Use of the INEE Minimum Standards for Education

The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Minimum Standards for Education embody tremendous potential for global collaboration to protect the delivery of quality educational opportunities for students all over the globe, including in the United States. There are children in the United States who are reared in deplorable conditions, whose frustration and anger at their condition is unbridled and misdirected, who are dismissed by society as academically incapable, and worse. There are children in the United States who are afraid to walk alone to school each morning for fear of being jumped or physically harmed by someone from a different neighborhood. The children that I describe live in the “developed” world, yet they are forced to operate in environments that produce constant crisis. Children know intuitively that they can improve their circumstances if they receive an education. Unfortunately, there is dissonance in this belief, because too often the education they receive is not a quality one. Finding research-based strategies that are proven to deliver quality education to students in emergency situations must be a priority for American educators, families, and advocates. The INEE Minimum Standards for Education are a critical resource for education advocates in the United States.