Library's porthole

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

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:45:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:07:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:08:00 +0000

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'

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:19:00 +0000

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. NESCO has learned much over the past years from its experiences in capacitybuilding 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

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:37:00 +0000

"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.

Vers un espace africain de la recherche

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:22:00 +0000

Dans le cadre des programmes Corus et Aires-Sud, des ateliers thématiques
préparent les équipes de recherche du Sud à postuler aux appels d’offres
et aux financements internationaux.

Make it Right: Ending the Crisis in Girls' Education

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:04:00 +0000

This new report by the Global Campaign for Education and RESULTS shows that millions of girls are being forced out of school because of poverty, child labour, early child marriage, the threat of sexual violence, inadequate and poor-quality schools.

The report examines 80 poor countries in terms of the gains they have made in girls’ education. The report shows that the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria and Pakistan are among those countries failing to respect the rights of girls to an education. In sub-Saharan Africa, girls have less than a 50% chance of finishing primary school. In some Asian countries girls also struggle: 41% of girls in Pakistan and 30% in India fail to finish primary school.

The report highlights countries that have been able to improve girls’ enrolment and retention in school, with Bangladesh, Jordan, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia and Ukraine among them.

The Interactions Between Global Education Initiatives and National Education Policy and Planning Processes: A Comparative Case Study of the Education For All Fast Track Initiative in Rwanda and Ethiopia

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:35:00 +0000

CREATE Publication :"The Interactions Between Global Education Initiatives and National Education Policy and Planning Processes: A Comparative Case Study of the Education For All Fast Track Initiative in Rwanda and Ethiopia" by Desmond Bermingham, July 2011

The Education for All Fast Track Initiative (FTI) was launched in 2002 as a global initiative to help low income countries accelerate progress towards the MDG target of universal primary education by 2015 (FTI, 2004a). The initiative was announced by the World Bank at the Dakar World Education Forum as a way of delivering the commitment that no country with a credible education plan would be prevented from achieving the Education for All goals due to lack of resources (UNESCO, 2000). The FTI was intended to mobilise additional resources from donors to support education sector plans in developing countries. As well as raising funds, the FTI was intended to promote aid effectiveness by following the principles of donor harmonisation and alignment in the education sector (FTI, 2004a). The FTI has developed as one of the most important global partnerships in the education sector. There has however also been widespread criticism of the FTI for failing on its promises to mobilise more finance and secure more effective aid delivery. This monograph provides additional evidence on the operations of the FTI on the ground by drawing on the findings of a comparative country case study of the FTI in Rwanda and Ethiopia...

Les effets de l'éducation familiale sur la réussite scolaire (dossier d'actualité IFE)

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:08:00 +0000

C’est sans doute une évidence de dire que la famille est le « premier système social », par lequel le jeune enfant acquiert et développe des compétences cognitives et sociales. Existe-t-il une corrélation entre « réussite scolaire » d’un élève et le rapport à l’école de sa famille ? Comment la recherche aborde-t-elle l’influence familiale sur les apprentissages et la socialisation des enfants ?

Changing Patterns of Access to Education in Anglophone and Francophone Countries in Sub Saharan Africa: Is Education for All Pro-Poor?

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:14:00 +0000

CREATE Research monographs: pathways to access series, PTAs, N°52

This paper explores patterns of growth in participation in six Anglophone and seven Francophone countries in SSA. The Anglophone countries are Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Francophone countries were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Senegal. These countries have all had large scale Universal Primary Education programmes supported with external finance, and all have demographic and health survey (DHS) data sets collected at least ten years apart, first in the 1990s and subsequently after 2000. The data provide the opportunity to explore participation over a period of a decade or more to see how it has been changing. The results show that progress towards universal access to education has been patchy and sometimes disappointing. Access to education remains strongly associated with household wealth despite commitments to pro-poor policies and investment of resources. Though overall participation has often increased, the chances of the poorest being enrolled relative to the richest have generally not improved substantially and in some cases have deteriorated.

Toward Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 26 May 2011 08:19:00 +0000

This paper, from the Center for Global Development, analyzes some of the elements that cause the apparent perception in the realm of social policy, and in particular in the case of poverty alleviation and education policies in developing countries, that on the one hand, too little evidence is produced on the impact of specific policies and programs on human development, and on the other, that very little use is made of the available knowledge. We label this the “under use of scarce knowledge” paradox. We argue that, in order to move forward, it is necessary to go beyond looking separately at the supply and demand for evidence, which appears to be the prevalent view, and visualize more integrated approaches. One option for greater integration could be the evolution toward Results Based Social Policy Design and Implementation systems, which, as we propose here, consider incentives for use and production through a set of institutional arrangements that help focus public action on producing better outcomes.

Après le bac, qui réussit et où?

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 25 May 2011 10:36:00 +0000

Un article paru dans le journal "Le Monde" commente une note intitulée « Les bacheliers 2008, que sont-ils devenus à la rentrée 2009 », que vient de publier le ministère français de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche.

Brown launches new report on education: Education For All; Beating Poverty, Unlocking Prosperity

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:52:00 +0000

A new report by the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been released ahead of the G8 meeting. Entitled “Education For All; Beating Poverty, Unlocking Prosperity” it calls on world leaders to tackle the education emergency in the world’s poorest countries that denies millions their right to education. He warns that failure to act will increase inequality, weaken economic growth and slow progress towards reducing poverty.

The report will be presented to political leaders at the G8 summit in France next week. It argues that while the G8 and G20 leaders understand the value of education, there needs to be engagement in education in a more credible and long term way. To address this, the report calls for the creation of an expanded and reformed Fast Track Initiative (FTI) to back the efforts of national governments in Africa and other regions and achieve Education for All.

The report has been launched today in South Africa with Graca Machel where they will also announce plans for the new GCE High Level Panel for Education.

Child labor and school attendance in Kenya by Peter Moyi

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 19 May 2011 12:33:00 +0000

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of child labor in the world and estimates show that it continues to grow. This paper examines the causes and magnitude of child labor in Kenya.this paper includes household chores. Including household chores is important because majority of child labor takes place within the household. The paper finds that socioeconomic status and structure of the household have a strong effect on child labor. Also, a large proportion of working children attend school. If the consequence of working is to hinder educational attainment, then policymakers need to focus to this dimension of educational inequality: Between students who combine work and school and those who do not.

The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction (Center for American Progress, 2011)

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 19 May 2011 08:23:00 +0000

Class-size reduction, or CSR, is enormously popular with parents, teachers, and the public in general. The latest poll results indicate that 77 percent of Americans think that additional educational dollars should be spent on smaller classes rather than higher teacher salaries. Many parents believe that their children will benefit from more individualized attention in a smaller class and many teachers find smaller classes easier to manage. The pupil-teacher ratio is an easy statistic for the public to monitor as a measure of educational quality, especially before test-score data became widely available in the last decade. However, the author shows that positive results due to smaller classes are not that frequent.

Les démarches d'évaluation en question

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:15:00 +0000

L’évaluation est de plus en plus souvent intégrée à la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques. Aujourd’hui plus complexes, les démarches évaluatives gagnent en précision mais sont plus exigeantes et demandent un certain nombre de précautions d’usage. L’ensemble des acteurs doit néanmoins se convaincre de leur intérêt, dans l’objectif d’accroître l’efficacité des mesures.

International university rankings: a new approach

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:53:00 +0000

University rankings are now a well-established part of the higher education landscape. But they are not without their detractors. Phil Baty, one of the speakers at the 2011 ACU Conference of Executive Heads, considers the issues and explains a new and innovative methodology. (See p. 8)

Teachers and trainers for the future

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:09:00 +0000

The ILO estimates that unemployment is up by more than 30 million worldwide since 2007. As the ILO‘s Global Jobs Pact adopted in 2009 sets out, one of the key policy solutions to ending the worldwide jobs crisis will be equipping the workforce with the skills needed for employability. Delegates representing workers, employers, and ministries of labour and education from 43 countries, meeting in Geneva on 29–30 September, suggested policies and measures to be urgently put in place to strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems worldwide. (See p. 46)

"Deconstructing development discourse: buzzwords and fuzzwords", an OXFAM GB publication

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:33:00 +0000

Andrea Cornwall and Deborah Eade deconstruct the latest concepts of development jargon for our greatest pleasure.

Guidance notes on safer schools construction: global facility for disaster reduction and recovery

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:14:00 +0000

These Guidance Notes were developed as collaboration between INEE and Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) at the World Bank. These guidelines advocate assessment of school sites as well as safety construction measures in areas threatened by natural disasters such as: earthquakes, windstorms, flood, landslides and wildfires.

Education for employment: Realizing Arab youth potential

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:45:00 +0000

The Arab world is overwhelmingly young with the highest youth unemployment in the world. On top of this, education systems are not adequately preparing young people for the jobs that exist. A new report, "Education for employment: Realizing Arab youth potential" explores the issue of youth unemployment through the lens of education, looking at critical skills gaps in the job market, demand for Education for Employment (e4e), and a roadmap to solve the challenge. This report explores how private stakeholders can contribute to meeting this need and identifies what enabling environment would be required for these activities to flourish.

This is an IFC-Islamic development Bank report based on the findings of a study done by McKinsey & Company.

Challenges for the Optimal Allocation of Educational Aid: Should MDG Priorities be more prominent? by Christopher Colclough

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:52:00 +0000

RECOUP Working Paper Series, 40, March 2011
This paper examines the criteria for aid allocation that are revealed by present practice in the education sector. Using a set of priorities suggested by the MDGs, and recent data on aid flows to different countries, it compares actual with "optimal" allocations according to different interpretations of educational "need". Focussing on British aid, it finds that there are sharp deviations between the volume of aid to education received by different countries and their requirements as suggested by "needs-based" criteria. Significant contrasts between relative resource requirements and aid provision to education are also present when looking at aid flows from all sources.

New Report: Fast-Tracking Girls' Education

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 09:46:00 +0000

The Education for All Fast-Track Initiative (EFA FTI), the first ever global compact on education, has just released a report highlighting the critical importance of girls' education. The report details some of the positive impacts of the EFA FTI program, as well as challenges to come. FTI countries have seen rapid increases in the number of girls attending school, and the FTI model has reduced the number of girls that need to repeat a grade. However, there are still 67 million children not in school - and over half of them are girls. Sustained donor and domestic support for girls' education is critical to ensuring development goals are achieved.

High Stakes: Girls’ Education in Afghanistan / Des enjeux élevés : L'éducation des filles en Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (The crew) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:54:00 +0000

Millions of girls have entered school in Afghanistan, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It is one of the few good news stories of the last nine years. However, the deteriorating security situation and the international community’s focus on stabilization and counter-insurgency rather than on long-term development means this good news story is in danger of turning bad. A new approach from both the Afghan government and donors is urgently required to hold onto the gains that have been made.
This report is based on field research carried out in the summer of 2010 in 17 provinces out of a total of 34 in Afghanistan. It was conducted by Oxfam and 15 partner organizations, including 13 Afghan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) plus CARE and Swedish Committee of Afghanistan (SCA).

Version en français