UNHCR Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa - Education Newsletter #22

Teachers have been on the front line in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly added to the already immense challenges they face in subSaharan Africa. Despite these many challenges, in the WCA region, teachers in emergency and displacement settings have worked hard to find innovative solutions and create new learning environments for their refugee and displaced students to ensure that learning could continue amidst school closures. With UNHCR’s support, nearly 35,000 children were thus supported in the region since March.

But this daily work carried out by teachers to ensure the right to education and a future for refugee and displaced children is too often endangered in many countries in the region, where they are threatened, kidnapped, or killed for the simple reason that they are teachers. We need to remember that teachers are the leaders we need to reimagine the future of education in times of crisis and that they need our support to continue to be essential role models for all refugee children around the world who strive to learn regardless of the obstacles.