Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Education, on Tuesday urged policymakers, researchers and development partners to use evidence to guide investments in addressing the learning crisis in West Africa.

He said education responses in emergencies had for too long been driven by urgency alone, cautioning that urgency without evidence could waste scarce resources and fail the very children such interventions were intended to serve.

The Minister made the remarks in a statement read on his behalf by Dr Clement Abas Apaak, Deputy Minister of Education, at the opening of the Second High-Level Conference on Education in Emergency (ACCELERATE+) at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.

The conference is being organised by Associates for Change, a civil society organisation in education, in partnership with the Centre for the Studies of the Economies of Africa (CSEA), Nigeria, and the Centre for Studies, Research and Training for Social and Economic Development (CERFODES), Burkina Faso.

It brought together policymakers, researchers, education practitioners, innovators, development partners and financing institutions from West Africa and beyond to discuss ways in minimising the disruption of access to education.

The conference focuses on five themes: education in emergencies and resilient education systems; foundational learning, e-learning, inclusion and educational innovation; and social protection, teacher well-being and safe learning environments.

Mr Iddrisu said the conference was necessary and timely, particularly as the West African subregion faced disasters and conflicts that disrupted access to and delivery of education.

He urged researchers to make their findings clear, timely and usable; policymakers to use the evidence to shape budgets; and development partners to align their interventions with national priorities and long-term commitments.

“Invest in resilience before crisis, not only response during it, with risk analysis, contingency planning and safe school infrastructure. Our systems must be designed to bend without breaking,” he said.

Dr Leslie Casely-Hayford, Director, Associates for Change, called for innovative approaches to ensure that children in conflict and emergency situations continued to have access to education.

She stressed that children should not be deprived of their fundamental right to education because of conflict, displacement, school closures or the absence of teachers.

Dr Casely-Hayford said the conference focused on West Africa because research showed that the subregion faced significant education challenges arising from conflicts.

She called for psychosocial support for teachers to prepare them for deployment to fragile and conflict-affected communities.

Recent global evidence indicates that an estimated 72 million crisis-affected children remain out of school, while a further 127 million who are enrolled are not achieving minimum learning outcomes because of disrupted education systems, inadequate resources, and prolonged emergencies.

These disruptions include climate-related disasters, internal displacement, community conflict, public health emergencies, and socio-economic shocks that disproportionately affect girls, vulnerable children and marginalised communities.

These challenges underscore the urgent need to strengthen education in emergencies through coordinated humanitarian and development action, increased investment, and inclusive learning opportunities that ensure all crisis-affected children can access safe, quality education.

(The figures were cited in the Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Global Estimates Study, published in June 2023).