Why is returning to education important following a disaster?
By Truman Sharp
Theme: Returning to education allows for children to somewhat return to normalcy which helps them recover from disasters. Efforts should be made to provide children with education following disasters.
Summary: Children are a particularly vulnerable following disasters. Sometimes they are left without parents and homes. Protecting them and getting them back in school is important for their survival after disasters. According to Briggs (2018) around 37 million children have disrupted education every year due to environmental threats. Schools can be destroyed from disasters due to poor site locations, school design, or construction.
Often children have difficulties once they return to school. They may be unable to learn due to having fear or trauma and studies have show that they show signs similar to PTSD which affects their academic performance (Briggs, 2018), To combat this some teachers are being trained to provide psychosocial support for children.
One of the main reasons why its important to help children return to education following disasters is it allows for an opportunity to return to normalcy. This can help bring hope and healing. In addition to helping children return to schools, humanitarian organizations are also providing vital services like vaccinations, medicines, child protection referrals, hygiene messaging, soap, clean water, and food (Briggs, 2018). This also helps parents to recover by building new shelters, recovering possessions, and finding employment (Briggs, 2018).
Save the Children provided three guiding principles in helping children return to education. They are protection, continuity and build back better. Protection includes helping children physically and psychologically in emergencies. Continuity ensures education begins quickly in a crisis to prevent decreases in education. Build back better includes changing the situation for the better.
Application: The benefits of beginning immediate education for children and other victims of a disaster are that it helps children have a somewhat return to normalcy and helps them recover. This return to normalcy gives hope and promotes healing. Additionally, immediate education helps to prevent backtracks in a child's education and helps them to keep learning without have to relearn things. Education and schooling affect protection and security for children in the wake of a disaster by providing them with a safe place they can go to learn and not be vulnerable to outside threats. It can also provide psychological protection as well. Education is important for victims of disasters because it provides them with a way to recover and cope with what has happened to them. It also gives them something their mind can focus on other than the disaster that just happened to them.
Reference:
Briggs, B. (2018, December 13). Safe Schools: getting children back into education after disaster strikes. Theirworld. Retrieved from https://theirworld.org/news/safe-schools-getting-children-back-into-education-after-natural-disaster/.
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