What can we learn from past emergencies?

Thanks for sharing the report, Alessandro. It does put the current challenge into a remarkable perspective, where we can learn from education in emergencies body of knowledge and experience to address the emerging needs of the education community as well as learners.

I fully agree with you Ahmet. This crisis highlights the critical role of public education in our society, especially for our pupils. It is time, now with no hesitation, to rethink education policies and see, at system level, how digital technology, off-line and on-line, could help. We need also to consider to take initiatives to face the digital divide that, otherwise, could exacerbate inequalities,

Absolutely...

#build schools back better..let's hope it wont remain an hollow principle! My research in Haiti was focusing exactly on the disconnection between the narrative to build back better the country after the disaster and the reconstruction practices/politics...in the current narrative on the media I can see many similar messages to what was going on in the immediate aftermath of 2010 in Haiti, but hopefully we learned from the past...

I think it is a matter of what works and what does not, in facing the current challenge. Build back better is always used as a narrative for raising hopes during emergencies and aftermath. After all, we are all human and we need some form of reassurance that things will not remain as is, and they may even change for the better, in which case we can consider the destruction as an opportunity for renewal, as in the case of the Phoenix. There is an urgent need to identify if this is a paradigm shift or a normal course of development. I am for the former. Hence any paradigm shift begs for identifying new set of criteria to understand the new circumstances. Using the old ways and thinking may not and will not work to resolve any challenges we face currently. First we will need to see our strengths and capacity: what remain and has emerged. Any step towards building asks us to consider our strengths and weaknesses as well as any threats and opportunities.

I cannot agree more. Very much indeed. One-size-fits-all is a simplistic reductionist approach which ends up missing essential aspects of a phenomenon. Humanity will need to discover the complexity of the phenomena, ensuring existence and wealth that is inherent in similarities and differences. Any alternative solution will need to have the built-in capability and flexibility of addressing the complexities. Not an easy challenge, of course...