“Education cannot Wait – particularly not in the wake of natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies. If education is disrupted by disasters, children are denied their right to develop and unfold their full potential. This is just as true in developing nations as here in the U.S. as we are reminded in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.” - Robert Prouty, Head of the Global Partnership for Education

Read the blog post Prioritizing Education in the Face of Natural Disasters from Rebecca Winthrop, Director of the Center for Universal Education which appeared in the Up Front blog of the Brookings Institute.

Winthrop wrote: “Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast of the U.S. this week, causing widespread damage and school closures. The effects of the storm are a powerful reminder of the type of disaster experienced by many communities around the globe and the need for effective relief. It also brings into focus the role education can play in preparing for and preventing natural disaster. Reopening schools, when safe, should be one of the primary priorities of disaster relief efforts. Children in crisis benefit from the sense of normalcy provided by going to school. Unfortunately, in many cases, educational facilities are destroyed, and recovery is slow and is also hindered by weak systems and infrastructure as well as insufficient funding for rapid disbursement. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the first elementary school in New Orleans reopened three months after the storm. Following the deadly 2010 earthquake in Haiti where more than 4,000 schools were destroyed, schools slowly began to open in the capital after three months. Similarly, as a result of the 2010 floods in Pakistan an estimated 11,000 schools were destroyed and thousands more were used as sites for emergency shelters, further delaying school openings.”

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