Education in Emergencies in IGAD States: Implication for Sustainable Development
College of Education and Behavioral Studies (CEBS) of Addis Ababa University (AAU) organized the first joint conference on education in emergencies in East Africa, IGAD states, in collaboration with Kotebe University of Education and other stakeholders at Kereyu Hotel (Adama), Ethiopia, on the 26th and 27th of May 2022.
The conference was conducted with the attendance of more than 250 participants stationed in three syndicates at which 32 papers and 3 keynote speeches both virtually and face to face were presented from all over the world.
The main purpose of the conference was to assess solutions and mechanisms to address education during emergencies that occur due to natural and man-made disasters.
Yekoyealem Dessie (PhD), Dean the College and chairperson of the organizing committee in exclusive interview with staff reporters said that the main reason to hold the conference is for the last three years many devastating things were happened and still continue in the world mainly in our cases in the East Africa region by which many life styles were disturbed.
Due to these devastating natural and man-made circumstances, a number of schools were destroyed and the education sector is very affected and many students along with their families are displaced, Dr. Yekonyealem said.
According to Dr. Yekonyealem, the focus of the conference was to investigate ways how education should be seen in such circumstances: “What type of education should be given to children who are affected by such cases? How teachers who have to teach those citizens should be trained? Shouldn’t the education in emergency have policies and strategies?”…
Dr. Yekonealem stated that the participants were from different disciplines like policy strategists, researchers and academic personnel, senior scholars of various fields, practitioners and implementers of the new idea expected to emerge from the conference.
The main target of the conference was extracting main points that can be basic inputs for the governments to formulate policies for education in emergency in IGAD states, Dr. Yekoyealem finally stated.
One of the presenters, Teshome Nekatibeb (PhD), stated the drive as “The purpose of emergency education is articulated to mean the preparation of a strategy that provides access to students who missed the opportunity to schooling due to natural and man-made disasters including drought, flooding, wars and conflicts.”
According to Dr. Teshome, the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Ethiopia is working with its partners to address complex disasters in education through curriculum restructuring, preparation of teachers, school feeding and supply of school materials.
Ethiopia is working to its capacity to meet its international obligation in refugee education as it has several camps at spots in the country in which refugee children are accommodated though MoE is in challenges due to inadequate funding, lack of institutional capacity and lack of access to some conflict affected regions to manage the problems of education in emergencies, he added.
Citing the February 2022 UNCHR report, about five million registered internally displaced citizens and refugees from 26 countries are being available in Ethiopia; awaiting until everything becomes normal is leading the children and the youth to lose the appropriate time that they have to get education, Gebregziabher Debeb (PhD) among the presenters stated.
Source: Addis Ababa University