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COVID-19 once again revealed the inherent weaknesses in relying on classroom-based schooling and ICT to sustain learning, a danger already familiar from earlier man-made and natural disasters. A lack of textbooks and lack of guidance for caregivers to support home-based learning limited the effectiveness of efforts to provide continuity of learning. These same elements are the key to preparing better for the next crisis and keeping SDG 4 on track. KeywordsCOVID-19 • Education in emergencies • SDG 4 • Textbooks • Home-based learning • Peer-tutoring • Teachers • Social and emotional learning (SEL)Given the critical role that education plays in the reproduction of modern societies, it should be surprising that school systems rely so widely on a single delivery system-classroom-based, age-graded schooling-that typically has few fail-safe features. Conventional schools regularly shut down for weeks or months at a time in response to recurring crises, and when they reopen they have permanently lost much learning and many students. Despite heroic, creative, and personally exhausting responses on the part of many educators in recent months, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on school systems worldwide appears to be following the typical crisis pattern, though on a larger scale.The future of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 depends on education systems being better prepared for another crisis, whether that's another global pandemic, the massive population displacements triggered by climate change, or on a smaller scale, armed conflicts and natural disasters. Over the last few months, based on an unsystematic, ad hoc * Colette Chabbott

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