Education systems in crisis: challenges and lessons from recent analyses in West and Central Africa

Crises are recurrent in West and Central African countries, and are often devastating for children’s access to school and learning quality. Yet, education systems are ill-prepared to deal with them and do not have organized information to document their extent and to measure their real effects. This article summarizes the main lessons learned from these experiences and focuses on data availability challenges, proposing that resolving these challenges would provide a better understanding of the mechanisms for achieving sustainable development goal four on quality education.