FIELD NOTE 12 / Keep knowledge / Days 4–14
School is open. The roof situation is being discussed
Preserve learning, daily routines, practical skills, and culture without making children carry adult recovery work.
Your objective
Create an accessible learning routine with trusted adults, useful materials, and a way to include absent learners.
Gather these
- Safe, accessible learning place
- Paper, pencils, and locally understood materials
- Trusted adult facilitators
- Learner-approved goals
- Private safeguarding contacts
The procedure
Protect the learning space
Coordinate with caregivers, teachers, and functioning education services. Check access, water, toilets, weather protection, and a safe way to arrive and leave. Crisis education must include displaced learners and children with disabilities; record barriers and seek practical support.
Start a predictable routine
Agree a manageable time for reading, numeracy, play, creative work, and conversation. Let learners help choose topics. Keep tasks age-appropriate and flexible for people dealing with disruption. A steady routine can matter more than recreating a whole timetable at once.
Teach through safe examples
Use fictional supply lists for arithmetic, ordinary instructions for reading, and drawing or storytelling for communication. Keep children away from hazardous workshop, waste, medical, or salvage tasks. Adult skill training needs its own qualified supervision.
Keep culture with the facts
With permission, collect local stories, languages, songs, art, and practical knowledge alongside technical references. Record the contributor and any restrictions on reuse. Invite different traditions without requiring agreement or treating one voice as the whole community.
Support continuity
Keep a simple private record of learning goals, materials, and who can cover a session. Collect only necessary details, name permitted users privately, and secure the record. Set a review/disposal date; preserve required safeguarding records and obtain competent advice before disposal. Offer take-home materials for safe use when attendance is interrupted. Review safeguarding arrangements with competent local services and make concerns easy to raise privately.
Stop and get help when…
- Unsafe access or a safeguarding concern needs resolution with appropriate protective support before activities proceed.
- Do not publish children's attendance locations. Share names, photographs, or personal stories only after appropriate consent and a safeguarding review; consent does not make an unsafe disclosure acceptable.
A small, safe practice run
Run a short reading or counting activity with ordinary household materials. Ask participants what helped, what was confusing, and what would make access easier.
Your field worksheet
Copy these prompts onto paper. Keep personal information private.
- Place / access / caregivers / safeguarding contact:
- Learning goals / materials / routine:
- Facilitator / backup / absent learner support:
- Feedback / barriers / next adjustment:
Sources and limits
Sources checked . The sources support the safety and reference facts; the worksheet and drill are Oikos planning suggestions.
- UNICEF: Education in emergencies
- UNICEF: Ethical reporting guidelines
- ICRC: Handbook on data protection in humanitarian action, third edition (2024)
Regional examples need local adaptation. For specialized treatment, building work, waste systems, or food processing, use qualified help and complete technical references.
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