Evaluating the evidence of crisis impacts on girls’ wellbeing: an ODI report

This report, prepared by Maria Stavropoulou and Nicola Jones, examines the continuing and deepening impact of the economic crisis on girls and young women worldwide.

Long standing economic trends, entrenched gender inequality andausterity budgets have all left girls and their families bearing thebrunt of fewer resources and reduced access to services.

Key findings from the report include:

• Girls drop out of school more – with a 29% decrease in primary school completion for girls versus 22% for boys.
• Family poverty hits girls hardest - a 1% fall in GDP increases infant mortality by 7.4 deaths per 1,000 births for girls versus 1.5 for boys.
• Health cuts leave adolescent girls at greater risk during pregnancy with 14-19 year olds most at risk of death in pregnancy in many countries.This report by Plan and ODI examines the continuing and deepening impact of the economic crisis on girls and young women worldwide.

Renforcer la mesure pour piloter la qualité de l'éducation : une analyse comparative, en rapport au niveau du développement économique, des évaluations nationales sur les acquisitions des élèves

Après une première phase consacrée aux évaluations internationales et régionales, nous nous attachons dans ce rapport à présenter un panorama sélectif des enquêtes nationales. L'accent ici sera placé sur la comparaison des méthodes : sont-elles différentes le long de l'échelle de développement ? En comparant des exemples le long de cette échelle, nous remarquerons l'impact du clivage sur le niveau d'initiative centrale ou décentralisée pour l'école. La pratique des enquêtes montre bien que si l'initiative reste décentralisée souvent l'évaluation peut conduire à décrire le degré d'harmonisation d'un système et offrir une mesure de la nécessité d'une certaine homogénéité du produit scolaire comme une obligation de résultat. Cela renforce la vision tout au long de l'échelle de développement du rôle de biens publics mondiaux qui sont de plus en plus assumés par les savoirs de base. Si la norme en ce domaine reste fixée par les enquêtes internationales, celles-ci permettant de découvrir le problème par comparaison, aussi faut-il identifier là où sont les manettes sur lesquelles les politiques peuvent agir. On retrouve donc la question de l'école efficace par l'éventuelle adoption ou transcription de bonnes pratiques qui viennent de la comparaison internationale. Par ailleurs, se
retrouve tout autant la question de l'école juste qui permet à chacun quel que soient son lieu de vie, ses origines sociales ou culturelles de pouvoir accéder à ces savoirs, qu'ils soient acquis durablement et que ce niveau d'instruction permette d'assurer les capacités nécessaires à l'adulte.

Regards croisés sur la qualité en éducation et formation

Que signifie aujourd'hui la qualité en éducation et formation, dans l'enseignement scolaire, dans l'enseignement supérieur, dans la formation des adultes ou dans la formation continue tout au long de la vie ? C'est pour instruire cette question que l'Agence qualité éducation (IFÉ - ENS Lyon) a demandé à plusieurs chercheurs et experts reconnus au niveau international de livrer leurs expériences et leurs réflexions en la matière. Compte-rendu du Séminaire du 22 et 23 novembre 2011 organisé par l'Agence qualité éducation - Institut français de l’éducation

MADAGASCAR: Funding gap threatens school lunches

AMBOVOMBE, 28 December 2012 (IRIN) - The provision of school lunches to 215,000 children in 1,200 primary schools in southern Madagascar could be suspended by the end of January 2013 if the World Food Programme (WFP) fails to make up a funding shortfall of US$4.84 million. The funds are needed to cover the cost of running the feeding scheme from December 2012 to May 2013 [...] “The school lunches take pressure off the households, helping them to build up stock during the harvest season, so that the food lasts longer,” WFP’s Alvarez told IRIN. “But the impact is much broader than just feeding the children. We started this programme in 2005 after we noticed that the percentage of children who finished school in this region was very low. The lunches are a development strategy for us; the students stay in school longer, learn better, and the community has to organize itself to prepare the lunches. They start to see the school differently; it becomes an important part of the village.”

UNGEI: Gender Analysis in Education

Gender Analysis in Education: Increasing attention has been given to the importance of achieving gender equality in education. To date, however, most efforts have focused on addressing gender parity – an equal number or proportion of girls and boys accessing educational opportunities. Although simple gender parity may be easier to measure, gender equality encompasses a wider concept, of which gender parity is only a part. Gender equality moves beyond access and requires that girls and boys also experience the same levels of quality and outcomes of education.

Majgaard, Kirsten; Mingat, Alain. 2012. Education in Sub-Saharan Africa : a comparative analysis

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa : a comparative analysis: As in most countries worldwide, Sub-Saharan African countries are striving to build their human capital so they can compete for jobs and investments in an increasingly globalized world. In this region, which includes the largest number of countries that have not yet attained universal primary schooling, the ambitions and aspirations of Sub-Saharan African countries and their youth far exceed this basic goal. Over the past 20 years, educational levels have risen sharply across Sub-Saharan Africa. Already hard at work to provide places in primary schools for all children, most countries of the region are also rapidly expanding access to secondary and tertiary levels of education. Alongside this quantitative push is a growing awareness of the need to make sure that students are learning and acquiring the skills needed for life and work. Achieving education of acceptable quality is perhaps an even greater challenge than providing enough school places for all. Thus, Sub-Saharan African countries are simultaneously confronting many difficult challenges in the education sector, and much is at stake. This book gives those concerned with education in Sub-Saharan Africa an analysis of the sector from a cross-country perspective, aimed at drawing lessons that individual country studies alone cannot provide. A comparative perspective is useful not only to show the range of possibilities in key education policy variables but also to learn from the best performers in the region. (Although the report covers 47 Sub- Saharan African countries whenever possible, some parts of the analysis center on the region's low-income countries, in particular, a sample of 33 low-income countries). Although countries ultimately must make their own policy choices and decide what works best in their particular circumstances, Sub-Saharan African countries can benefit from learning about the experiences of other countries that are faced with, or have gone through, similar development paths. Given the large number of countries included in the analysis, the book finds that Sub-Saharan African countries have more choices and more room for maneuver than will appear if attention were focused on only one or a few country experiences. Countries can make better choices when understanding the breadth of policy choices available to them. They are well advised, however, to evaluate the applicability of policy options to their contexts and to pilot and evaluate the results for performance and subsequent improvement.

No upward mobility

In Latin America, only children from well to-do families tend to get a chance to study. Lacking access to higher learning has become a mobilising issue for social activists.

Interview with Ramón Garcia-Ziemsenhttp://www.dandc.eu/articles/220521/index.en.shtml

2012 OER Paris Declaration

2012 OER Paris Declaration: On June 22, 2012 the World OER Congress (held in Paris from June 20 to 22 , 2012) has approved the ‘2012 OER Paris Declaration’. The declaration contains recommendations to:
a. Foster awareness and use of OER.
b. Facilitate enabling environments for use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
c. Reinforce the development of strategies and policies on OER
d. Promote the understanding and use of open licensing frameworks
e. Support capacity building for the sustainable development of quality learning materials
f. Foster strategic alliances for OER
g. Encourage the development and adaptation of OER in a variety of languages and cultural contexts
h. Encourage research on OER.
i. Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing of OER.
j. Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds

Private Schooling for the Public Good

Private Schooling for the Public Good:

Michael Lisman, an education advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbea and former coordinator of PREAL’s Central America Program, recently wrote an article in USAID’s “Frontiers in Development” publication, entitled “Private Schooling for the Public Good.” The article argues that private sector options in the education sector, from private schools to private service delivery, have been underutilized in the region, and that international organizations have traditionally shied away supporting such options in favor of public schools. Lisman argues that aid organizations and Latin American governments should take steps to promote competition in the education sector and to better integrate both private sector options and influences.

To access the article directly, click here. Frontiers in Development is a publication produced in conjunction with the upcoming Frontiers in Development Conference, June 11-13, at Georgetown University.

SABER: World Bank develops new tool to assess education systems

SABER: World Bank develops new tool to assess education systems:

The eight policy goals of the SABER-teachers program. Image from the World Bank website.

In response to growing awareness of the impact that teachers have on the quality of education and student learning, the Human Development Network’s Education Sector at the World Bank recently launched the teachers’ component of its System Assessment and Benchmarking for Education Results (SABER).

SABER-teachers focuses on collecting data about teacher policies around the globe, analyzing it, and then disseminating it through user-friendly tools. The primary output will be a set of 10-page country reports that classifies education systems according to eight policy goals for which all countries should aim. Other soon-to-be-released SABER products include a database allowing countries to compare teachers’ policies and a website providing access to all country reports.

A draft paper entitled "What are the teacher policies of top-performing and rapidly-improving education systems?" (PDF) by Emiliana Vegas and Alejandro Ganimian uses previous ‘benchmarking’ research to understand how top-performing and rapidly-improving education systems perform on SABER-Teachers. [...]

These results will be complemented with additional data collected by SABER in the near future. In the meantime, the new SABER-teachers program promises to be a valuable and innovative tool for education policy research. It will enable countries to evaluate their systems and implement best practices to improve the quality of education worldwide.

Managing Education in Colombia

PREAL Working Paper No. 60: “Managing Education in Colombia 2002-2010” by Cecilia María Vélez, former minister of education of Colombia.

Vélez begins by listing what she believes to be the positive results achieved during her tenure: increased enrollments and access at all levels, and an improvement in the quality of primary and secondary education, as measured by international student achievement tests. She notes that Colombia was fortunate to have continuity in its education policies (Velez served as the Secretary of Education of Bogotá for four years, and then as Minister of Education for eight years).

She argues that establishing a clear vision of the goals to be reached, implementing incentives, creating a systematic approach to improving quality, reorganizing the ministry’s administration, and developing clear, appropriate and timely information systems, along with a coherent, sector-wide communication strategy, were all keys to success.

National Conference on Teacher Policy in Costa Rica

National Conference on Teacher Policy in Costa Rica:

Sparking National Debate and Consultations on Education in Central America

On March 13 and 14 in San Jose, Costa Rica, the Central America and Dominican Republic Chapter of PREAL’s Working Group on the Teaching Profession (CCAD-GTD) held, in collaboration with the Central American Integration System’s Education Coordination (CECC/SICA), the first of seven national workshops on the teaching profession that PREAL will organize throughout the region. These workshops seek to promote debate on teacher policy and showcase innovative policies, such as standards for entry into the profession, systematic induction of novice teachers, and performance evaluations. [...]

Local experts Luis Carlos Morales, a sociologist at the University of Costa Rica, and Soledad Chavarria, owner of an educational consulting firm, opened the second day’s activities as part of a panel moderated by Juan Manuel Esquivel, an expert in student assessment [...]

Chavarria highlighted key findings from the third report of “Estado de la Educación,” which is produced by the State of the Nation Program (Programa Estado de la Nación) and assesses the state of schools and education in Costa Rica. Like Morales, she focused her discussion on teachers and their working conditions, institutional accreditation, and government efforts to improve education. She emphasized that the lack of a target profile for teacher candidates, unacceptable teaching conditions, the lack of an official induction period, and a negative view of teaching as a profession all hinder the quality of education. Generating effective school leadership and establishing an organization to define and monitor the quality of education are crucial to developing high-quality teachers. By strengthening teacher opportunities and working with actors from various social sectors – such as training institutions, teachers unions, and the ministry of education – Costa Rica can work to raise the status of the teaching profession.

Guerre de l'évaluation en Suisse

Guerre de l'évaluation en Suisse:
Le principal syndicat du primaire du canton de Genève a décrété la grève des notes. La Société pédagogique genevoise (SPG) invite les enseignants des 1ère et 2de année du primaire à ne pas remplir le nouveau bulletin imposé par le ministère de l'éducation du canton.

TIMSS 2011. Marcos de la evaluación. Nueva publicación sobre evaluación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de España

TIMSS 2011. Marcos de la evaluación. Nueva publicación sobre evaluación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de España: Esta publicación, Marcos teóricos y especificaciones de la evaluación TIMSS, contiene los marcos teóricos y explica el diseño de las especificaciones de evaluación que sirven como base para la aplicación de la prueba del 2011.

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Biblioteca digital

New: a "Database of best practices in educational facilities investment"

The OECD Centre for Effective Learning Environments (CELE) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched the “Database of Best Practices in Educational Facilities Investment” on 29 September 2011. It seeks to inform the planning, design, construction, management and evaluation of educational spaces, combining resources for strategic investment in educational infrastructure, with exemplary school and university facilities from all over the world.

Drawing on the output of a joint CELE/European Investment Bank project on “Strategic Investment Planning for Educational Infrastructure” and more than 60 exemplary schools and universities featured in CELE’s flagship publication, “Designing for Education: Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities 2011”, this database is a unique international resource for educators, designers, policymakers and researchers alike.

Users of the database are encouraged to add their own resource material, or submit new completed university or school projects for publication on the database.

Le Compte de l'éducation : principes, méthodes et résultats pour les années 1999 à 2009

Les dossiers évaluations et statistiques - DEPP - N°199 - mai 2011

Après mise à jour d'un document non publié, réalisé par Serge PÉANO en février 2006

Le Compte de l'éducation vise à apporter une mesure de l'effort monétaire que la collectivité nationale consacre au système éducatif. Il constitue un compte satellite de la comptabilité nationale. Il a donc un statut de compte économique permettant de rassembler et d'organiser, dans un cadre synthétique, l'ensemble des flux relatifs aux dépenses d'éducation et à leur financement.
Dans ce cadre, la Direction de l'évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance (DEPP) a élaboré une série de comptes homogènes sur la période 1974-1998, selon une méthode présentée dans le Dossier Éducation & formations n° 7, publié en octobre 1990.
Compte tenu des évolutions intervenues depuis cette période, une rénovation du Compte de l'éducation a eu lieu à la fin des années 1990 et au début des années 2000. Ainsi, une méthode rénovée, mais cohérente avec celle des années précédentes, a été appliquée à partir du compte de l'année 1999. De même, à partir de 2006, la mise en place de la LOLF (Loi organique relative aux lois de finances) a nécessité d'adapter la méthodologie du compte à ce nouveau contexte.
Le document présenté ici rassemble donc l'état des principes méthodologiques mis en oeuvre pour la production des comptes de l'éducation au cours des années récentes (1999-2009) et qui restent valables pour les prochains comptes. Ce dossier présente aussi en annexe, sous forme de tableaux de synthèse, les principaux résultats détaillés pour cette même période (1999-2009).

Donors pledge more than US$1.5 billion to Global Partnership for Education; Executive Director Lake urges focus on most disadvantaged by Joan Howe

Copenhagen, 9 November 2011 – Leading donors at the first-ever Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Pledging Conference promised an initial US$1.5 billion over the next three years to put millions more children in school.
The multi-partner global partnership met on 7-8 November in Copenhagen, Denmark, where donors also pledged to increase bilateral funding to support education investment and achieve concrete results in access and quality of education. The pooled education fund aims to secure predictable funding to put 25 million more children in school over the next three years. Developing countries pledged to increase domestic funding for education by more than US$2 billion...

African-Caribbean boys 'would rather hustle than learn'

Mr Cameron, head of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, made the comments in a lecture at an event in Bristol aimed at promoting the educational achievement of black boys and sponsored by the National Union of Teachers.
He noted that in Jamaica boys were at least 10 percentage points behind girls in national tests. Misplaced views about masculinity needed to be tackled in schools.

Black schoolboys can choose to perform poorly to avoid undermining their masculinity, the head of the Jamaican Teachers' Association has said.
Adolph Cameron said that in Jamaica, where homophobia was a big issue, school success was often seen as feminine or "gay" [from BBC News Education & Family]

Capacity Development for Education for All: translating theory into action; the CapEFA Programme

Capacity Development for Education for All: translating theory into action; the CapEFA Programme by Faccini, Benedict; Salzano, Carmela. Paris, Unesco, 2011

Capacity development strategies, building upon a country’s own resource base and emerging from multi-stakeholder dialogue, are the key to modernizing the way in which international development assistance is planned and governments receive, engage in, and coordinate support from their technical partners. Such strategies bolster national leadership and ownership of development processes but, most importantly, move away from a fragmented, project-based approach to development cooperation wherein external assistance is tied to one single actor, or assumes a fixed set of outcomes or results. UNESCO has learned much over the past years from its experiences in capacity building for education, with lessons documented in research reports, project evaluations, assessments, policy and sector reviews and more. This publication offers an opportunity for the Organization to reflect upon its capacity development approach while bringing together some of the crucial achievements and lessons learned through the Capacity Development for Education for All (CapEFA) programme established in 2003.The publication is in no way meant to be prescriptive, or a definitive answer to questions of capacity development. It simply seeks to lay out some of the key elements – using CapEFA as a narrative and working example – and drawing on a wide range of experiences across the world in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States, the Asia and the Pacific region and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Education for all ‘fails’ transgender test: barriers face those of a different gender identity

"Education policy in Thailand has focused on promoting “education for all” and “gender equality,” but what do these terms truly mean and have they been achieved? While the needs of many disadvantaged communities have begun to be addressed, this progress has yet to be seen for transgender students. Transgenders, whose gender identity does not match the sex of their birth, routinely feel out of place at school."

A guest column by Kath Khangpiboon from UNESCO Bangkok's newsletter, "Voices", n° 27, September 2011 p.18.

To go further, you may also want to consult the website of UNESCO-IIEP's Policy Forum on Gender Equality in Education: Looking beyond parity, which will be taking place in Paris on October 3-4, 2011.