application in different countries of human rights conventions to the education of refugees and asylum seekers. Poverty alleviation Lack of education is a major cause of poverty, at personal and societal level, and poverty is likewise a major reason why children fail to enrol in school or quickly drop out. The situation is aggravated in situations of crisis and instability. Poor families often give priority to boys’ education, as possibly increasing future family income, but many boys from poor families themselves have to drop out of school to earn income. UNESCO identifis, and disseminates information on ways in which crisis-affected communities have managed to help children from poor families to participate in schooling; and to alleviate poverty through non-formal education and skills training, including self-employment and micro-financing systems.

 

Gender Emergency situations create special challenges to Education for All. Insecurity may discourage parents from permitting their children, especially girls, to attend school, since protective mechanisms which work in stable situations may fail in times of emergency and disruption. There may be reversion to older traditions. Poverty often directly limits girls’ participation in schooling, due to lack of adequate clothing, for example, or of sanitary materials. UNESCO works to include the emergency dimension in the work of the United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI). Given the strong focus on girls’ primary education by sister agencies, UNESCO raise awareness on the need to promote access to post-primary education, so that girls can be prepared, inter alia, to work as teachers. Inclusion of at-risk groups In crisis situations, there are new at-risk groups. Early childhood education has a special significance when normal family life has been disrupted, and parents and other adults may not interact sufficiently with young children. Adolescents and youth are especially vulnerable, and for some the trauma of discontinuation of education can be as traumatizing as the emergency itself. It is important to keep the ladder of educational opportunities open for young people and to develop innovative programmes of outreach to out-of-school youth. Education for persons with disability receives professional attention in some emergency programmes and little attention in others. They should be integrated into schools and training programmes to the extent possible, and otherwise provided with meaningful learning opportunities. UNESCO surveys programmes and materials developed to meet the needs of ex-combatants. UNESCO through its field offices and partners convenes regional and sub regional activities in this sphere to share examples of good practice and develop plans for local and national collaboration.

Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments - More