Humanitarian policy-makers have endorsed internationally-agreed standards on rebuilding education sectors shattered by crises, in a move experts say shows that education is increasingly being regarded as life-saving. The Sphere Project has endorsed emergency education standards created by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), a network of 3,000 members representing UN agencies, NGOs, donors, teachers and students who promote education in emergencies.
"We believe education having been embraced within the Sphere family is a demonstration of the consensus in the humanitarian community that education must be considered as a sector within immediate emergency response," said Alyson Joyner, project manager of Sphere.
The Sphere Project which sets minimum standards food aid, shelter and other core humanitarian sectors, endorsed the INEE standards in October 2008, marking a change of approach. Prior to this Sphere had remained quiet about education because not all of its members saw it as life-saving and thus part of the classic humanitarian repertoire, according to Joyner.
Do standards work?
"Minimum standards are about boosting quality," said Allison Anderson, INEE director. "The most powerful thing they can do is give people a goal to work towards, to help them build their [emergency] response strategy." The INEE standards outline how to recruit teachers, undertake an education assessment, write up codes of conduct for educators and work with communities to develop an education programme. "The more practical they are, the more useful they are," Anderson said.
Measuring the standards' impact is difficult with so many other variables, such as security and funding, Sphere's Joyner told IRIN. But despite this, she said, "There is mounting anecdotal evidence that minimum standards have had a positive impact."
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