From Tragedy ; Change and Hope
I have had to anonymise both the source and the country of this interview due to security and confidentiality concerns – but, it’s from a senior national educator working in the education system.
What are the most important aspect for educators to consider in post-conflict settings ?
Access is the most important thing after conflict. That includes :
1. The safety of schools and their locations.
2. Having alternative locations, for example if fighting continues and front lines are moving.
3. Making sure policies and guidance are in place e.g. safeguarding or disability
4. Ensuring child protection is prioritised e.g. through safeguarding
5. Preparing for displacement. Some families have been displaced multiple times. Schools can be an anchor.
The wellbeing of teachers is also important. You need to start with essential needs – compensation / stipends. Then training/curriculum, not just the old one – usually that needs to be updated. Then, psycho-social support.
How easy has it been to find experienced and / or qualified psycho-social support ?
It was difficult to find people at first. Also, there is sometimes an underestimate of the importance of these roles – to some it looks like play when hunger may seem more of an issue. So, training is needed and creates a larger number of people to draw on. Schools appoint safeguarding officers to lead this area and the issue has been taken up within the Department of Education where a special unit has been created.
How has having these kinds of staff, with psycho-social training and backgrounds, had an impact ?
Teacher attitudes have changed – not just on this issue of psycho-social support to children but on other issues too such as attitudes to corporal punishment and inclusion. There is much more openness to these new ideas. For example, all teachers now sign a code of conduct that includes a commitment to children’s’ wellbeing. There’s greater openness to inclusion, to wellbeing and to children with disability.
For example, with disability the former system was more traditional : disabled children were kept away from mainstream schools and, in fact, responsibility for them wasn’t even with the Ministry of Education it was with another Ministry. Now, disability is integrated – at least in some schools. Training of teachers is key – there has been some resistance but that has gradually changed and mainstreaming disability is seen as a better approach. There has been a change in community attitudes too with parents more accepting of this inclusive approach e.g. through the establishment of a Disabled Association for Parents.
What have been the drivers of this change ?
The principal drivers have been :
· New tools and training for a wide range of actors
· Use of the Washington Group questions to generate discussion around disability
· Deliberately asking teachers to analyse the situation in their own classrooms – that has brought ownership and commitment to the issue
· Highlighting success stories – showing how mainstreaming disability can be done successfully.
· Putting power in the hands of those who needed to make the change i.e. by including headteachers in training so they supported the changes.
· Ironically, Covid helped because people were more used to new forms of communication e.g. Facebook Groups.
· Local initiatives like creating Learning circles.
· Creating locally contextualised and relevant materials. Now the discussion is about the Why and the How not the what
Has there been resistance to these changes ?
There’s always resistance from some quarters. Salaries have been the biggest issue. You also need incentives to help initiate these kind of changes. There are also external issues to consider, there is ongoing conflict – recently several children were killed at a school in another district.
What advice would you give to educators preparing to deal with post-conflict situations ?
Schools can be a humanitarian point – a place for families and for the displaced, but they need to be freed up for education when the time is right.
Safety is paramount. Children need to know the school is a safe place both physically and psychologically – so educators must have strong safeguarding policies in place and must make sure there is training and support. At a system level educators need to prepare for displacement – even multiple displacement as fighting continues or flares up again. You need good data systems and communications.
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