About When Learning Stops
When Learning Stops is Teachers Without Borders’s record of what happens when conflict, disaster, displacement, discrimination, repression, and other forces interrupt or conspire against learning.
What is When Learning Stops?
When Learning Stops is Teachers Without Borders’s record of what happens when conflict, disaster, displacement, discrimination, repression, and other forces interrupt (or even conspire against) learning. Sometimes, stories about education in emergencies make the headlines. Often, they don’t.
Even when a sudden or protracted disaster makes the news, global attention is all-too-often short-lived or directed elsewhere. We know that the statistics, stories, photographs, and media are gut-wrenching, but we refuse to turn away. The stakes are too high.
It’s one thing to be made aware of natural and national disasters. We curate verified global reports about their impact on education: on children robbed of their futures, childhood snuffed out, teachers and schools under siege.
We also identify stories that don’t make the headlines: when girls lose educational access because of impossible documentation requirements; when teachers are inexplicably imprisoned because learning fights ignorance and promotes critical thinking; when the slow burn of exclusion undermines education as a basic human right.
How does it work?
When Learning Stops gathers verified reporting from credible sources from humanitarian agencies, global NGOs, established monitors, and legitimate news organizations, including the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), UNICEF, and UNHCR. We look for multiple forms of verification and ensure attribution of every item so you can read it in full and cite it directly. When you share or reference an item, please attribute the original source, not us.
While When Learning Stops is essential reading for anyone who cares about children, we curate verifiable stories with another question in mind: how might we take it a step further and make it accessible in classrooms?
How current it is
While we scour our sources daily, When Learning Stops is not comprehensive, nor is it updated in real-time. When Learning Stops is reviewed and updated once a week. If an event has just happened, the considered reporting on it may not appear here until the following update.
For breaking developments, we suggest you follow the original monitoring bodies directly.
Disclosures
When Learning Stops does not purport to be a primary data source. We do not conduct original investigations or verify incidents ourselves. We draw upon authoritative monitoring bodies. It is a curated companion, not a definitive count.
Please consult our Resources section for organizations and coalitions who have developed sophisticated verification processes.