Education after natural disasters

What happens to education after a natural disaster?

Natural disasters range from earthquakes to floods, hurricanes to droughts, and include blizzards, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and cyclones. While natural disasters can occur anywhere, certain areas are at greater risk due to their geography, increasing environmental degradation, or heightened levels of poverty, which render them more vulnerable to the impacts and less able to cope with the effects of natural disasters. They change the context in which governments and communities can provide education services to their citizens.

Natural disasters tend to have a large impact on operational capacity. Each emergency presents different problems, challenges, and opportunities, and the response is based on a thorough analysis of the context. There are, however, some key elements that can be observed with regard to the impact of a natural disaster on education. Schools are destroyed, educational infrastructures are damaged, and informational materials and resources are lost. Human loss, including the loss of teachers, education policy makers, and school management personnel, affects institutional capacity and the ability to provide a quality education. Normal processes of educational planning break down during an emergency, weakening the overall system and creating future problems in the development of an inclusive educational system.

The demand for education or the educational needs of a community are subject to change after a natural disaster. The impact of a disaster on education varies from the initial devastation phase to the recovery and reconstruction phases. To adequately comprehend the breadth of the impact on education, it is critical to think about the disaster’s effects on three distinct levels: personal, systemic, and societal.

Adapted from:

De Marcken, N. (2014). Guide to education in natural disasters: How USAID supports education in crises. Retrieved from: https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2155/Natural%20Disasters%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

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