The 'education that protects' project: the 'education and fragility barometer': an early warning tool to aid conflict prevention

Schools are often targeted in war and can sometimes also be contributors to conflict by aiding recruitment or acting as locations for ideological indoctrination. The 'Education that Protects' Project seeks to provide a mechanism to complement existing assessment tools for addressing issues of conflict. The idea of an education and fragility 'barometer' or an early warning system, is one such mechanism.

To complement these tools, a set of more practical indicators are outlined in this short document that are more operational in terms of analysing the role of education in relation to fragility/conflict. This ‘education and fragility barometer' offers a working tool that allows fragility comparisons to be made in schools and in countries, at local, national, regional and even global levels. The indicators laid out here focus on the education system at two levels: School and National, and across three domains: Culture, Policy and Practice. The use of the indicators and subsequent development of the ‘barometer’ gives authorities an opportunity to:

• undertake a dialogue at different levels and with various stakeholders on the factors that promote/mitigate conflict in their community/country and the role education plays
• adapt the indicators in the barometer template to ensure they are context specific (although independent assessments should also be conducted to ensure impartiality)
• determine whether they are in the ‘danger zone’ and need to take steps to mitigate the potential for conflict
• to assess where the critical issues are within the education system and identify appropriate mitigation strategies