| |
| The
EFA Working Group calls for more resources for
education
July 21, 2005 -
As the world pledges more development assistance
in 2005, the 6th EFA Working Group, meeting
in UNESCO from 19 to 21 July, called for greater
resources for education for all. "It was
an extremely successful meeting," says
Peter Smith, UNESCO Assistant Director-General
for Education, "and we are on track to
have the most significant global meeting on
education in recent history (the EFA High-Level
Group)in Beijing next November. The post-Gleneagles
environment demands a strong response from the
world and we will help to provide it."
In debates, education for rural
people - with their specific needs and contexts
- and literacy for adults emerged as top concerns
in the struggle to meet the education for all
goals. A Joint Action Plan, discussed in one
session, should lead to better international
coordination once the EFA High-level Group has
met to endorse it. That meeting is also expected
to develop political momentum for these priorities.
·
UNESCO's
Director-General welcoming remarks
· Keynote
address by the Chair of the Development Assistance
Committee (DAC)
. Flash
Info
· Presentations
· Side
meetings |
| |
Working
Group on EFA to meet on 19 July
July 13, 2005 - The 6th Meeting of the
Working Group on EFA will take place at UNESCO
from 19 - 21 July. This meeting will focus on
literacy, education for rural people, resource
mobilization and aid effectiveness, and a joint
action plan to achieve EFA by 2015. Participants
include 11 country representatives, 11 bilateral
donors, 7 multilateral agencies, 22 civil society
representatives, 6 regional organizations as well
as UNESCO Regional Bureaux and Institutes. A full
week of activity around different aspects of EFA
starts on Friday, 15 July, with a meeting of the
UN Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI). Other
side meetings scheduled until 22 July include
the Fast-Track Initiative, the Coordination Group
of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on EFA
and UNESCO's new Literacy programme, LIFE.
>> For
regular updates consult the EFA website |
| |
New
toolkit on hygiene, sanitation and water in schools
July 13, 2005 - The World Bank, UNICEF
and the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) have
developed a toolkit to assist policy makers, public
health specialists, technical engineers, educational
specialists, social and development experts and
other professionals to set up hygiene, sanitation
and water programmes in schools. It provides an
overview of tools and steps for successful participatory
planning and implementation of such programmes.
>> Available
online and on CD-Rom. Contact: Whelpdesk@worldbank.org |
| |
G-8
gives a $50 billion aid boost for Africa
July 11, 2005 -The
G-8 Summit agreed a $50 billion aid boost by 2010
The G8 leaders also reiterated that the debts
of eighteen of the poorest countries in Africa
would be forgiven, as agreed by the G-8 Finance
Ministers in June. In their communiqué, the leaders
also announced that "they would work to support
the Education for All agenda in Africa including
continuing our support for the Fast Track Initiative
(FTI) and our efforts to help FTI-endorsed countries
to develop sustainable capacity and identify the
resources necessary to pursue their sustainable
educational strategies."
>> The
Gleneagles Communiqué |
| |
On
the eve of the G-8 Summit, British pupils give
Tony Blair cut-out 'friends'
July 6, 20005 - On International White
Band Day, 1 July, Tony Blair met a delegation
of London school pupils who handed him messages
and cut-out 'Friends' from children from around
the world. At least 5 million children in over
110 countries have showed their support for the
Global Campaign for Education's Send My Friend
to School campaign by making 'friends' and presenting
them to prime ministers, presidents and parliamentarians.
The 'friends' carry the campaign's call to leaders
to 'educate now to end poverty', as well as personal
messages from the children who made them. The
total number of 'friends' made now exceeds 3,500,000.
More
|
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Unprecedented
mobilization for G-8
July 1, 2005 - July is the high point in
an unprecedented mobilization by civil society
organizations in favour of education to end poverty.
On 1 July, some of the world’s most famous landmarks
will be adorned with huge white bands, as part
of a curtain-raiser to a week of global action
during which campaigners in 72 countries will
call for action to end poverty. On 2 July, celebrities
will organize LIVE 8 - a series of concerts (in
Barrie (Canada), Berlin, Edinburgh, Johannesburg,
London, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Tokyo)
calling on the G-8 leaders meeting in Scotland
(6-8 July) to provide more aid and fair trade
and cancel debt. The Asian South Pacific Bureau
of Adult Education (ASPBAE) and the Global Campaign
for Education (link) have published "Must do Better":
a ‘School Report’ of 14 countries in Asia/Pacific
showing poor commitment to basic education. This
mobilization follows up on the Send my Friend
to School campaign organized from 24 to 30 April,
when 3.5 million children made cut-out 'friends'
representing out-of-school children. One million
of these 'friends' will travel to Scotland to
ask G-8 leaders to more to provide education for
all.
>> White
Band Day
>>
Live8 Concerts
>> "Must do
Better"
>>
EFA
Week 2005 |
| |
UNESCO's
Director-General writes to Kofi Annan and G8 leaders
to support Education for All
June 30, 2005 - UNESCO Director-General
Koïchiro Matsuura has written today to the U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the G8 leaders
in advance of the forthcoming G8 Summit, to be
held at Gleneagles, Scotland, United Kingdom on
6-8 July 2005. In his letter to the leaders of
the major industrialized countries, Mr Matsuura
reminded them of the central importance of education's
contribution to achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG's). He urged the G8 leaders to mobilize
increased financial aids for developing countries
having a sound policy framework and the potential
to deliver on their EFA commitments. In his letter
to UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the Director-General
highlighted how the year 2005, through the G8
Summit and the UN Millennium+5 Summit in New York,
provides "an outstanding opportunity to advance
the global agenda for poverty alleviation and
to mobilize international support for achieving
the MDGs". More
|
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Debt
swap for education in Brazil
June 28, 2005 - Following the Argentine
experience, whose 60 million Euros debt with Spain
was converted into investments in Education, the
Brazilian Government has defended the educational
swap as an alternative to enhance the financing
of education in the region. The cause has gained
resonance both nationally and internationally.
More
|
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What
is the European Union doing for education in developing
countries?
June 17, 2005 - Education International
and its partners of the Global Campaign for Education
will organise a hearing at the European Parliament
on 22nd June to investigate the European Union's
plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) related to education. The European Union
is a major promoter and financial contributor
to the achievement of the MDGs. However, the Global
Campaign for Education stresses the need for the
EU to allocate more specific resources to education
and gender parity. More |
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Dakar
+5 Forum opens today
June 13, 2005 - An international 3-day
EFA Forum opens today in Dakar. Organized by UNESCO
Dakar, the Forum will review progress towards
Education for All, highlight initiatives that
have proven their worth and identify barriers
to the EFA process. A regional report prepared
by the Pôle de Dakar team at UNESCO’s regional
office in Dakar - Education for All: Paving
the Way for Action - will be launched during
the meeting.
>> Draft
Agenda
>> Progress
todate
>> Download
Report and Summary |
| |
G8
Finance Ministers Agree to Cancel Debt for 18
Nations
June 13, 2005 - The Group of Eight (G8)
finance ministers have agreed to a proposal canceling
100 percent of debt obligations owed to the World
Bank, African Development Bank, and International
Monetary Fund (IMF) by eighteen countries, says
U.K. Treasury Secretary John Snow. In a June 11
statement following the G8 finance ministers meeting
in London to prepare for July's G8 summit in Gleneagles,
Scotland, Snow said, "Relieving poor countries
from their debt burdens so they can focus on meeting
their development goals is an important element
of President Bush's comprehensive development
strategy for Africa." More
>> Caution
over G8 plan for debt relief (Financial Times,
U.K.)
>> Museveni
Backs Blair On Africa Aid (The Monitor, Uganda)
|
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World
Day Against Child Labour calls attention to child
mining
June 12, 2005 - According to the most recent
figures compiled by the International Labour Organization
(ILO), there are more than 246 million child labourers
between the ages of 5 and 17 in the world today.
Over 100 million of these have no access to education
of any kind. For most, getting time to play is
a luxury they simply cannot afford. This year
World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) calls our
attention to a form of work that is dangerous
to children in every way. More
>> Article
on child mining
>> Digging for Survival Brochure - English
/ French
/ Spanish
|
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New
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz takes office
June 8, 2005 - World Bank President Paul
Wolfowitz said on taking office on 1 June that
his immediate goal on taking over from outgoing
President James Wolfensohn is to help Africa become
“a continent of hope.” Wolfowitz, who began his
duties as the tenth president of the World Bank
in its 61-year history, said there are promising
signs that some African countries are growing
strongly enough to reduce poverty, but that there
are still enormous challenges preventing much
of the continent delivering real gains in poverty
reduction. More
|
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USAID
Revamps Education Strategy
June 6, 2005 - USAID has reported that
the federal agency that helps underwrite schooling
in developing countries released a new education
strategy that broadens the agency's traditional
focus on increasing access to paying more attention
to the quality of schooling. The strategy provides
a framework for the U.S. Agency for International
Development to become more involved with informal
education, secondary education, workforce development,
and higher education."We want to discipline ourselves
to say, 'It's not just the number of classes and
kids,' but rather, 'Are they really learning?'
" John Grayzel, the director of the office of
education in the USAID's bureau for economic growth,
agriculture, and trade, said in an interview.
" More
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Treat
rural schools as special case, South African report
urges
May 30, 2005 - Rural schooling is in crisis
and rural education should be resourced and organised
differently from that in urban schools. "The state's
commitment to social justice in all matters and
especially to universal access to education ...
remains unfulfilled for large numbers of children,
youths and adults living in rural areas," says
a South African ministerial committee report on
rural education, due for release next week. The
report observes that reliable rural data is urgently
needed, as existing government databases on education
do not provide separate statistics on rural schools.
However, millions of children are affected. More
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Inclusive
education in India: a lot of talk but not enough
action?
May 26, 2005 - India is committed to fulfilling
the goal of education for all and 'inclusive education'
is now a feature of various government documents
and plans. However, between 35 and 80 million
of India's 200 million school age children do
not attend school. Research based in the UK's
University of Cambridge analyses how 'inclusive
education' is understood in India and what influences
decisions to include or exclude children. More
|
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EFA
Week: at least half a million cut-out 'friends'
have been made
May 24, 2005 - Latest figures in from countries
have boosted the number of cut-out 'friends' made
to at least half a million 'friends' across the
globe. With reports of an amazing 44,000 'friends'
made in Greece and 30,000 in Nepal, the global
total has risen to over half a million - with
the Global Campaign for Education is hoping to
confirm much bigger numbers in the coming weeks.
In the UK, an estimated 350,000 'friends' have
already been made toward the 1 million total to
be presented to the G8 Summit, in July. More
>>> Send
an online 'friend' |
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Indigenous
Education is part of Education International's
Education For All challenge
May 21, 2005 - For Education International
(EI), there can be no sustainable development
for Indigenous Peoples without quality Indigenous
education. As part of its commitment to promote
Education For All, EI is raising awareness about
critical education issues for Indigenous Peoples.
300 million Indigenous Peoples live in over 70
countries and represent 4 per cent of the world's
population. For most Indigenous Peoples, education
has been used as one of the tools in the destruction
of their culture. It has been part of the process
of assimilation. More
|
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Education
in Africa: what makes a good SWAP?
May 20, 2005 - Governments and funding
agencies are increasingly recognising the need
for more secondary and post-basic education as
a result of the expansion of primary education.
Developing a comprehensive nationally-owned sector-wide
strategy would be a good start. Sector wide approaches
(SWAPs) to education are being promoted in response
to achieving Education for All by 2015. But what
are the key issues in the development and implementation
of a SWAP in education?
More |
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Monitoring
EFA progress in the Philippines
May 19, 2005 - Two EFA bodies have been
launched in the Philippines: the National EFA
Network and the National Education Watch. The
EFA Network is a community-based network of organizations
working for EFA, while the National Education
Watch is a monitoring mechanism for keeping track
of progress in EFA in the Philippines. Both were
launched during a national conference on 26 April.
More
|
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$28
million for Cambodia's basic education
May 17, 2005 - The World Bank has approved
$28 million to expand access to Cambodia's educational
services by addressing constraints on supply,
demand, quality and efficiency, with special focus
on poor and underserved communes. The project
components are to support the Education Facilities
Development Program in providing lower secondary
schools, to focus on strategic interventions around
decentralized quality improvement in order to
encourage right-age enrollment, and to address
the implementation of additional selected interventions.
More
|
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African
Vocational Education Conference Starts in Kasane
May 11, 2005 - Over 200 delegates turned
up for the fifth African Regional International
Vocational Education and Training Association
(IVETA) conference, which started in Kasane on
Sunday. The conference, which ends on Sunday,
is attended by delegates from Africa and beyond.
More
|
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EFA
Week's resounding success
May 9, 2005 - After a tireless week of
campaigning, the Global Action Week for education
came to an end, leaving the corridors of power
resounding with the call to Send my Friend to
School. Children and young people in over 100
countries have shown their passion in demanding
the basic right of every child to receive a quality
education. Politicians have responded to their
calls by making firm commitments and pledges on
education in countries across the globe. More
|
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New
role for public-private partnerships in basic
education
May 4, 2005 - Speaking last week at the
second "Round Table on Development-Driven Public-Private
Partnerships in Basic Education: Practitioners'
Solutions," organized by the World Economic Forum,
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura invited
the participants to consider ways in which substantive
action through policy advice, capacity-building
and country level projects could be achieved.
Mr Matsuura expressed his confidence that the
forthcoming UN High-level Dialogue on Financing
for Development as well as the Millennium Review
Summit in September and the EFA High-level Group
in Beijing would be good opportunities to draw
the attention of donors to the increasing relevance
of public-private partnerships in education."
More
|
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"Friends"
meet politicians during EFA Week
May 2, 2005 - According to Global Campaign
for Education estimates, 3000 politicians have
gone Back to School, while over 100,000 "friends"
have been made, and hundreds of thousands of children
and young people joined the Send my Friend to
School campaign. More events are planned over
the next few days. Young people have been able
to deliver their 'friends' and discuss their demands
for more and better education in high places,
including the Presidents and Prime Ministers of
seven countries (Niger, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Peru, Senegal, Ivory Coast)
and by thousands of parliamentarians in over 100
countries. More
|
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Millions
of children say: "Send my Friend to School"
April 22, 2005 - Young people and education
activists in more than 100 countries will join
together this week to protest world leaders’ failure
to meet a major UN target on girls’ education
this year – a failure they say will lead to greater
poverty and unnecessary child deaths. Five years
ago, governments of the world promised to get
equal numbers of girls as boys into school by
2005. The target – the first of all the UN’s Millennium
Development Goals to fall due - will be missed,
and experts believe that a second Millennium target
for giving every child a quality primary education
is also at risk.
>>
Global Campaign for Education Press Release
|
| |
Aid
to education: new 'school report card' out
April 20, 2005 - A new "school report card",
just released by the Global Campaign for Education
(GCE), ranks countries on their aid to education.
This second report "reveals that 100 million children
are still out of school because G7 and other rich
countries are simply failing to provide the funding
needed for a quality education," says the GCE.
The report grades countries on the quantity and
quality of education aid they provide to poor
countries. Norway scores at the top of the class
with an A, followed by Netherlands, and "B" ranked
Sweden, Ireland and the UK. Most donor countries
are failing to deliver: five of the G7 rank in
the bottom half of the class, with a combined
grade of 'D', and the US comes bottom with an
'F'.
>>>Read the report: English
/ French
/ Spanish
|
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Aid
to education: new 'school report card' out
April 20, 2005 - A new "school report card",
just released by the Global Campaign for Education
(GCE), ranks countries on their aid to education.
This second report "reveals that 100 million children
are still out of school because G7 and other rich
countries are simply failing to provide the funding
needed for a quality education," says the GCE.
The report grades countries on the quantity and
quality of education aid they provide to poor
countries. Norway scores at the top of the class
with an A, followed by Netherlands, and "B" ranked
Sweden, Ireland and the UK. Most donor countries
are failing to deliver: five of the G7 rank in
the bottom half of the class, with a combined
grade of 'D', and the US comes bottom with an
'F'.
>>>Read the report: English
/ French
/ Spanish
|
| |
Reporting
on Education for All in the Arab Region
April 18, 2005 - Journalists and media
professions from the Arab region are attending
a 5-day training workshop that opened yesterday
in Doha on writing and reporting on Education
for All. The aim: to give participants a better
understanding of EFA; to improve their skills
to analyze education budgets, policies and systems
and to investigate the advances towards the EFA
goals; to provide access to a wider range of statistics
and information; and to sensitize participants
to such educational targets as girls' and women's
education and the education of the disadvantaged
and those with special needs. The training is
organized by UNESCO and Al Jazeera.
>>>Working
schedule |
| |
Nigerian
students' performance has fallen
April 7, 2005 - The standard of education
in Nigeria has not fallen, rather it is the performance
of students in examination that has continued
to fall. This was the thrust of a presentation
by Senior Deputy Registrar and Head, Research
Division, WAEC, Dr. Sammuel Olu Adeyegbe at a
one-day special seminar. Adeyegbe said that massive
changes have taken place within the educational
system over the years, which have impinged on
several critical variables in the teaching and
learning system. More
|
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EFA
Working Group's Minutes are available
April 7, 2005 - The Meeting of the Thematic
Working Group on EFA for East and South-East Asia
that met on 9 March discussed a number of EFA
Flagship Initiaives. The Minutes of this gathering
are now available.
>>> Meeting
Minutes
>>>
List of participants and photos |
| |
Commonwealth
of Independent States' Education Ministers discuss
EFA
April 4, 2005 - Some 200 participants will
come together at the Tenth Commonwealth of Independent
States' Ministers Conference, in Minsk, Belarus,
from 5 to 6 April. Among them will be Education
Ministers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In a series of ten workshops,
participants will debate on Education for All
and Education for Sustainable Development.
>>> Provisional
List of Participants >>> Draft
Programme |
| |
European
Regional Meeting on Literacy opens in Lyon
April 1, 2005 - About 150 policy-makers
and representatives of research institutes, universities,
and providers of literacy and literacy experts
from 50 countries will attend the European Regional
Meeting on Literacy from 2 to 5 April, in Lyon,
France. It's purpose is to improve policy and
practice in the field of literacy and citizenship
in Europe. Workshops will be held on topics such
as: literacy in the family, in the workplace,
in the community and public spaces; literacy for
migrants, offenders, Romas, women and young adults;
and capacity building and toolkit development.
The meeting is organized by the UNESCO Institute
of Education, the French National Commission for
UNESCO, the Agence Nationale de Lutte Contre L´Illettrisme
(ANLCI), and the European Association for the
Education of Adults (EAEA) with support from the
European Union.
>>>
Meeting Summary >>>
Programme >>>List
of Participants |
| |
How
schools influence gender identity
March 3,1 2005 - Research in Botswana and
Ghana indicates that daily life in schools is
affected strongly by gender. A joint project by
researchers at the University of Sussex in the
UK, the University of Botswana and the University
of Cape Coast in Ghana found that institutional
practices and traditions can lead to a highly
gendered school environment rarely challenged
by students or teachers. More |
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Ugandan
children flock to school, but quality suffers
March 29, 2005 - In 1997 Uganda resolved
to achieve universal primary education (UPE).
Within five years, the number of children in primary
schools almost trebled. However, pupil:teacher,
pupil:textbook and pupil:classroom ratios have
all worsened. A report from Uganda’s Economic
Policy Research Centre looks at how Uganda pays
for primary education. Whilst the authors welcome
government investment and hail success in getting
girls into school, they point to inconsistencies
and inefficiencies in the way funds are spent.
More
|
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New
Girl Child Campaign in South Africa
March 21, 2005 - Mobile operator Cell C,
a private company, has launched its third annual
Take a Girl Child to Work Day campaign, and aims
this year to achieve participation figures of
around 200 000 girl learners countrywide. The
aim of the project is to provide female learners
in grades 10, 11 and 12 with the type of workplace
experiences that broaden their career thinking
and highlight the important role women have to
play in South African society. More
|
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Vers
un avenir meilleur pour tous
11 mars 2005 - En janvier 2005, le Département
du Royaume-Uni pour le développement international
a lancé sa nouvelle stratégie d’éducation en faveur
des filles « Vers un avenir meilleur pour tous
». La stratégie vise à réaliser l’objectif du
Millénaire pour le développement, fixé à 2015,
de l’égalité des genres dans l’éducation. Elle
est soutenue par un engagement de 1,4 milliard
de livres pour l’éducation sur les trois prochaines
années. EQUALS, la lettre d’information du projet
Beyond Access, rend compte (pages 8-9). Pour
en savoir plus |
| |
Failure
on girls' education target shames the world
March 8, 2005 - On International Women's
Day, the Global Campaign for Education has released
a new report slamming world leaders for their
failure to achieve the first and most critical
of all the Education for All and Millennium Development
Goals - getting equal numbers of girls and boys
into school by 2005. A majority of developing
countries are set to miss the target, and new
research shows that an extra 1 million child deaths
will occur this year alone because of failure
to close the education gap facing girls. More
|
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American
universities set to support EFA
March 3, 2005 - UNESCO and the United States
organized a one-day conference on 28 February
to discuss the role America's universities can
play in Education For All. Among the participants
were First Lady Laura Bush, the US Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings and UNESCO Director-General
Koïchiro Matsuura. "I believe that the vibrant
civil society of the United States - the only
superpower, a country that has built its progress
on educational foundations - can do more, much
more, to help less fortunate countries achieve
their educational goals", said Matsuura in opening
the conference. "American colleges and universities
have a unique opportunity to help UNESCO meet
its goals of advancing literacy, training teachers
and using education and science to fight HIV/AIDS,"
said Laura Bush. More
|
| |
Calling
higher education to a higher calling
February 28, 2005 - UNESCO and the University
of Georgetown (U.S.) is hosting a Conference today
at Georgetown University to discuss the role of
America’s colleges and universities in achieving
Education for All by 2015. This is an opportunity
for working scholars from many colleges and universities
in the United States to learn about possible opportunities
to engage with EFA and to dialogue with U.S. government
officials, UNESCO experts, foundations and other
organizations.
>>> Conference
overview
>>>
Conference website |
| |
Traumatised
Kids to Get School
February 22, 2005 - Uganda and Belgium
are building a special boarding primary school
to cater for traumatised children in war-torn
northern Uganda. "The Government and Belgium are
constructing a model boarding primary school,
which will accommodate 700 children. It will be
completed in September," she said Ugandan Education
Minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire. More
|
| |
ADEA
assists Madagascar in developing its EFA communication
strategy
February 18, 2004 - From 7 to 18 March,
Madagascar will host in Antananarivo a training
workshop organized by the Association for the
Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Some
forty journalists and communication officers are
expected to attend the workshop that will focus
on developing a communication strategy to accompany
education reforms being carried out by Madagascar's
Ministry of Education. More
|
| |
Education
"not a ladder out of poverty", South African report
says
February 14, 2005 - "For many, education
cannot compensate for much deeper economic and
social inequalities - it is not a ladder out of
poverty." This is how the authors of the report
of the Human Sciences Research Council released
last week sums up its findings on education in
South African rural communities. The researchers
say education in very poor conditions is not a
panacea. "Even those with good matric passes are
unlikely to find employment if they remain in
the villages", they say. More
|
| |
Petition
calls for democratic oversight of Bretton Wood
Institutions
February 10, 2005 - Parliamentarians and
campaigners have started an International Parliamentarians'
Petition calling for democratic oversight of the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF). The petition is a practical way to assert
support for the principle of parliamentary sovereignty
and to call for parliaments to be fully involved
in the development and scrutiny of IMF and World
Bank policies. Over 800 legislators from around
the world have already signed. More
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Mandela
and Machel support "Send my friend to school"
campaign
February 9, 2004 - Young people active
in the Global Campaign for Action in the UK took
centre stage with Nelson Mandela in a massive
rally ahead of the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting.
The kids told the crowd of 22,000 people that
they are demanding action from world leaders this
year to "Send our Friends to School" - and both
Mr Mandela and his wife, Mrs Machel, have pledged
their support. More
|
| |
Boosting
Education for All in Southern Africa
February 7, 2005 - National EFA Coordinators,
NGO representatives and education experts from
Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe
will meet today for a 3-day discussion on Education
for All. The gathering "Joining Hands and Taking
Action for Education for All” is co-hosted by
World Education, the Open Society Initiative for
Southern Africa (OSISA) and UNESCO.
>>> Concept
paper
>>> Tentative
agenda |
| |
Vietnamese
journalists briefed on Education for All
February 7, 2005 - A two-day workshop in
Do Son, Hai Phong, (Viet Nam, 19 - 20 January)
briefed twenty-five journalists from newspapers
and radio and television stations about Education
for all worldwide and at home. Participants discussed
ideas for enhancing the news value of educational
stories and developing new story angles. The workshop
was based on the Media Training Kit: Education
Makes the News, developed jointly by UNESCO, the
Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development
(AIBD) and the Commonwealth of Learning. More
|
| |
Funding
for education of Liberian ex-combatants
February 4, 2005 - UNDP Policy Advisor
Charles Achodo has disclosed that his agency has
received more funding to settle the present caseload
of Liberian ex-combatants who were thrown out
of school for tuitions. Mr Achodo told journalists
that the amount would meet the school needs of
the remaining 3,793 ex-combatants out of the 11,000
ex-combatants that are in various schools in the
country. More
|
| |
Education
ranked high at Davos
February 1, 2005 - Education is among the
most important issues facing the world today,
according to the business and political leaders
who voted on top priorities for the World Economic
Forum's agenda on Wednesday. The leaders chose
poverty, equitable globalisation and climate change
as the top three issues, but voted education into
next place because, they said, it is key to beating
poverty and sustainable development, reports the
Global Campaign for Education. The Global Governance
Initiative's annual report launched at Davos slammed
rich countries for providing only a fraction of
the aid needed to deliver universal education,
and slated the private sector for its apathetic
response to the global education crisis. The report
raised serious concern that the 2005 goal for
gender parity in education will be missed, and
called on the G8 to act decisively on education
this year. More
>>>The
full report |
| |
UK
announces $10 billion-a-year plan for UPE
January 27, 2005 - The UK's development
minister has pledged to invest 1.4 billion pounds
over the next 3 years to improve education opportunities
in poor countries, particularly for girls. The
Global Campaign for Education welcomed the announcement,
saying it represents an important down payment
on the UK government plan outlined by Gordon Brown
in Nairobi last week to get every child into school
by mobilising US$10bn a year for education through
the International Finance Facility. More
>>> U.K.
Department of International Development |
| |
Education
at
the World Social Forum
January 26, 2005
- UNESCO is participating for the fourth time
in the Porto Alegre Forum, which opens today.
A novel feature this year is the Learning Societies
Conference III, a 'learning space’ for exchange,
involving a number of individuals and groups from
Latin America and the Caribbean who have turned
toward a ‘search’ for new meaning in their lives,
reclaiming control over their own learning process.
Five workshops are being organized on: cultural
regeneration, learning processes in indigenous
communities, diversity of learning styles, unlearning
and walk-outs. More
|
| |
Measuring
Africa’s progress towards gender equality
January 25, 2005 - Devising strategies
to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of
providing universal access to education for girls
is complicated by the unreliability of data. The
complex gender dynamics involved in education
cannot be readily judged through simple measures
based on inputs and outputs. A paper from the
Beyond Access Project explores new ways of measuring
progress towards gender equality within Education
for All. More
|
| |
Baltic
Sea EFA Working Group meets in St Petersburg
January 20, 2005 - The Baltic Sea Subregional
EFA Working Group met in Saint Petersburg from
15 to 18 January to discuss a number of issues
linked to Education for All in the subregion.
The more than fifty participants from Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Russia as well as Denmark,
Finland and Sweden, discussed information-sharing
and capacity-building, adult literacy, and articulation
between the vocational and academic fields. The
meeting was supported by UNESCO and the UNESCO
International Centre for Technical and Vocational
Education and Training.
>>>Programme
>>> List
of Participants |
| |
Report
calls for more aid to achieve the MDGs
January 18, 2004 - Rich countries should
increase official development assistance to support
the Millennium Development Goals and international
donors should scale-up aid in at least a dozen
MDG "fast-track" countries. These are among the
ten recommendations presented yesterday to the
UN Secretary-General in the report Investing
in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the
Millennium Development Goals.
>>> Press
release
>>>Ten
key recommendations |
| |
Kenya:
Time now for universal secondary schooling?
January 17, 2004 - A recent statement by
the Kenyan government that many students who graduated
from primary school last year will not find places
in the country's secondary schools has generated
widespread concern. Over 600,000 pupils sat for
the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last
year - an increase of almost 12 percent. More
than half of those who left primary school cannot
be accommodated at Kenya's 4,000 public secondary
schools. More
|
| |
New
report looks at secondary education in Africa
January 17, 2005 - Back to the Blackboard,
a report by the South African Institute of International
Affairs, highlights the challenges in African
education and encourages governments to start
planning and expanding their secondary education
sector. It is the first in the NEPAD Policy Focus
series which identifies key priorities for Africa.
>> Full
report
>> Executive
summary
|
| |
1,000
teachers killed in Aceh
January 13, 2004 - The south-Asian tsunami
killed 1,000 teachers and destroyed 420 schools
in the Aceh province of Indonesia, the country's
government has confirmed. Ministers have promised
to re-start education as soon as possible, using
tents and mosques as classrooms. At Guegajah elementary
school in Aceh Besar - two miles west of Aceh's
capital, Banda Aceh - only half the 130 regular
students attended the reopening although most
had survived the effects of the tsunami. "There
are great reasons not to go to school," said UNICEF
spokesman Gordon Weiss. "It's well-founded terror.
The kids are in deep shock." More
|
| |
Join
the Beijing+10 online discussion
January 10, 2004 - In the context of the
evaluation of progress since the Fourth World
Conference on Women (1995), UNICEF and UNESCO
are co-sponsoring an online discussion on educating
girls and women. The online discussion opens today
and will run for 4 weeks with a different topic
each week: week 1: universal primary education,
week 2: educational quality; week 3: political
and financial commitments; and week 4: Education
and empowerment. UNESCO is moderating the discussions
on the UN WomenWatch website.
>> Sign
up now
>> More
about the UN Girls' Education Initiative |
| |
The
second national EFA Forum meets in Beijing
January
6, 2005 - Some forty-one national education
institutions came together from 12 to 15 December
2004, in Beijing, to review progress towards the
Education for All goals and to discuss the development
of provincial plans of action. The meeting was
organized by the Chinese education authorities,
UNICEF and UNESCO. Among the recommendations made
were the need to reach out to migrant children
and pre-schoolers and to promote education for
sustainable development in schools. Other recommendations
include mainstreaming gender and establishing
forums to work on each of the six goals. |
| |
Mobilizing
the private sector for EFA
December 30, 2004 - Private sector engagement
in basic education is increasing. It varies from
philanthropy, corporate commitment to the commercial
provision of goods and services. It is less about
mobilising private financial capital and more
about providing innovative approaches that contribute
to improving education. These were among the issues
discussed the first roundtable on public-private
partnerships in education, in Brasilia (7-8 November),
back-to-back with the High-level Group meeting.
More
|
| |
Ending
poverty means ending child labour
December 29, 2004 - The key message of
the roundtable on Education for All and the Elimination
of Child Labour, held in Brasilia on 8 November,
is that poverty cannot be eradicated without eliminating
child labour, according to the roundtable summary
now available. Free and compulsory education of
high quality is the most effective sustainable
strategy to end child labour. More
|
| |
Education
for All not negotiable, says Professor Omolewa
December 23, 2004 - Education for All by
the year 2015 is not negotiable, President of
UNESCO's General Conference has said. "What Nigeria
is doing today is to look at itself and try to
see how education can reform the challenges of
modern Nigerian society to assist in the elimination
of poverty, hunger, bigotry, chauvinism, arrogance,
deceit, corruption and other vice," he said. More
|
| |
New
education fund for Roma children
December 23, 2004 - Donors and governments
have pledged more than $41 million toward a decade-long
programme to assist Roma children in breaking
the cycle of social exclusion and discrimination
that members of the ethnic minority have suffered
for generations. "This is the first time such
an array of partners has convened to provide concrete
support to improve the living conditions of Europe's
largest and most excluded minority," said James
D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank. More
|
| |
Does
participation mean more than NGOs?
December 20, 2004 - New research from the
University of Oxford’s Queen Elizabeth House finds
that local people, communities or organisations
often have only minimal input to Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers. The research says civil society
participants mostly consist of a mix of NGOs which
are not necessarily representative either of society
as a whole or of the poor in particular. More
|
| |
How
appropriate is software for developing ICT literacy
in Africa?
December 15, 2004 - Teacher training institutions
in even the poorest African countries are slowly
being equipped with computers. Increasingly, teachers
are being exposed to new information and communication
technologies (ICTs). The majority of school teachers
are likely to work in environments without computers
for the foreseeable future but in schools where
ICTs are available, teachers will want to know
how to use them. More
|
| |
Nigeria
to lead way in girls' education
December 13, 2004 - One of the world’s
largest girls’ education projects has been launched
in Nigeria, supported by a $50 million grant from
the UK Government. About 7.3 million Nigerian
children of primary school age remain outside
the school system, of whom 62 per cent are girls.
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education will
implement the project with support from UNICEF
and the UK Department for International Development
(DFID). More
|
| |
PISA
study shows widening gap between best and poorest
performers
December 10, 2004 - Finland once again
came out top in the OECD's latest PISA study of
learning skills among 15-year-olds, with high
performances in mathematics and science matching
those of top-ranking Asian school systems in Hong
Kong-China, Japan and Korea. But some low-performing
countries showed only small improvements or actually
did less well, widening the gap between the best
and poorest performers. More than 250,000 students
in 41 countries took part in PISA 2003 which involves
pencil and paper tests lasting two hours, taken
in the students' schools. More
|
| |
Education
to end child labour
December 8, 2004 - Poverty cannot be eradicated
without eliminating child labour. It will not
be eradicated without achieving education for
all children. These were the main messages from
the roundtable, held in Brasilia on 8 November,
as one of the side events to the meeting of the
High-level Group on EFA. Free, compulsory education
of high quality, is the most effective, preventive,
curative and sustainable strategy to end child
labour, according to the participants. More
|
| |
Meeting
adopts new measures on the use of contractual
teachers
December 6, 2004 - Ministers of Education,
of Finance, of Labour and of Public Affairs, teachers
unions and parent-teacher associations from twelve
countries adopted a series of measures on the
use of contractual teachers in primary schools,
at a meeting in Bamako (21-23 November). The Conference
was hosted by the Government of Mali and organized
by the Association for the Development of Education
in Africa (ADEA), the World Bank, and Education
International.
>>>
Text of the Communiqué (in French)
>>>
More about the meeting |
| |
Consultation
launches minimum standards for education in emergencies
December 3, 2004 - The Second Global Inter-Agency
Consultation on Education in Emergencies and Early
Recovery, opened yesterday in South Africa with
the launch of the first ever Minimum Standards
for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and
Early Reconstruction. This handbook, developed
following consultations with over 2,000 people
in over 50 countries, will provide a universal
framework for ensuring the right to education
for people affected by crisis. "It will help us
all to improve the quality of the education we
offer the children and young people we serve,"
said christopher Talbot, Chair of the Working
Group that developed the handbook. The 3-day consultation
is organized by the International Network for
Education in Emergencies (INEE), a network of
UN agencies, NGOs, government partners, practitioners
and researchers. The issues being discussed during
the 3-day meeting include developments in the
field of education in emergencies, gaps in responses
of key actors and in available research and priorities
for the future work of the network.
>>>
About the minimum standards for education in
emergencies
>>> The
minimum standards handbook
>>>
More about the consultation
>>> The
Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies
(INEE) |
| |
Are
African teachers a high-risk group for HIV?
December 2, 2004 - There is a widespread
belief that African teachers are a high-risk group
for HIV infection. It is thought they are more
likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour due
to their relatively high social status, income,
mobility and separation from spouses. But does
the evidence support these ideas? Research by
independent consultant Paul Bennell suggests that
teachers are actually a relatively low-risk group
in most sub-Saharan African countries. More
|
| |
Poor
state of Nigerian schools
November 30, 2004 - The Nigerian Federal
Government has expressed regret that the physical
environment in many of its schools not only presents
a sorry sight but also constitutes a serious health
hazard to the students. The Federal Minister of
Environment, Col. Bala Mande raised the alarm
in Owerri in a keynote address delivered on his
behalf by the Assistant Director, Environment,
Health and Sanitation in his ministry, Mr. Abdulrasaq
Ashiru, during a national conference on school
sanitation and hygiene for schools. "With dilapidated
buildings, unkempt premises overgrown with weeds,
most schools are sited in areas that are noisy
and harzardous due to heavy road and human traffic,"
the Minister lamented. More |
| |
Addressing
the gap between urban and rural illiteracy
November 25, 2004 - Representatives from
more than 100 non-governmental and civil society
organizations from developed and developing countries,
senior officials from the Italian Development
Cooperation programme and experts from FAO, UNESCO
and other international organizations have agreed
on strengthening their cooperation in order to
address the basic education needs of the world's
biggest neglected majority: rural people. A partnership
project will raise public awareness in Europe
on the importance of education for rural people
in poor countries and the urgent need to target
rural areas where over 70 percent of the world's
poor are caught in the vicious circle of being
unable to access the services and opportunities
that might take them out of poverty. The project,
discussed at a three-day meeting (15-17 November)
is co- financed by the European Commission, several
European NGOs, FAO and UNESCO. More
|
| |
Adult
Learners' Week celebrates South Africa's decade
of democracy
November 23, 2004 - South Africa celebrated
the country's ten years of democracy during this
year's International Adult Learners' Week from
6 to 11 September. The week highlighted the role
that literacy and adult education play in helping
people participate more fully in democratic processes.
The campaign brought together adult educators
and learners from Africa and the rest of the world.
Activities included conferences and visits to
learning sites. The University of the Western
Cape took an active part, organizing informal
discussions on lifelong learning and an exhibition
devoted to the decade of democracy. A novel activity
was a visit to Robben Island, the best known prison
island in the world, primarily because of its
brutality during the apartheid years. Some of
South Africa's greatest leaders, including Nelson
Mandela, were emprisoned there, and organized
debates and learning activities among themselves.
Adult Learners' Week is an international advocacy
campaign, launched by the UNESCO Institute for
Education. More
>>> | | |
