Standard 10: Facilities and Services

Education authorities and other education stakeholders should ensure that education facilities are in spaces that encourage inclusion and equity and guarantee safety from risks. Sites should have enough space for classes, administration, recreation, and WASH facilities.

Education actors should determine whether sites used before the emergency can be reused or if the learning environment should be moved to a safer and more appropriate location. If education facilities were not built in sites that promoted safety, inclusion, and equity, rebuilding physical structures in the same locations may continue discrimination against certain groups within the community or put learners at risk. Reconstruction plans should ensure that going to school will not expose learners or teachers and other education personnel to avoidable risks. If a school is damaged beyond repair or in an unsuitable location, education planners should determine whether any community buildings can be used for education purposes, such as community halls or sports facilities. Using alternative spaces can limit the disruption of education. If no existing structure is available or additional infrastructure must be added, it may be necessary to construct temporary learning spaces, such as tents.

When deciding where to locate a temporary or permanent learning structure, planners should do the following:

• Carry out protection, conflict, and disaster risk assessments
• Consult with a range of community members, especially those from marginalized or vulnerable groups, such as persons with disabilities, girls, gender diverse children and young people, and ethnic and religious minorities
• Consult with teachers and learners on the best arrangement and form for educational spaces to ensure that they meet their learning and pedagogical needs during emergencies
• Collaborate with the authorities responsible for regulating school infrastructure and make sure to secure land tenure
• Ensure that new sites have adequate escape routes so that everyone can leave safely in an emergency
• Choose sites large enough to accommodate classes and other learning spaces, administration, recreation, and WASH facilities
• When possible, include space for extra classrooms so that multiple shifts will not be necessary if more learners enroll, especially in situations of ongoing displacement
• Work with other sectors, such as camp coordination and camp management, shelter, protection, and health, to advocate for adequate space for education purposes and to make sure that schools and education facilities are close to learners’ homes and other services

(For more guidance, see Comprehensive School Safety Framework; Construction Good Practice Standards)

Education structures should be safe, disaster resilient, and cost-effective to operate. To limit the damage hazards and risks of all kinds do to education, including natural and climate-induced hazards, those who design and build temporary and permanent education facilities should consider the following:

• Structural safety: Qualified professionals should assess the structural safety of damaged buildings and prioritize which buildings are suitable for re-occupancy, repair, retrofitting, or replacement, based on need and cost.
• Building to accepted standards: Temporary and permanent learning structures should be in line with accepted international planning and building standards, or with national and local codes when they are of a higher standard.
• Disaster-resilient design and construction: Education facilities should be resilient to known hazards and risks, such as fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, and landslides. Communities can suggest suitable design options and draw from indigenous knowledge.
• Participatory design and community engagement: Education planners should involve teachers, learners, and community members in designing schools and other education facilities to ensure that they meet everyone’s needs and to increase the community’s sense of ownership. The facilities should provide the resources teachers need to do their jobs and space to store education equipment.
• Good lighting and ventilation: The design and construction of education facilities should include the appropriate use of materials to provide adequate lighting, cross-ventilation, and comfortable internal temperatures. It is important to create a teaching and learning environment that supports the health and wellbeing of learners and of teachers and other education personnel.
• Safety: Learning spaces should be protected by marked boundaries or fencing and clear signage. All schools need first aid kits, fire extinguishers, and emergency escapes on all floors. In some contexts, bomb shelters should be established or made available.
• Costs: Structures should be cost-effective and durable. Communities and education planners can help establish a budget and determine possible current and long-term uses. When possible, infrastructure managers should use local and environmentally friendly materials and labor to build the structure. This will enable authorities and communities to maintain the structure at an affordable cost.
• Local livelihoods: Education planners and infrastructure managers should use local building materials and labor as much as possible. This will help support the community and enable local laborers to develop their skills and capacities. They should promote market-based solutions (including the use of cash transfers or cash-for-work transfers) that support the local economy and community decision-making, and plan for the costs associated with maintaining facilities and early response.

Education structures may be temporary, semi-permanent, permanent, an extension to an existing building, or a mobile structure. Involving different groups from the affected community in joint activities, such as constructing and maintaining education facilities, may promote social cohesion and mitigate conflict. People involved in the construction and rehabilitation of education facilities must be trained in child protection, prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation, and child safeguarding and adhere to safeguarding policies (for more guidance, see Sphere Handbook, Shelter and Settlement Standards; Minimum Standards for Child Protection, Standards 23 and Standard 27; Construction Good Practice Standards)

There is an increasing need to design and construct infrastructure that is resilient to the effects of expected hazards, environmentally responsible, and helps to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis on the safety and accessibility of learning environments. The construction and reconstruction of education facilities should aim to be safer and greener by, for example, adhering to global standards for performance during earthquake shaking, strong winds, and heavy rains, reducing the carbon footprint, and using renewable resources.

Environmental sustainability should be a focus throughout the site selection, planning, design, construction, and maintenance of education facilities, including the following actions:

• Conducting an environmental assessment, such as NEAT+
• Analyzing how to mitigate risks before facilities are built and during the lifespan of the emergency education facilities, such as using nature-based solutions (for more guidance, see Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Humanitarian Action)
• Using reusable supplies when possible, especially for temporary learning spaces
• Using locally sourced materials or, when possible, reusing materials from damaged school facilities
• Using renewable energy, for example, solar and wind sources
• Raising awareness in the community on the climate crisis and how they can help mitigate it, such as helping to plant trees and creating school gardens
• Providing WASH facilities that are sensitive to the climate crisis, for example, by avoiding unnecessary water loss, using renewable energy to pump water, or maintaining a proper waste management system
• Engaging local authorities, families, the community, and schools in using water and energy resources efficiently and reducing carbon footprint

Education planners should design education structures to promote participatory learning and interaction in an inclusive, culturally and age-appropriate way. Spaces need to suit the gender, age, physical ability, and culture of all users. To promote participatory methodologies and learner-centered approaches, learning spaces and seating arrangements should have the appropriate space for each learner and a reasonable teacher-learner ratio. Other design considerations include:

• Who uses the learning space and how, including what type and level of education the space is used for (e.g., ECD, tertiary education, specific subjects)
• Creating learning spaces that allow interactive learning by having multi-purpose spaces, movable furniture, and spaces for doing projects and group work
• Having age-appropriate learning spaces so that younger children have room to play, including outdoors, and furniture of a suitable size, perhaps with protective cushioning for younger learners
• Providing separate learning spaces and teachers of the same gender for girls and boys in contexts where interaction between boys and girls is restricted, or where mixed-gender classes can lead to exclusion
• Maintaining a maximum class size that still allows students to learn and is realistic for the circumstances

The building and furniture, including desks, chairs, and chalkboards, need regular maintenance. Members of the community and the community education committee can volunteer their time or materials, and young people can help them maintain the learning environment. Education planners should make sure that the infrastructure aligns with local market and labor conditions so that local authorities and the community will be able to maintain the structure affordably over the long-term and plan better for the associated costs.

Education planners should provide education facilities that are in line with the principles of universal design. This means that, as much as possible, education services are accessible to all people without having to make special adjustments. This will enable learners with disabilities to access education as readily as others in their community, as outlined in Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Education actors can take steps to help reduce or eliminate the barriers that learners with disabilities face in the classroom, including the following:

When choosing sites, designing, and re/building education facilities, consulting with OPDs, parents and caregivers of children with disabilities, and children and young persons with disabilities

• Creating accessible structures (including WASH facilities) with entrances and exits that can accommodate people who use wheelchairs or other assisted-mobility devices
• Ensuring that the furniture is suitable for the needs of learners with disabilities
• Making sure that classrooms have good lighting, as poor lighting can make learning difficult for children with visual impairments
• Maintaining a reasonable noise level in the classrooms, as loud noise and poor acoustics can make learning difficult for children with hearing impairments
• Ensuring that learners with disabilities can access distance education, for example by providing taped recordings of lessons for those who may not be able to attend online

Temporary structures, such as tents, prefabricated buildings, or buildings originally designed for other purposes, may create extra challenges. For example, they may not be soundproof or the lighting may be poor (for more guidance, see INEE Pocket Guide to Supporting Learners with Disabilities).

Learning environments must have water and sanitation facilities and make hygiene education and practices part of the curriculum. It is essential to ensure that learners of all ages and genders and those with disabilities have equitable access to these facilities and participation in WASH activities. It is important for education actors to collaborate with the WASH and protection sectors to ensure that the facilities and curriculum meet accepted standards. For more information about the key components of WASH, see the Sphere Handbook, Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Standards.

Education stakeholders should consult learners, parents and caregivers, teachers, and other community members about the construction of sanitation facilities. This will ensure that children and young people are able to express their own sanitation needs. Including them in planning or improving the WASH facilities will make sure that they are appropriate for all learners’ age, gender, ability, and culture. The following are things to consider in planning WASH facilities:

• WASH facilities must protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of all who use them.
• Toilets should be in or close to the learning environment. If they are not on the learning site, measures must be in place to protect learners, such as safety escorts.
• Toilet doors should lock from the inside.
• Separate toilets must be provided for boys/men and girls/women in safe, convenient, and easily accessible places. This will help to prevent sexual harassment or abuse. Where possible, gender neutral toilets can be provided for non-binary learners.
• Sphere guidelines call for one school toilet for every 30 girls and one for every 60 boys.
• Learners should be taught to wash their hands to prevent disease transmission.
• Facilities should be located so that people wash their hands before they touch food after using the toilet.
• Menstrual hygiene management facilities and supplies should be available in girls’ facilities, including disposal containers and space to wash hands and menstrual materials.
• Toilets must be safe and accessible for persons with disabilities, and should be adapted, if necessary, to meet their needs.
• Teachers and other education personnel should have toilets that are separate from those for learners.

Learners and teachers and other education personnel of menstruating age should have access to hygiene products and WASH facilities that protect their dignity and wellbeing during menstruation and enable them to participate fully in teaching and learning. It is important to:

• Understand the practices, social norms, and stigma related to menstruation and adapt hygiene facilities and supplies to suit local practices
• Provide menstrual products in discrete locations to protect girls’ and women’s dignity and reduce stigma
• Provide culturally appropriate methods for disposing of sanitary materials
• Work with local women’s rights organizations to procure locally produced, reusable sanitary supplies, if relevant
• Teach about menstruation and puberty in consultation with health, gender, or protection specialists, where possible
• Demonstrate the proper use of unfamiliar sanitary items

(For more guidance, see INEE Guidance Note on Gender; Sphere Handbook, Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Standards, Standard 1.3.)

Providing a safe water source, potable water, and soap is an essential component of safe, protective learning environments and helps to prevent or reduce the spread of contagious diseases, such as cholera and COVID-19. Sphere guidelines for minimum water quantities in schools call for three liters of water per student per day for drinking and hand washing. Social, political, legal, or environmental factors that affect the control of water sources might be contentious, especially during a crisis. It is important that WASH services in education facilities are designed and implemented according to conflict sensitive and do no harm principles so that they do not increase tensions or contribute to conflict.

School-based health and nutrition programs are critical to support learners’ health, wellbeing, and development. These programs connect education to resources in the health, nutrition, and WASH sectors. They can contribute to removing barriers to learning and to promoting healthy development. Programs can include:

• Education on health and nutrition, mental health and wellbeing, including self-care, and sexual and reproductive health and rights
• School meals
• School health services
• MHPSS services
• Communicable disease prevention programs, such as for measles, diarrhea, COVID-19, HIV/AIDS
• MHPSS services
• Identifying and supporting learners with disabilities

During a health crisis, schools can help protect children, young people, and communities by providing safeguards, such as physical infrastructure, water and sanitation, and training in healthy behaviors. Communities can play an important role in creating sustainable, manageable support systems for school meal programs, such as collaborating with local farmers. These programs should follow such guidelines as the World Food Program’s Guidelines on School Feeding. Assessments of school-based health and nutrition interventions should be conducted in collaboration with the relevant national authorities, and with coordination systems like the health or food security clusters. Interventions may be directly supported by other sectors, but it is important that all services are coordinated at the school, local, and national levels (for more guidance, see Sphere Handbook, Food Security and Nutrition Standards).

Education actors should establish links between the learning environment and other relevant sectors, such as child protection, health, nutrition, and MHPSS. Referrals can be made when a learner needs assistance that teachers and other education personnel cannot provide. Learners or their families can be referred as needed; teachers and other education personnel may also benefit from referrals.

Referrals to specialized services may include standard legal and health services or services established to respond to crisis-specific needs, such as:

• Health services, including MHPSS
• Health services for victims of violence, including domestic and SRGBV
• Paramedical services for learners who have disabilities
• Sexual and reproductive health services, including youth-friendly health services for adolescents and young people
• Tracing and reunification for children who are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families
• Legal services, such as supporting civil registration
• Food, CVA, or livelihood support for families at risk of engaging their children in child labor

Communities may have limited access to specialized services, especially during a crisis. Education actors should identify the specialized services available in a community or in a camp setting that are relevant to learners. This may include engaging with stakeholders from different sectors and with representatives from the community and government to identify how service gaps can be addressed. They also can work out what role humanitarian actors can play in providing targeted and temporary specialized services.

If multi-sectoral referral mechanisms are to be effective, they should be established at the school level, and learners, communities, and teachers and other education personnel should learn how to use them. Policy-makers are responsible for establishing links between sectors within policy frameworks and should budget for multi-sectoral collaboration. In crisis situations, clusters and working groups can support cross-sectoral, inter-agency collaboration (for more guidance, see Supporting Integrated Child Protection and Education Programming in Humanitarian Action).