Since formal education is typically disrupted by crisis, re-establishing schools and services for those who should be attending school area is a fundamental component of emergency education. This responsibility of providing education is compounded when the children come from countries or areas without functioning educational systems/infrastructure, or if they were too poor to access education services. Special attention should be paid to identifying those children not attending school, their reasons for non-attendance and strategies to enhance their attendance. Additionally, it is important to view the needs of the children within the context of the condition of the educational system they are in. The following three scenarios should be considered: No educational system exists. E.g. self-help initiatives by crisis affected populations, refugee camps or repatriation situations immediately following a conflict. Detailed assessment must be conducted of what resources are available and matched to needs to reconstruct an educational system. Some education capacity system exits. E.g. refugee situations where host government has limited capacity in emergency education or post-conflict situations where newly formed Ministries have limited capacity. Emergency education programs must be put into the context of the system and where possible build the capacity of local organizations to respond. Well-established educational capacity exists. E.g. long-established refugee programs, refugee flows into peaceful country with a well established educational system and knowledge of emergency education. The challenges in these scenarios are not only the establishment of systems, but also the negotiation of access to quality education.

The Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP) is an initiative that will develop and conduct a survey to measure a spectrum of literacy levels in developing countries.