Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper presents findings from a process evaluation of Caritas-Bangladesh and Caritas-Switzerland's implementation of their Essence of Learning (EoL) program. EoL is an innovative pedagogical approach to support child development needs. It aims to provide psychosocial and educational support to children in crisis or other exceptional living situations through targeted activities using recycled materials that are accessible to children. For EoL, Caritas implements a teacher training with a strong mentorship component that enables educators to teach a typical curriculum through relaxation and play to support children as they recover from traumatic events. The basic concepts of the training can be taught in 4 days, which ensures a quick uptake focused on addressing students’ immediate needs.

Overall, findings from training observations, focus groups, and a post-training survey of educators and mentors indicate that educators find the training useful and feel equipped to work with children using the pedagogical approach after the 4-day training, which focuses on practical instruction with limited written materials. Though educators continue to work with trained mentors for support, the need to continuously develop context-appropriate materials and lessons is difficult for educators after having only recently learned the approach. Results indicate that despite the need for more activities, practice, and feedback, the short training--accompanied by ongoing mentoring from a well-trained peer mentor--can provide educators with a toolkit to deliver education in emergency settings.