Re Education : Issue #2
A newsletter about international education development
WAR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR…..?
For educators, who are by nature builders, this is a terrible time to witness the loss of lives of children, the loss of bright futures, and the trauma and pain of those who survive, both Israeli and Palestinian.
In the face of the impotence so many of us feel, we can best heed the old adage : control what you can, accept what you can’t.
Our response is one of the things we can control. We can learn, prepare, plan and advocate to make sure that the children whose misery touches us now have opportunities and hope when the fighting stops.
This edition of Re Education focuses on that response. How do we provide support during conflict and how do we pick up the pieces after it : when the conflict has stopped, when the ceasefire is in place, or when the peace is just showing green shoots.
This is not only about Gaza ; conflicts continue in Ukraine and Sudan and are fading from headlines in Syria, Myanmar, Uganda….Sometimes, as our second piece below shows, out of tragedy can come progress. In repairing the damage, a new shape emerges, with holes, but also with hope.
Two contributors are featured this month. Dr. Koen Sevenants is a mental health professional with extensive experience in psycho-social support to children in conflict and post conflict situations. Our second contributor speaks from an ongoing conflict zone - to preserve safety and confidentiality they have been anonymised.
Andy Brock, December 2023
Subscribe for free and receive each issue of Re Education automatically.
“The lessons of history teach us - if the lessons of history teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us” Robert Heinlein
Guest Blog - The Superpowers of Teachers
At the time of writing, the thought of life returning to normal in Gaza is both a wish and a mental challenge. But I try to picture it. One of the first things that I imagine is …. that schools are open ; that children come to school to learn ; that a feeling of “everything-is-OK” is sent to the surrounding neighbourhoods by the joyful sound of hundreds of children playing during the breaks…..
The extent of the harm that has been done in Gaza and the subsequent required emotional recovery are indescribable. Tragic occurrences, loss of loved ones, insecurity, anger, and toxic stress has, for most children, ruined the safe haven that home is supposed to be. The outside world burst into chaos ; the inner world of the child imploded. Multiple aspects of child development have been interrupted. Generations to come will surely feel the effects.
Mental health professionals do not have a silver bullet to fix or reverse any of this. However, together we can do our best to create an environment where healing can occur. That environment is one that children perceive as secure, predictable, calm and playful. That environment is one in which patience, empathy and playfulness have an important place. That environment is one in which colours and music exist, and in which children can explore their own abilities in interaction with others. That environment is a functioning, functional and safe school.
For a school to be functional for emotional healing we will need teachers with superpowers. Teachers will need to be compassionate. Teachers will need to be able to react to the outbursts of children. Teachers need to able to work with children who are low in energy and have low concentration spans. Teachers will need to be able to answer the most difficult questions. And at the same time, these teachers themselves will have been the subject of immense suffering themselves. They will face their inner and outside struggles in front of the class, and yet they have to, outwardly, present a calm impression towards their students.
Can we expect this greatness of teachers?
We cannot expect perfection, but we can appreciate teachers for what they can do. We can provide emotional, technical and financial support. Bit-by-bit many teachers will discover their superpowers, and schools will take up their role in the emotional healing of children. Schools will become the beacon of a new normality.
Dr. Koen Sevenants, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Professional
Dr. Sevenants has kindly shared the materials used to support children and professionals in Gaza by the MHPSS network, an international platform that fosters a community of practitioners. If you use please provide credit to the authors. The network is open to all.
Guest Interview – From Tragedy ; Change and Hope
This is a summary of an interview with a senior national educator working in a conflict area and reflecting on lessons learned – the full piece can be found in the link below.
“When the conflict has ended, or diminished, the most important thing is to create safety in schools. This extends from the simple; removing unexploded ordnance, to the complicated ; finding experienced psycho-social support for children.
We found that as the situation “normalised” there was more openness to change because so much had been broken. This made it easier to introduce psycho-social support for children. It made it easier to support more inclusive approaches – for example, bringing disabled children into mainstream classes. Because there had been so much violence, attitudes towards corporal punishment have changed and teachers willingly signed up to codes of conduct that prioritised children’s wellbeing.
Because these changes - the reshaping of education support - was led by teachers, headteachers, administrators and officials it has become embedded. I think these changes are institutionalised now….but, the process takes years.”
Other links / resources :
UNICEF, UNWRA and UNESCO are all supporting children in Gaza, Ukraine and many other conflict and post-conflict situations (see this harrowing article from UNWRA in Gaza). Girls’ Education Challenge Learning Brief #6 Focuses on supporting girls in emergencies and protracted crises. Educators in Northwest Syria reflect on supporting education systems in practical ways. Ukranian children settling into school in Poland. In Bucha “only schools with bomb shelters can reopen”. (Thanks to Agnieszka Mikulska for several of these links).
The two pictures accompanying these pieces on education and conflict are from Abdal Mufti, a Pakistani education development consultant who doubles up as a freelance illustrator – multi-talented ! You can find some of his beautiful images at : www.instagram.com/abdalmufti
News
Some snippets of recent news / events that seem worth sharing.
Conflict
The impact on children of the Hamas attack and the IDF response is covered in this DW piece. The Israeli Ministry of Health has issued guidelines on hostage reintegration focusing on mental health support as well as physical needs. The psychological impacts for hostages and for victims of the attacks and bombings will last for years - and it will be educators who will be on the front line of support.
While world attention is, rightly, on the humanitarian needs to support life in Gaza, education and the mental health of children affected by this conflict is not forgotten. Education Cannot Wait has announced a $10m initial fund for humanitarian support to children in Gaza and a $500,000 investment in humanitarian action through the Alliance for Child Protection.
In Northwest Syria FCDO is funding the Manahel programme supported by Chemonics. This short video gives some sense of the challenges the programme faces - and its successes.
According to an article from the New York Times, over 19m children are out of school due to the war in Sudan - a conflict which has dropped from the front, or even the inside, pages. This is the link (unfortunately, it’s paywalled).
Development
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) held a High Level Policy Dialogue Forum in Zambia in November focused on Foundational Learning. It’s worth catching at least two of the speeches from this. First, a pithy address by Ben Piper from Gates Foundation (video at 54 mins mark) containing a challenge : “we know what works…structured pedagogy…and teaching at the right level…but how to do that at scale ?”. Then, an inspirational address by Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili of Human Capital Africa referencing the African Union Year of Education in 2024. “Presidents need to become Chief Learning Officers” - absolutely ! Check it out (1.00 hr mark).
Lots of news in recent weeks for the UK aid sector. David Cameron, ex-Prime Minister, was appointed Foreign Secretary and immediately signalled an increased focus on the UK FCDO’s role in development. Andrew Mitchell’s somewhat lonely crusade to fix some of the damage caused by the merger of DFID and FCDO now has a powerful ally - his boss.
Within days of this appointment a new White Paper on International Development was published. It seems to have been pretty warmly received - see “X” threads from Ian Mitchell and Ranil Dissanayake, astute observers from the Centre for Global Development (CGD), both quite positive. Mitchell noted that :
The headline goal is “ending extreme poverty & tackling climate change”. It doesn’t explicitly drop the last strategy, it clearly succeeds and improves on the 2022 version where “British Investment Partnerships” were the centre-piece.
Dissanayake worried that the words and direction are fine but will fail to have the resources and expertise to ensure implementation (he also added a timely piece on what the purpose is of this White Paper). For a more sceptical take see the “X” thread from Mark Millar of ODI Global who notes that the ambitious strategy has been welcomed by the development sector but has to be implemented by the hybrid FCDO - a big task there.
Stefan Dercon was the star turn at an Adam Smith International (ASI) Thought Leaders Event a few weeks ago with his talk “Bargains or Betrayals”. ASI’s rehabilitation continues. He comments on development that “We know the ingredients but we don’t know the recipe”. It’s well worth a watch - he’s very good on the elite bargain in each country ; is this why education rarely gets enough funding and when it does it’s skewed to higher education ?
Voices from the front
Phonics and Foreign Aid : can America Teach the World to Read ? A new paper from Justin Sandefur et al at CGD analysing the impact of USAID reading programmes. Sadly, the answer is a pretty solid no. Kudos to USAID for supporting and publishing the research showing what are pretty poor results. But, here’s the dilemma of such transparency : instead of applauding their openness USAID’s detractors may use this to argue that funding in this area should be cut - would they be wrong ? What do you think?
A great video here on Community Led Learning in Uganda under the Government of Uganda and FCDO SESIL programme. This is a low cost initiative with huge potential - particularly for engaging parents. (Disclaimer : Cambridge Education, where I was MD, helped manage SESIL).
Voices from the rear
(Gray and Published Research)
A great new paper in the IJED by Professor Karen Mundy focuses on SDG4 and State Capacity : the missing link. It’s a wide ranging, well-written review of why SDG 4 is off track and how uncoordinated the efforts are to remedy that. She also gives a great historical review of efforts in this area. I don’t agree more research is part of the prescription - we need more focus on the lack of financing at the country level. No prescriptions for increasing local agency to address underinvestment in education will be sustainable unless governments prioritise funding of education. (See also my blog last month on this topic).
History Lessons
This Brookings piece on the impact of war on education in Gaza from 7 years ago is depressingly relevant today.
The Safe Schools Declaration - regjeringen.no is a list of which countries have signed since 2015. Neither USA nor Israel are signatories.
Results of the Poll
In the first issue I set a poll asking how useful international education conferences were to development practitioners. The results were positive, though the sample was small - only 19 people responded. 63% said they were extremely or very useful, 37% not very useful, a mixed verdict.
Fun Stuff
Justin van Fleet of Their World did an fun one-minute interview on having a Global Tantrum about the lack of investment in early childhood education. It does feel like it’s time for everyone to lie on their backs and kick their legs in the air in frustration ! Will future generations be incredulous that we had all the evidence we needed on the huge benefit of investing in children early, but not the will to act ?
Subscribe for free and receive each issue of Re Education automatically.
Spot on! All teachers are superheroes - especially those working in these most complex settings. And too often we do not care for or deal with the needs of these heroes. Super they may be; but human they certainly are. Can you share any examples of good practice in caring for teachers?