The Use of Emergency Education and Recreational Kits in Aceh: A Review

Whilst education is increasingly recognized as a crucial component in aid responses
following a natural disaster or complex emergency, relatively little formal research has
been conducted to highlight lessons learned of such interventions. In particular, there
have been few attempts to provide in depth assessments on the individual areas which
constitute an emergency education response following a natural disaster, namely with
regards to: access and learning environment, teaching and learning, teachers and
education personnel, education policy and coordination, participation and resources,
assessment monitoring and evaluation1. In seeking to address this gap, UNICEF’s East
Asia and the Pacific Regional Office contracted a review of their pre-packaged
emergency education and recreation kits in Aceh Province, Indonesia following the
tsunami in December 2004. This review draws on existing literature concerning the use
of pre-packaged kits as instructional and recreational aids in post-emergency settings and
identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of these in Aceh.
Furthermore, a series of recommendations are provided on ways in which the use of the
School in a Box and the Recreational Kit could be improved, including potential content
of future boxes and support materials which could assist in increasing their effectiveness.
The framework chosen for this review is that recommended by the Danish International
Development Agency and is based on the following evaluation categories: efficiency,
effectiveness, impact, relevance and sustainability. In order to ensure a predominant
rights-focus to this review, each category is further considered in relation to the extent to
which education/recreation was made accessible, adaptable, acceptable and available2 as
a result of the School in a Box and Recreation Kits. Triangulation of the information
gathered was made possible through individual and semi-structured interviews with
teachers, students, Child Centre Facilitators, Ministry of Education personnel, UNICEF
staff and NGO partners3. In order to better understand the use of teaching and learning
materials in the classroom, the review included a period of classroom observation in each
school visited. In addition, information from students and children attending the
Children’s Centres was gathered through structured drawing and ranking activities. A key
constraint encountered during the review was the difficulty for teachers and children to
remember details of relief efforts in the first few months following the tsunami, as they were struggling to cope with loss and sudden change during that period. Furthermore,
humanitarian staff currently in post were for the most part not present themselves during
the immediate post-emergency phase and as such, could only relate what they had
garnered from their predecessors.
As with any review of a post-emergency intervention, and particularly with the scale of
the disaster befalling Aceh, the overwhelming logistical challenges in providing
emergency education must be taken into consideration alongside the benefit of hindsight.
This review should in no way detract from the achievements of the UNICEF Indonesia
programme, whose experience will contribute significantly to further improving the
development and use of pre-packaged education and recreational materials in postemergency
settings.