Safe Back to School: A Practitioner's Guide

  • A Advocacy Campaign/Project

? Activity Status: Unknown

Key Information

As governments prepare to reopen schools and other learning sites, ministries and school communities must minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19 within learning spaces and address the learning inequalities and protection concerns exacerbated by COVID-19 school closures, particularly for girls and other marginalised groups. Lessons learned from the COVID-19 school closures must inform disaster and emergency preparedness for future outbreaks of COVID-19 alongside other contextually specific hazards that might further jeopardize children’s rights to learn, be safe and survive.

Program teams can use this guide to inform the planning and implementation of activities to support an integrated, participatory, safe return to school for the communities they support. The guide aims to be a user-friendly, practitioner-focused tool that outlines the key steps needed for a coordinated, inclusive, all-hazards approach to school reopening and links to further guidance where appropriate.


Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

Global

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

2020 -

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

New for COVID-19

Geographic Scope

Global / regional

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Attainment

  • Primary enrollment
  • Secondary Enrollment

Quality

  • School facilities
  • School quality

Cross-cutting areas

  • Community sensitization
  • COVID-19 Response
  • Emergencies and protracted crises
  • Gender equality

Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Boys (both in school and out of school), Girls (both in school and out of school), Youth

Age

5 - 18

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

  • Lower primary
  • Upper primary
  • Lower secondary
  • Upper secondary

Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Community engagement/advocacy/sensitization

  • Community mobilization
  • General awareness-raising/community engagement
  • School management committees

Facilities construction/improvement

  • Construction/improvement of classrooms

Life skills education

  • Gender, rights and power

School-related gender-based violence

  • Safe and welcoming schools
  • Support in and around schools (e.g. peer counseling, adult-to-student counseling)

Social/gender norms change

  • Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents
  • Work with community leaders

Teaching

  • In-service teacher training – pedagogy general

Women's empowerment programs

  • Advocacy/action

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Increased re-enrolment in school among out-of-school children
  • Increased school enrolment (general)
  • Reduced absenteeism

Cross-cutting goals

  • Improved critical consciousness
  • Improved mental health
  • Improved nutrition
  • Increased advocacy/civic engagement
  • Increased agency and empowerment
  • More equitable gender attitudes and norms