Education in Emergencies: Careers and How to Get Started

What Education in Emergencies Means

When conflict erupts or a natural disaster strikes, schools are among the first institutions to collapse. Buildings are damaged or occupied by military forces. Teachers flee. Families are displaced. Children who were learning yesterday are suddenly out of school, often for months or years. Education in Emergencies exists to prevent that gap from becoming permanent.

EiE is not just about reopening classrooms. It is about providing safe, structured environments for children and young people during the most chaotic periods of their lives. Schools and learning spaces serve multiple purposes in a crisis: they provide routine and normalcy, they offer a platform for delivering other services (nutrition, psychosocial support, health screening, child protection messages), and they keep children away from risks like recruitment into armed groups, child labor, and early marriage.

The sector has matured significantly over the past two decades. What was once an afterthought in humanitarian response is now recognized as a core component. The creation of Education Cannot Wait in 2016, the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies, marked a turning point. Funding has increased, standards have been developed through the INEE Minimum Standards, and education is now integrated into humanitarian coordination through the Education Cluster.

Key Programming Areas

Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS)

In the immediate aftermath of a crisis, humanitarian organizations set up temporary learning spaces: tents, community buildings, or open-air shelters where children can resume structured learning. Setting up a TLS involves more than pitching a tent. You need to identify safe locations, recruit and train facilitators, develop or adapt learning materials, register children, and establish routines. It is rapid, practical work that requires creativity and strong community engagement.

Teacher Training and Support

In many emergency contexts, qualified teachers are scarce. EiE programs recruit community volunteers, para-teachers, or displaced teachers and provide them with accelerated training in pedagogy, classroom management, psychosocial first aid, and inclusive education. Ongoing support through coaching, mentoring, and professional development is critical. Teacher wellbeing is also a growing focus: teachers in crisis settings face the same stresses as their students, and they need support to sustain their work.

Curriculum Adaptation and Accelerated Education

Children who have been out of school for extended periods need more than regular curriculum. Accelerated education programs compress multiple years of learning into shorter timeframes, allowing older children to catch up and rejoin formal education. Curriculum adaptation ensures that learning materials are relevant to the context, available in the right languages, and sensitive to the experiences of crisis-affected children. This is skilled technical work that bridges pedagogy, curriculum design, and humanitarian principles.

Psychosocial Support in Schools

Learning spaces are one of the most effective platforms for delivering psychosocial support to children. Structured activities like art, music, sports, and group discussions help children process difficult experiences and rebuild a sense of safety. EiE programs train teachers and facilitators to recognize signs of distress, provide basic psychosocial first aid, and refer children who need specialized support. This intersection of education and mental health is a growing area of practice and research.

Youth Programming

Adolescents and young people are often the forgotten group in education responses. Too old for primary school programs but without access to secondary or tertiary education, they face heightened risks of recruitment, exploitation, and economic vulnerability. Youth programming includes life skills education, vocational training, livelihoods support, and creating pathways to formal education or employment. It requires a different approach than working with younger children and often overlaps with livelihoods and protection programming.

School Rehabilitation and Systems Strengthening

In protracted crises and recovery contexts, the focus shifts to rebuilding education systems. This includes rehabilitating school buildings, supporting ministry of education capacity, strengthening education management information systems (EMIS), and planning the transition from humanitarian education programming to government-led services. It requires policy understanding, institutional development skills, and the patience to work within complex government systems.

Types of Roles in Education in Emergencies

• • Education Officer: The core implementation role. Manages learning spaces, supervises teachers and facilitators, tracks enrollment and attendance, coordinates with communities, and reports on program activities. The most common entry point into the sector.
• • EiE Coordinator: Oversees the entire education program for an organization in a country or region. Manages teams, coordinates with the Education Cluster, liaises with the ministry of education, and ensures program quality. A senior role requiring several years of EiE experience.
• • Youth Program Manager: Designs and manages programs specifically for adolescents and young people. Develops life skills curricula, vocational training partnerships, and youth engagement strategies. Requires understanding of adolescent development and youth-centered approaches.
• • Education Technical Advisor: Provides technical guidance on curriculum, pedagogy, teacher training, and education policy. Often based at regional or headquarters level and supports multiple country programs. Requires deep education expertise.
• • Education Cluster Coordinator: A coordination role, usually hosted by UNICEF or Save the Children, that brings together all education actors in a humanitarian response. Requires strong facilitation, strategic planning, and inter-agency coordination skills.
• • MEAL Officer (Education): Monitors and evaluates education programs. Designs assessment tools, tracks learning outcomes, collects data on access and quality, and supports evidence-based decision-making.
• • Teacher Trainer / Pedagogical Advisor: Develops and delivers teacher training programs. Coaches teachers in classrooms, develops training materials, and supports ongoing professional development.

Key Organizations in Education in Emergencies

• • UNICEF: The lead agency for the Education Cluster and the largest implementer of education programs in emergencies. UNICEF works at both policy and implementation levels, supporting governments and communities to restore and strengthen education services.
• • Save the Children: One of the most prominent INGOs in EiE, with programs in dozens of countries. Known for strong technical capacity in early childhood education, literacy, and child-centered pedagogy. Co-leads the Education Cluster with UNICEF.
• • Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC): Education is one of NRC's core competencies. Known for innovative approaches including accelerated education programs, non-formal education for out-of-school children, and education in protracted displacement contexts.
• • Education Cannot Wait (ECW): The global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. ECW does not implement directly but funds country-level programs through UN agencies and NGOs. Understanding ECW's funding mechanisms is important for anyone working in the sector.
• • INEE (Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies): Not an implementing organization but the sector's professional network. INEE sets standards, produces technical guidance, hosts communities of practice, and connects professionals. Essential for anyone building a career in EiE.
• • War Child, Plan International, Right to Play, Finn Church Aid: Smaller but specialized organizations with strong EiE programming in specific regions. Often offer good field exposure for early-career professionals.

Qualifications and Skills

• • Education or teaching background: A degree in education, teaching experience, or a teaching qualification is valued for technical and training roles. But it is not required for all positions.
• • Program management skills: Education Officer and Coordinator roles require the same project management competencies as other humanitarian sectors: planning, budgeting, reporting, and coordination.
• • Child protection knowledge: Education and child protection are deeply interlinked. Understanding safeguarding, child-friendly approaches, and protection mainstreaming is important for all EiE roles.
• • Psychosocial support skills: As learning spaces increasingly integrate PSS activities, understanding of psychosocial approaches and trauma-informed pedagogy is a growing requirement.
• • Community engagement: EiE programs depend on community buy-in. Skills in community mobilization, working with parent-teacher associations, and navigating local education governance are essential.
• • Languages: French is particularly important given the scale of education crises in francophone Africa. Arabic, Spanish, and local languages are valued in specific contexts.

What a Typical Day Looks Like

Here is a snapshot of a day for an Education Officer managing temporary learning spaces in a refugee camp:

• • Morning visit to two learning spaces to observe teaching sessions and check attendance registers
• • Brief coaching session with a volunteer facilitator who is struggling with classroom management for older children
• • Meet with the camp management committee to discuss security concerns near one of the learning spaces
• • Review enrollment data and follow up on children who have stopped attending to understand barriers
• • Coordinate with the child protection team on a referral for a child showing signs of distress
• • Attend the Education Cluster sub-national coordination meeting to share updates and advocate for additional resources
• • Work on the monthly report, compiling data on enrollment, attendance, and learning outcomes
• • Prepare materials for an upcoming teacher training session on inclusive education for children with disabilities
• • Meet with a parent committee to discuss plans for a community-led school feeding initiative

How to Break Into Education in Emergencies

1. Learn the INEE Minimum Standards. These are the foundational framework for EiE practice. Read them, understand them, and reference them in your applications. They are freely available on the INEE website.
2. Get teaching or facilitation experience. Work as a teacher, tutor, youth worker, or after-school program facilitator. Direct experience with children and young people is the most transferable skill in this sector.
3. Take the INEE online courses. INEE offers free professional development courses on EiE fundamentals, the Minimum Standards, and specific technical areas. Completing these demonstrates commitment to the field.
4. Understand child protection basics. EiE professionals need to understand safeguarding, child-friendly approaches, and how education intersects with protection. Take a child protection training course.
5. Volunteer or intern with an education-focused organization. Organizations like Right to Play, Teach For All network members, or local education NGOs provide relevant experience even in non-emergency settings.
6. Specialize where you can add value. If you have expertise in special education, early childhood development, curriculum design, or educational technology, position yourself as a specialist. The sector needs specific technical skills.
7. Apply for field positions. Look for Education Officer, Education Assistant, or Teacher Trainer roles. Browse current education openings to see what is available.

Career Paths and Progression

• • Field implementation track: Education Assistant to Education Officer to Education Program Manager to Education Coordinator to Head of Education. This path keeps you close to schools, teachers, and communities.
• • Technical specialist track: Teacher Trainer to Pedagogical Advisor to Senior Education Technical Advisor to Global Education Director. This path deepens your expertise in curriculum, pedagogy, or a specific sub-area like accelerated education or inclusive education.
• • Coordination track: Education Officer to Education Cluster Coordinator to Regional Education Advisor. This path focuses on coordination, strategy, and inter-agency collaboration.
• • Policy and research track: Field roles to policy or research positions at INEE, ECW, UNESCO, or academic institutions. This path suits people who want to shape the direction of the sector through evidence and advocacy.

Common Challenges

• • Underfunding: Despite progress, education consistently receives a smaller share of humanitarian funding than other sectors. This means doing more with less and constantly advocating for resources.
• • Quality vs. access tension: The pressure to enroll as many children as possible can come at the cost of learning quality. Balancing reach with meaningful education is a constant challenge.
• • Teacher retention: Volunteer and para-teachers are often poorly compensated and may leave for better opportunities. Building sustainable teacher support systems is difficult in emergency contexts.
• • Certification and recognition: Education completed in temporary or non-formal settings may not be recognized by national education systems. Advocacy for certification pathways is an ongoing challenge.
• • Emotional investment: Working with children who have experienced trauma, displacement, and loss is deeply rewarding but also emotionally demanding. Maintaining professional boundaries while being genuinely caring requires constant self-awareness.

Frequently Asked Questions