Innovative financing for out-of-school children and youth

Este folleto tiene como objetivo servir de referencia rápida para los responsables políticos en la región que deseen familiarizarse en enfoques no tradicionales de financiación educativa. Compila casos exitosos extraídos de diversos sectores que no sólo abren nuevos caminos sino que ofrecen factible soluciones fiscales para apoyar mejor las intervenciones educativas para los niños no escolarizados

Evaluation of UNESCO’s Regional Conventions on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education

UNESCO has established a number of regional recognition conventions in higher education. The conventions constitute a unique legal framework for allowing the recognition of qualifications in higher education between States Parties. This evaluation is timely given the ongoing efforts made by UNESCO and its Member States to develop and implement a new generation of regional conventions, and the discussions and consultations underway for the potential development of a global convention on the recognition of qualifications in higher education. The evaluation focuses on the importance and role of the higher education recognition conventions in the various regional contexts; the relevance of and contribution of the conventions to UNESCO’s broader higher education programme; the effectiveness of the governing and management mechanisms of the regional conventions; and the effectiveness of UNESCO’s support for the development, ratification, and implementation of the regional conventions. It also identifies key lessons to be learned from the development, ratification and implementation of the regional conventions so far, as well as from the implementation of other standard-setting instruments in UNESCO. The report contains eight key recommendations and several proposed action points to strengthen and take the work forward in the future

School for all : experiences of municipal public schools with inclusion of students with disabilities, ASD, GDD and high ability/giftedness

The study set out to identify and analyse the practices of municipal public-school networks in Brazil concerning the educational inclusion of students with disabilities, ASD and GDD, as well as gifted/talented students. The initiative arose out of a will to subsidise and strengthen processes for the formulation and implementation of policies, programmes and projects aligned with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006; Brazil, 2009) and the National Special Education Policy in the Perspective of Inclusive Education (Política Nacional de Educação Especial na Perspectiva da Educação Inclusiva) (Brasil. MEC/SEESP, 2008c). It is important to point out that those normative frameworks bring principles and presuppositions that have been reaffirmed in more recent documents such as the Incheon eclaration (World Education Forum, UNESCO, 2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (United Nations, 2015). It will become apparent in the results of the study that there are considerable challenges to face throughout the country to ensure the right to education of students that are the focus of Special Education. Amid the many difficulties and challenges, various Brazilian municipalities are outstanding regarding their development and implementation of Inclusive Education in alignment with the principles and premises of the respective legal reference frameworks and the more recent national and international guidelines. Knowing and disseminating the experiences of municipal authorities represents a key step towards making the national inclusive education effort effective, which is essential to extend the right to education to all Brazilians

Towards inclusion? Models of behaviour support in secondary schools in one education authority in Scotland

This article draws on data emerging from an evaluation of behaviour support strategies in secondary schools in an education authority in Scotland. The authors all work at the University of Glasgow. Jean Kane has research and teaching interests in the area of special educational needs; she offers consultancy to local authorities in the development of inclusive policies and practices in schools. Dr George Head has research and teaching interests in the area of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and social inclusion; he is also an experienced teacher. Both Jean Kane and George Head are lecturers in the Faculty of Education. Nicola Cogan is a researcher at the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research and has a background as a research psychologist in the health sector. In Scotland, the growth of behaviour support provision is closely related to broader policy on social inclusion. It is argued in this article that new models of behaviour support can be developed in the light of previous and related experience in the development of inclusive support systems in schools. The authors present a typology of behaviour support, drawing upon their evaluation of provision, and discuss the characteristics of the types of support that emerge. Using data from exclusion statistics, pupil case studies and interviews with teachers, managers, pupils and parents, Jean Kane, George Head and Nicola Cogan explore the implications of their work for future developments in support for pupils who present difficult behaviours

Education and Disaster Vulnerability in Southeast Asia: Evidence and Policy Implications

This article summarizes the growing theoretical and empirical literature on the impact of education on disaster vulnerability with a focus on Southeast Asia. Education and learning can take place in different environments in more or less formalized ways. They can influence disaster vulnerability as the capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from natural hazard in direct and indirect ways. Directly, through education and learning, individuals acquire knowledge, abilities, skills and perceptions that allow them to effectively prepare for and cope with the consequences of disaster shocks. Indirectly, education gives individuals and households access to material, informational and social resources, which can help reducing disaster vulnerability. We highlight central concepts and terminologies and discuss the different theoretical mechanisms through which education may have an impact. Supportive empirical evidence is presented and discussed with a particular focus on the role of inclusiveness in education and challenges in achieving universal access to high-quality education. Based on situation analysis and best practice cases, policy implications are derived that can inform the design and implementation of education and learning-based disaster risk reduction efforts in the region

School settings

The nature of primary education and the availability of an inclusive basic education worldwide are introduced and some key aspects of contemporary primary school settings outlined. These include the organisation of compulsory education at national and school level, school enrolment, class size and the grouping of students. The cultural background of student populations and the linguistic diversity arising from migration are also considered as are curriculum and learning approaches, the school year and the school day. Topics relating to the physical amenities available, the impact of digital technology on school settings and virtual schools are also introduce

Cluster analysis of higher-education competitiveness in selected European countries

The subject of research in this paper is higher-education competitiveness on account of its impact on the enhancement of social and economic competitiveness, as well as on the growth of human capital and creation of social knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to group the selected European countries according to higher-education competitiveness, by means of the hierarchical cluster analysis method, with a special focus on the position of Serbia. Higher-education competitiveness in the chosen countries is analysed by means of three indicators of competitiveness: the ratio of the number of students per number of inhabitants, the number of students per number of employed, as well as the amount of budgetary funds allocated per student. The research results indicate different higher-education competitiveness in the analysed countries and also the fact that, according to this analysis, Serbia is in the group of countries with low competitiveness of higher education

Towards ‘languages for all’ in England: the state of the debate

Whether the study of languages should be a core element of a balanced and broadly based curriculum for all pupils in England’s 11–16 state-funded secondary schools is also part of a wider debate concerning how to harness England’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity and improve the quality and range of language skills of the country. While learning a second language throughout compulsory schooling is increasingly the norm across the world, fewer than 50% of 14–16 year olds in state-funded schools in England gained a modern language qualification (General Certification of Secondary Education or GCSE) in 2015. From 2015, recent government education policy has required the majority of pupils commencing secondary school to study a language to GCSE level, suggesting that schools who do not comply will be unable to gain the top inspection grade. This paper reviews the state of the debate examining divergent and contradictory perspectives within education policy and in the literature. It concludes by setting out six conditions for achieving this policy goal for enabling secondary schools to successfully implement a coherent and relevant languages curriculum for all young people, such that they can develop the linguistic and intercultural competencies needed to contribute to and thrive in increasingly diverse local and global communities

The misuses of sustainability: adult education, citizenship and the dead hand of neoliberalism

‘‘Sustainability’’ has a captivating but disingenuous simplicity: its meanings are complex, and have political and policy significance. Exploring the application of the term to adult education, this paper argues that a particular discourse of ‘‘sustainability’’ has become a common-sense, short-circuiting critical analysis and understanding of policy options. This ‘‘business discourse’’ of sustainability, strongly influenced by neoliberal ideas, encourages the presumption that educational programmes and movements which have died out were unsustainable, bound to fail, and even responsible – having failed to adapt – for their own demise. Potentially valuable experience is thus excluded from the educational policy canon. The author uses three cases from 20th-century adult education, namely (1) English liberal adult education; (2) ‘‘mass education’’, also known as community development, in the British colonies; and (3) UNESCO’s Fundamental Education, to challenge this presumption. He demonstrates for each case how a business discourse has implied their ‘‘unsustainability’’, but that the reality was more complex and involved external political intervention