Brookings: Centers - Center for Universal Education

Inclusive Education: A Rising Tide Floats all Boats

Allison Anderson and Carol Grigsby — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:24:00 -0400

Among the five transformative shifts considered essential within the U.N. High-Level Panel’s (HLP) report to the secretary general for the post-2015 development agenda is one which addresses the Bali communique’s emphasis on social inclusion: “Leave no one behind.” The HLP report, launched at the end of May, points to the challenges of ensuring inclusion for marginalized groups in the post-2015 agenda. Few are more marginalized than those with disabilities, however there are compelling reasons to ensure that learning goals are formulated with this significant segment of the population in mind.

By one widely used, albeit speculative estimate, some 93 million children– or 1 in twenty of those aged 14 or younger – live with a moderate or severe disability of some kind. In cases where conflict and the prevalence of landmines overlaps with poverty, disability can be even higher. For instance in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, Brookings’ Echidna Global Scholars Program alum Khadim Hussain found that disability rates are between 15 and 20 percent. Studies across countries show a strong link between poverty and disability, which is in turn linked to gender discrimination, negative health outcomes and employment challenges. While children with disabilities are often caught in a cycle of poverty and exclusion and are less likely to receive an education, a quality education can contribute to poverty reduction in their lives.

The HLP report’s illustrative goal for education, “Provide Quality Education and Lifelong Learning,” focuses not only on access, but also on learning standards for reading and writing, work-related skills and other measurable learning outcomes. As the education debate shifts from access to access plus learning it is important to turn attention to what learning means for this segment of the population.

The goal of education in the 21st century is not simply the mastery of content knowledge, but the mastery of the learning process: education should prepare all people for a lifetime of learning. All children have the potential to learn, but some learning indicators will need to be different for those with disabilities, both cognitive and physical. However, the individuality of disabilities and their associated learning challenges can seem to the challenge of equitable learning so daunting that it may seem too complex to take on. Yet now is an opportune moment to do so, when the Learning Metrics Task Force is grappling with the very nature of what constitutes learning across a broad range of domains and how to measure it. Moreover, addressing issues associated with learning for persons with disabilities can illuminate some of the more challenging aspects of the wider learning agenda in ways that may benefit others as well, including in these following three ways:

1. Teaching and learning techniques associated with inclusive education for children with disabilities can benefit a broader range of students. An inclusive education entails providing meaningful learning opportunities to all students, allowing children with and without disabilities to attend the same age-appropriate classes at the local school with additional, individually tailored support as needed. It requires a child-centered curriculum that includes representations of the full spectrum of people found in society (not just persons with disabilities) as well as physical accommodation, such as ramps instead of stairs and doorways wide enough for wheelchair users.

Mobile technologies and universal design for learning, a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn through the creation of instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs, are likely to become a mainstream aspect of teaching methodology over time. Ultimately, these materials can help to reduce access and learning barriers of all kinds and optimize levels of support to allow all learners to learn in ways most appropriate to their needs.

2. The right to education for disabled children, as for any marginalized group, carries with it a transformational impact on the larger learning community, particularly in the lessons on human rights and civic values that teachers and learners without disabilities receive through an inclusive education.

3. Attention to varying patterns of ability and disability tends to highlight that learning is not exclusively a classroom experience. While this should not be a reason to keep children with disabilities out of classrooms nor to direct them automatically toward vocational alternatives, differentiated learning styles can and do demonstrate that non-traditional settings can at times better serve the learning needs of individuals. At its best, learning occurs throughout the day and in various environments, and this challenges the global education community to place even greater emphasis on the factors contribute to educational quality and learning.

With the issuance of the HLP panel’s report and as groups mobilize for the next phase of discussions and action toward defining the post-2015 development agenda, the education community may find that aiming high to ensure no one is left behind will yield unexpected and positive benefits in learning for all. Hopefully the challenge and benefits of integrating learners with disabilities into the global development agenda will be more fully explored during the U.N. General Assembly High-Level Event on Disabilities on September 23, 2013.

Authors

Allison Anderson
Carol Grigsby

Image Source: © Muzaffar Salman / Reuters

Arts Education in the Arab World Deserves More Respect — And Resources

Maysa Jalbout — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:48:00 -0400

New evidence suggests that arts education helps students develop 21st century skills such as creativity, imagination, communication and teamwork.

If the Arab world continues to under-value arts education, it risks falling even further behind developed countries in preparing students for the knowledge economy.

Art for Art's Sake - a report released by the OECD today - should change the perspective of any country in the region that is truly aspiring to become an innovation hub in the 21st century. The UAE is well placed to advance arts education as it has made both education reform and access to the arts priorities of its national development strategy.

Innovative societies value artists as much as scientists and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship, in particular, is rightfully gaining recognition in the region as a wellspring of innovation. Arts education should have the same level of support.

Researchers have found that artists possess the type of habits of mind sought after in the job market, such as observing, persisting and stretching oneself. Arts graduates are among the most likely to hold highly innovative jobs - at par with graduates in engineering and computing. They are also needed as part of a growing trend of collaborative teams in companies that are competing in product development and marketing based on design. After all, it was smart design, not new technology, that gave Apple such success with the Ipod and Ipad.

Yet Arab governments, educators and parents continue to push students into traditional jobs.

Rabea Ataya, the CEO of Bayt.com, the Middle East's most established job site, says employers are searching for young people with good arts education, and pay them well. This information should debunk the myth an arts education does not lead to a good job.

The OECD study says music education strengthens IQ and academic performance, and may facilitate foreign-language training. Theatre education strengthens verbal skills. Visual arts strengthen geometrical reasoning. Drama enhances empathy and emotion regulation. Infusing the arts into schools makes their culture more inquiry based.

Governments, academics, the private sector and philanthropists all have roles to play in increasing awareness of the benefits of arts education.

But in the Arab world few schools integrate arts education.

Three new initiatives could provide inspiration.

Finland created Aalto University, merging three schools to bring together art, engineering and business and nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. Aalto is attracting top academics and students, in Finland and internationally.

South Korea has added arts into its already successful STEM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education. The idea is to increase graduates' self-confidence, creativity and teamwork.

Singapore established the School of the Arts, where students learn about physics through sculpture and math through music, for example. Practising artists work with students, emphasising experimentation, expression and discovery. The results are outstanding. The first cohort of students all passed the International Baccalaureate diploma examination; 44 per cent of them were in the top 5 per cent of students who took this exam worldwide.

The Arab world needs bold initiatives of its own, and the UAE has the necessary resources.

Governments, academics, the private sector and philanthropists all have roles to play in increasing awareness of the benefits of arts education. Training must be focused on using the arts to give students new ways to understand their subjects. Employers need to explain the need for arts graduates and the jobs available to them. The arts have always been a rich part of the Arab world's history and culture. Islamic art dating back to the seventh century is still celebrated today for its immense impact on architecture, painting, crafts and literature.

Amid concerns that globalisation is eroding Arab culture, investing in arts education would be sensible. Artists record experiences in ways history books cannot capture, they preserve culture by exploring its depths and unraveling its myths, and they give a voice to people's greatest hopes and dreams.

Every student in the Arab world should have the opportunity to develop artists' habits of mind and to reap the benefits, personally and professionally.

Authors

Maysa Jalbout

Publication: The National

Image Source: © Tara Todras-Whitehill / Reuters

Educational Success in Pakistan: Implications for Stability and Security

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:00:00 -0400

Event Information

June 6, 2013
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT

Saul/Zilkha Rooms
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036

Register for the Event
Despite the steady stream of bad news from Pakistan, there have been a number of success stories. One example is the tremendous progress made in education reform in Punjab province. During the past two years, education reforms in Punjab province have resulted in more than a million and a half more children enrolled in school, increased school attendance to 90 percent, and 81,000 new teachers hired on merit. With 40 out of 70 million young people ages 5 to 19 not in school, reforms in Pakistan’s most populous province provide important lessons for the rest of the country.

On June 6, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings hosted a discussion on what can be learned from the Punjab experience. Following a presentation by Chief Education Strategist at Pearson Sir Michael Barber, Brookings Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at Brookings, and Senior Advisor of the Aga Khan Development Network Iqbal Noor Ali discussed the implications for education reform, public-private partnerships, and security in Pakistan. Senior Fellow Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, moderated the discussion.

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Educational Success in Pakistan: Implications for Stability and Security

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Great Expectations for Post-2015: An Analysis of the High-Level Panel Report

Allison Anderson and Lauren Greubel — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 10:58:00 -0400

We recently outlined the post-2015 priorities voiced by many civil society and nongovernmental actors within the international education community:

Equitable access to education for all children (especially the poorest and most marginalized).
An emphasis on learning outcomes and quality of education in addition to access.
Learning across a continuum – from early childhood through to adolescents and the transition to work.

The U.N. High-Level Panel’s (HLP) newly released report proposing an ambitious new international development agenda for the next two decades echoes these priorities and highlights education as key to eradicating extreme poverty and achieving sustainable development. In fact the framing of education priorities, which are focused on access to equitable, quality education and learning across the life-cycle, has been repeated in three major reports on the post-2015 process released this month: the HLP’s report: New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development; the executive summary from the World We Want education consultation: Envisioning Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda; and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s report: An Action Agenda for Sustainable Development (See Table).

Proposed Post-2015 Goals for the Education Sector
High-Level Panel report	Quality education and lifelong learning.
Executive summary for the World We Want education consultation	Equitable, quality, lifelong education and learning for all.
Sustainable Development Solutions Network report	Effective learning for all children and youth for life and livelihood.

This is a welcome focus on access plus learning. Moreover, the HLP’s report specifically lists corresponding national targets for education:

increasing the proportion of children able to access and complete preprimary education;
ensuring that children can read, write and count well enough to meet minimum learning standards upon completion of primary education;
having access to lower secondary education and increasing the proportion of adolescents who achieve recognized and measurable learning outcomes; and
increasing the number of young and adult women and men with the skills, including technical and vocational, needed for work.

Taken as a whole, the HLP report builds upon the lessons learned from the current Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) efforts to get all girls and boys into school, but also lays the groundwork to ensure that children stay in school and learn.

Moving Forward

The HLP report identifies crosscutting development challenges including gender discrimination, conflict and crisis-affected environments, broader social inequality and an overall lack of – and urgent need for – data and better measurement. The High-Level Panel’s illustrative universal goals and national targets are not a prescriptive blueprint, but examples to frame continued debate. In order to achieve equitable learning for all, the education community cannot operate in a vacuum and will need to address gender, equity, conflict and other issues such as disability in the coming year as it seeks to refine its post-2015 agenda.

While the HLP report does not recommend a stand-alone goal for addressing inequality, it asserts at the outset that the transformative shift of leaving no person behind, regardless of ethnicity, gender, geography, disability, race or other status, is central to its vision. The report consistently reiterates the need to tackle inequality head-on in and across each of the universal goals they propose. In designing these illustrative universal goals “it would be a mistake to simply tear up the MDGs and start from scratch…new goals and targets need to be grounded in respect for universal human rights, and finish the job that the MDGs started.” For education this would include reaching the yet-to-be achieved MDG of universal access to primary education. The majority of the world’s 61 million out-of-school children are living in poverty, conflict settings or are consistently discriminated against populations such as girls, children with disability and ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities.

It was also encouraging to see the HLP report underscore the importance of both data and measurement. Reflecting on the success and weaknesses of the MDGs, the HLP report argues that goals without quantitative targets and deadlines will fail to provide the motivation and accountability necessary for progress. The education community, through the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF), has spent the last year tackling these same challenges in order to determine how best to measure learning outcomes. The recommendations of the LMTF on how to measure learning span across seven domains, ranging from literacy and numeracy to social-emotional learning and the arts. Subsequent LMTF reports will provide concrete recommendations for countries at various levels of capacity so that governments and organizations can not only track how they are doing, but also target policy to address areas of need. The HLP report calls for exactly this type of data across all sectors by recommending that new goals be accompanied by an independent and rigorous monitoring system, with regular opportunities to report on progress and shortcomings at a high political level.

The High-Level Panel’s optimism that the international community will succeed in eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 through a new global partnership that breaks with the outdated “high-income/low-income government-to government concept of the MDGs” is encouraging. While the panel’s recommendations are only the first stepping-stone in the longer-term process of developing the post-2015 agenda, we are encouraged by the holistic focus of the report as well as the specific education goal and associated national targets. As the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals ramps up its discussions, including a focus on education in June, we hope that the recommendations of the High-Level Panel, and the broader consultation forums represented by the World We Want Education Consultation and Sustainable Development Solutions Network reports, are consulted and integrated into their deliberations.

Authors

Allison Anderson
Lauren Greubel

Image Source: © David Mdzinarishvili / Reuters

Focusing on Quality Education in sub-Saharan Africa

Germano Mwabu and Xanthe Ackerman — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:32:00 -0400

Primary school enrollment has increased from 59 percent to 77 percent in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. This increase is due in part to the drive and commitment by governments in the region to achieve universal primary education set by the Education For All declaration established in Jomtien in 1990 and the Millennium Development Goals set in Dakar in 2000. However, much remains to be done. With a regional fertility rate of 5.1, compared to a global average of 2.4, and a 2030 projected population size of 1.5 billion people, there needs to be an increase in the supply of educational opportunities for all children in order to meet the growing demand in sub-Saharan Africa.

Even as access to education has improved in sub-Saharan Africa, learning achievement remains alarmingly low. Regional assessments show that 28 percent of Tanzanian sixth grade pupils are reading at grade level, only 19 percent in Kenya and less than 10 percent in Uganda. This low and uneven level of knowledge acquisition during the foundational years of primary school has adverse implications for knowledge and skills acquisition in later grades and for the long-term development and economic growth of the region.

The Africa Learning Barometer illustrates the urgent need to accelerate education progress and improve equity in learning outcomes. Disparities in achievement exist: between boys and girls – in Malawi, 52 percent of girls are not learning basic competencies at the end of primary school compared to 44 percent of boys; between urban and rural communities—in Tanzania, 10 percent of rural children are not learning compared to only 4 percent of urban children; and between the wealthy and the poor, which is the most divisive of disparities – in Botswana, 7 percent of the wealthy are not learning compared to 30 percent of the poor.

The challenge facing the region now is to continue to expand access, particularly for the most marginalized, while also implementing policy and programs to address the achievement gap. Evidence shows that policies to drive access, especially if poorly implemented, can inadvertently hurt school quality. In Kenya, after the implementation of free primary education in 2003, schools stopped receiving tuition for enrollment, yet government disbursements stalled. Schools had fewer resources for education at a time when enrollment was increasing dramatically. During this time, many parents moved their children from public to private schools despite an increase in costs.

Challenges in Measuring Learning

Although there are assessments at regional and national level in sub-Saharan Africa, there is no comparable measure of learning across countries (World Bank, 2009) to show learning challenges in context and to benchmark countries’ progress. The Africa Learning Barometer used assessment data on literacy and numeracy at primary for 28 countries. Although data was not comparable, it sheds light on the depth and nature of the problem. More needs to be done to understand the nature of the learning challenge affecting children’s development at pre-school, primary school and post-primary school and across a range of learning domains.

The multidimensional nature of quality, quantity and relevance makes measurement complex. Education quantity can be measured using enrollment rates, school attendance rates, school drop-out rates or completed years of schooling, each of which conveys different information. Learning outcomes can be measured in a variety of ways, including mastery of cognitive abilities, knowledge acquisition or acquisition of practical skills. In the economics of education literature, measurement of education quality has typically focused on education inputs, although there is an increasing awareness of the need to focus on learning outcomes and the learning processes. Measurement of education relevance in relation to the labor market has been more limited, although there is a groundswell of private sector interest in the topic, leading to recent research by McKinsey & Company and others.

Current measures of education quality in sub-Saharan Africa often fail to capture important aspects of learning that cannot easily be demonstrated by cognitive tasks. For example, children from pastoral communities may not be able to perform simple addition but may benefit from a teacher’s guidance to become more responsible or to use logical reasoning to care for a large herd and identify when livestock are missing. Children learn productivity-enhancing behavioral attributes that are acquired through schooling, such as punctuality, teamwork, honesty, interpersonal skills and loyalty even if they are not building academic skills. These attributes are rarely accounted for in current forms of assessment though they are linked with a range of life outcomes.

Authors

Germano Mwabu
Xanthe Ackerman

Image Source: © Stringer . / Reuters

Generation MDGs: How Youth are Pushing to Reach the MDGs and Shaping the Post-2015 Framework

Lauren Greubel and Jenny Perlman Robinson — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:49:00 -0400

While the next set of global development goals are being debated around the world, those who actually will be responsible for achieving them are also voicing their concerns. As reports are being drafted, working groups assembled and high-level panels convened, we shouldn’t forget that it is today’s young people who will be tasked with carrying out the next development agenda.

Time and again young people identify education as a primary concern and as a response to the myriad of development challenges we face. And more and more we are hearing that it isn’t just any education that is important, but one that imparts the necessary skills, values and competencies to develop productive, healthy and engaged global citizens. Through a series of youth consultations led in part by Restless Development, a global youth-led development agency, youth have outlined their priorities for the next development framework. In a summary report following online and in-person consultations with over 700 youth, there was resounding agreement that learning outcomes must be included in the post-2015 agenda and all young people “should have the right to be educated and literate, and have access to quality services that support that right. Access to nonformal education (such as youth clubs and youth groups) is also particularly important for young people’s growth and development.” Restless Development is also empowering young people with tools to conduct their own post-2015 consultations with other youth and providing a platform for young people to voice their priorities at each of the U.N. secretary general's High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Agenda's meetings.

As part of the official U.N. process to feed into the next set of goals, Genwa Samhat and Chernor Bah, two members of the U.N. secretary-general’s Global Education First Initiative’s Youth Advocacy Group, were invited to the U.N. Post-2015 Thematic Consultation on Education held in Dakar, Senegal. At the meeting, stakeholders from across the education sector came together to articulate priorities for education in the next development framework.

Genwa and Chernor brought a valuable youth perspective to the meeting by outlining the world they want to emerge as a result of the post-2015 framework. They also reminded participants of the world that children and youth live in now. Genwa, who grew up in Lebanon, spoke candidly to the discrimination millions of girls face, saying “I live in a world where I am defined not by who I am, but by my association with men: as a sister, a daughter, and ultimately the expectation that I will become someone’s wife.” She has borne personal witness to the many barriers to girls' education – one of her friends was forced to drop out of school and marry at the young age of 15 and now has three children to care for. Similarly, discrimination due to disability, race, class and sexual orientation deny many in her country the opportunities to study, work and fulfill their potential.

Chernor grew up in war torn Sierra Leone, where he stated that “simply being born in a poor country…could be an intrinsic disadvantage with limited opportunities to access education and hence limited opportunities in life. It’s a world where the advent of conflict…often means that schools are burned, teachers run away and hope of a better life through education is dashed.”

Speaking on behalf of the thousands of young people who have contributed to the post-2015 discussions they declared, “Young people want a world where location of birth is not a permanent life sentence, where everyone – irrespective of their circumstances – has access to that fundamental human right of good quality education. Young people also want a world where girls have the same opportunities as boys, where they are not forced into marriage but given the chance to have an identity and fulfill their dreams. It has to be a world where no form of discrimination is allowed to stand.”

In addition to participating in the global education meeting, youth have been engaged throughout the post-2015 process. On the United Nation’s World We Want platform, which housed 11 thematic e-discussions, young people contributed to, and even moderated, many of the conversations. In particular, they emphasized the need to improve education governance, address corruption and recognize the role a quality education can play in fostering global citizenship. Nina Tchangoue, a member of the Youth Advocacy Group, wrote: “learning should be linked to global issues that will develop the interest of youth to become engaged global citizens.” Similarly, according to the recent results of the My World survey, a global survey of more than 560,000 people from 194 countries, respondents under the age of 25 voiced “a good education” as their number one priority.

Youth representatives around the world are urging the United Nations, governments and education policymakers to move beyond a focus on access to schooling to include a commitment to children’s learning outcomes as well. They are encouraging policymakers to strive for a world where schooling and the lessons learned outside the classroom equip young people with the skills needed to be active global citizens, skills that go beyond reading and writing, such as critical thinking, technological literacy and comprehensive sexual education.

Upholding the Promises Made to all Children at the Millennium

While young people around the world have been participating in the post-2015 discussions, they have also made it clear that the next set of goals will hold little legitimacy if the global community does not honor its original commitments made in 2000.

One effort to ensure we don’t forsake the initial set of promises was a series of Learning for All Ministerial meetings held in Washington, DC in April. National leaders from seven countries – which are home collectively to half of the world’s out-of-school population – and development partners identified concrete steps to urgently deliver real results for the millions of out-of-school primary-aged children. Thanks to a commitment to meaningful youth participation by the meetings co-hosts, U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, World Bank President Jim Kim and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, young people were included in many of the high level discussions and chosen to speak as experts on numerous panels. David Crone, a youth representative from Plan UK, spoke alongside World Bank and civil society experts about the marginalization and lack of opportunities young women in particular face in staying in school and learning. Similarly, Sumaya Saluja, another member of the Youth Advocacy Group, spoke on a Brookings panel about the critical role that youth can play in tackling challenges in the education system in India. Brookings also spoke with two of the members, Joseph Munyambanza from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Anna Susarenco from Moldova, about their personal stories and commitments to education for all.

One of the most valuable parts of having youth leaders at the Learning for All Ministerial meetings was that, alongside their expertise, they brought an untarnished belief that real progress is possible. The Youth Advocacy Group was given the last word in a morning of events convened by the U.N. special envoy for Global Education and they reminded the policymakers in attendance that they will be held accountable for the commitments made that week: “We can only hope that these past three days have been as empowering and inspiring for you as they have been for us. And do not think for even a moment that we have not been monitoring the outcomes and what has been said, because we have, and not to scare you, but you will be held accountable, because our progress depends solely on everyone's willingness and ability to commit to what they said they would do. Nothing is more depressing than progress hindered because of inaction.” The Youth Advocacy Group and young people worldwide are committed to doing their part to achieve the current Millennium Development Goals and design a next set of development goals that reflect the rights, needs and desires of the generation that will be at the helm of implementing them.

Authors

Lauren Greubel
Jenny Perlman Robinson

Image Source: © Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters

United Nations Global Education First Initiative's Youth Advocacy Group

Jenny Perlman Robinson — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:42:00 -0400

In September 2012 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a five-year education campaign, the Global Education First Initiative, to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning and foster global citizenship. To advise and support the implementation of the initiative, the Global Education First Initiative convened a Youth Advocacy Group of 15 young leaders from around the world. I sat down with two of the Youth Advocacy Group members, Joseph Munyambanza of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Anna Susarenco of Moldova, to discuss the group’s mandate and their personal commitment to education for all.

To see more videos about the Global Education First Initiative, please visit our YouTube page.

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The YAG Provides Grassroots Knowledge to Decision-makers On Improving Education

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Bringing Mentoring to the Refugee Camp

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Jenny Perlman Robinson

Post-2015 Focus on Sustainable Development: How Education and Learning Can Play a Role

Allison Anderson — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:12:00 -0400

While the theme of the third meeting of the High-Level Panel on Post-2015 in Bali was on global partnerships, the meeting’s communiqué set up the handover from the high-level panel to the intergovernmental Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (OWG). The communiqué calls for “a single and coherent post-2015 development agenda that integrates economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability”, and with good reason since the two development frameworks for post-2015—poverty alleviation and sustainable development—are not separate. Rather, they are interlinked challenges that need to inform each other and ultimately must be addressed together in one framework.

Moreover, the role of education and equitable learning in achieving sustainable development needs to figure prominently in these discussions. Sustainable development cannot be attained without education that provides learners with 21st century skills that equip them for healthy, safe, and productive lives, while also safeguarding the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

During the first three OWG meetings in March and April, participants shared their initial views on the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the key lessons from the MDGs. While it is still unclear how the OWG process relates to the post-MDG process, Co-Chair Macharia Kamau, the permanent representative of Kenya, did in fact say that the two processes are linked. According to Kamau, “The MDGs are the point of departure, while the SDGs are the destination.” It is critical that OWG members connect these two processes together, not only to avoid fragmentation of efforts at national and global levels, but also because long-term sustained poverty eradication is only possible in the context of sustainable development. As such, Paula Caballero, advisor to Colombian foreign affairs minister, told the OWG that the new agenda must reflect the deep inter-linkages between issues like education and productive lives, and have measureable targets that allow for differentiation between national contexts. This statement is significant as it mirrors discussions that are currently going on within the global education community. These discussions and ideas will also likely continue in the June OWG meeting on employment and decent work for all, social protection, youth and education.

Learning for Sustainable Development

UNESCO and UNICEF have an opportunity to make clear the linkages between education, poverty reduction and sustainable development since they are UN agencies responsible for providing an issues brief on education to the OWG. Education will also be discussed at the June meeting and at upcoming OWG sessions on sustainable and inclusive economic growth (November 25-27), sustainable consumption and production, climate change, disaster risk reduction, conflict peace and security (January 6-10, 2014), and promoting equality, including social equality and women’s empowerment (February 3-7, 2014).

In fact, education can assist in the process of shifting the global demand away from resource- and energy-intensive commodities and toward greener products and technologies, sustainable lifestyles and less pollution. Restructuring toward a green economy will require transferable skills, ones that are not necessary linked to specific occupations. Thinking critically, solving problems, collaborating and managing risks and uncertainty are core competencies that are critical for employment in a green economy and living together peacefully in a sustainable society. Moreover, since the effects of climate change are already being felt, the education sector can also play a critical role in teaching relevant skills for successful climate change adaptation and mitigation. Teaching and learning these 21st century skills should integrate environmental education, climate change and scientific literacy, disaster risk reduction and preparedness, and education for sustainable lifestyles and consumption.

In tandem with efforts to build 21st century skills, including skills related to sustainable development, the education community is working to develop measures that benchmark and motivate student learning. While currently there is no one global measure for 21st century skills, the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF) is working to fill this gap by making recommendations for metrics around an adaptable, flexible skill set, such as collaborative problem solving, environmental awareness and social responsibility.

In addition to the discussions within the OWG, there is a current opportunity to input into the draft report of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network: An Action Agenda for Sustainable Development. This draft report puts forward 10 proposals for future Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is on education. The document will feed into the UN Secretary General’s report on the SDGs later this year. The draft is open for comments and consultation until May 22.

Authors

Allison Anderson

Image Source: © Stringer . / Reuters

Crafting an Education Goal in the Post-2015 Development Framework: Having Our Cake and Eating It Too

Luis Crouch, Jenny Perlman Robinson and Lauren Greubel — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:54:00 -0400

In the ongoing debate over learning outcomes and measurement in the lead up to the post-2015 framework, the education community risks falling victim to the old English proverb, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” We want global education goals but local adaptation, if not local origination. We want goals that are practical and can be measured realistically while also sufficiently ambitious and forward-looking. However, we may indeed be able to “have our cake and eat it too” if we use very precise language and realize the need to put into place goal-seeking rather than goal-setting processes. This is the spirit behind an upcoming report from the Methods and Measures Working Group of the Learning Metrics Task Force scheduled for release in June 2013.

Crafting a Goal That is Both Global and Local

One key distinction needed is between goals versus metrics. Goals motivate while metrics measure. What is often overlooked is that goals can be lofty, long-term and universally applicable yet still be locally adaptable. An example of such a goal is: All children should be able to read at proficiency, by the end of the primary cycle in their country, according to their national curriculum. The metrics for this goal could be robust assessments of reading administered at the end of primary through a national assessment. Countries could then report on the percentage of children achieving proficiency based on their national curricula or, to use Keith Lewin’s concept of “yield,” they could report on the percentage of children completing primary school and achieving a certain level of proficiency.

Risks do exist, however, in defining a goal relative to national curricula. These same national curricula have been failing children in many countries for the last decade. Measuring a goal based on national targets may risk stagnating progress in learning outcomes and disincentize governments to make real improvements to education quality.

But this problem can also be addressed. In addition to a goal that measures outcomes relative to national curricula, countries can also measure their students’ achievement based on an international metric, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), or a regional one such as the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ). Utilizing a robust metric and publishing the outcomes are good ways for national governments to make explicit their commitment to education quality and garner support from the global education and development community.

Practicality versus Long-term Ambition

In distinguishing between goals and metrics, there is also a tension between practicality versus long-term ambition that needs to be addressed. While we may want to have a goal to ensure that all children possess civic values and are prepared to be global citizens, we are confronted with a very practical reality that there are currently no widely agreed-upon metrics for these goals.

However, to propose that we not measure anything because we lack such measures is like throwing the baby out with the bath water (apologies for all the idioms). In fact, there are areas of learning where measurement is quite far along at the global level, such as reading and math. Therefore, there is a need for international bodies, like the International Bureau of Education, as well as civil society organizations, academia and other groups to have the resources to implement rigorous data collection for measurement and developing metrics.

In other cases, there are other competencies that are equally important but the metrics are not as well developed. However, not including these competencies would be setting our sights short, much like we limited ourselves a decade ago by only including access, and not learning, in the MDGs. In fact, research is currently underway to define and measure so-called “global competencies”, such as civic values, critical thinking and problem solving by the Learning Metrics Task Force and others. Choosing not to include these critical non-cognitive skills in an education goal that will span the next decade or two – when the metrics for measuring them may be available within the next few years – does a real detriment to the ultimate well-being of millions of children and young people worldwide.

Progress Needs to Be Measured

We also need to distinguish between metrics and setting benchmarks on those metrics. Goals should remain ambitious and long-term, and may use a both national metric and an internationally comparable metric. But countries may also wish to set intermediate benchmarks of progress on metrics as a way to set and chart progress. For example, if only 10 percent of a country’s children are currently proficient in reading, having a lofty, long-term goal of getting 100 percent of children to be proficient is daunting. An ambitious goal can depress more than motivate if taken seriously or, given its distant timeline, could simply not be taken seriously at all. Having intermediate benchmarks, with shorter timeframes and more realistic targets can motivate by setting attainable milestones and provide guide posts to reach the ultimate goal.

Finally, a distinction needs to be made between top-line reporting and sub-line tracking of indicators. For example, if the top-line reporting is on the percent of children who achieve proficiency in literacy and numeracy after nine years of education according to national curricula, there can still be multiple sub-line indicators that are essential to monitor. Participation in a common international or national assessment is one. Even if a country’s performance on an assessment is not its main metric, its outcomes on an assessment can still help explain and anchor the ultimate goal. It is also important to monitor measures that are pedagogical precursors: are children learning the basics of reading early on, so they can go on to become lifelong learners? Similarly, input indicators, such as teacher training and financing, are also important since they relate to and influence the ultimate goal.

What is Still Needed

What is clear from these debates is more work, and more coordinated work, is needed. Setting a simple top-down “requirement” that uses only one global curricular objective and only one metric is relatively easy but risks repeating mistakes from the past. Creating distinctions between goals, metrics, and benchmarks, and encouraging a subtle interplay between the global and the local, is harder but can ultimately lead to greater impact. This is something the Learning Metrics Task Force is grappling with in their global deliberations. A recommendation from the task force’s latest meeting is the need for an international multi-stakeholder advisory group that promotes collaboration among the different measurement processes and leverages financial and technical resources on measurement within the education sector. Such a body could help countries develop their own measurement systems, report learning outcomes, and stimulate work on measurement in areas where it currently does not exist. In other words, it could facilitate a goal-seeking rather than goal-setting process.

Authors

Luis Crouch
Jenny Perlman Robinson
Lauren Greubel

Image Source: © Stringer Afghanistan / Reuters

Improving Education and Learning Outcomes in India

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Event Information

May 6, 2013
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

India has made laudable progress in increasing access to education and building a strong policy and planning framework for education. The next challenge is ensuring a quality education system which produces positive learning outcomes for all children in India. Estimates show that over 3 million children in the country are still out of school, and of those in school, civil society reports show that 53 percent are at least three years behind expected learning levels.

On May 6, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings and the Central Square Foundation hosted a discussion on education reform in India, focusing on policy and practice that promotes equitable learning and on lessons learned from the U.S. experience. Panelists included: Ashish Dhawan, chief executive officer of the Central Square Foundation; Subir Gokarn, research director of Brookings India; Pooja Bhatt, regional portfolio manager of Accenture Development Partnerships at Accenture; and Brookings Nonresident Fellow Urvashi Sahni, founder and president of the Study Hall Foundation. CUE Associate Director Xanthe Ackerman moderated the discussion. Senior Fellow and CUE Director Rebecca Winthrop provided opening remarks.

In 2030, 25 percent of the global talent pool is going to come from India. It’s the kids born today that will go through the education system in India and become 25 percent of the skills for the future. - Rebecca Winthrop

There has been tremendous progress with respect to access in India. Between 2005 and 2009 alone the number of out-of-school-children dropped by 40%. But 3.1 million children are still out of school. Girls, scheduled castes and tribes are among those that are left furthest behind. - Xanthe Ackerman

In Bombay over 75% of children are in private sector schools. Private sector can work for higher income families. However it doesn’t work as well for the lower income families because the quality is poor in both the government schools and in the private schools in their areas. - Ashish Dhawan

There are more girls and marginalized children coming to school but they don’t stay, they don’t learn, and they don’t complete. And the gender equality indicators are poor: In terms of an international gender inequality index, India ranks 126th out of 149 countries. - Urvashi Sahni

There are 27 million children that are born each year. Two-thirds of them will not complete secondary education. The value gap – the opportunity cost – is to the degree of $100 billion per year based on the value of an individual contributions to GDP growth. - Pooja Bhatt

Why Global Education Financing Must Be Part of Europe's Financial Transaction Tax Revenues for Development

Sarah O’Hagan and Rebecca Winthrop — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:17:00 -0400

As the financial transaction tax (FTT) becomes part of the European political landscape and moves its way through EU member-state legislatures, the use of a percentage of tax revenues for development – and specifically for basic global education needs— remains highly uncertain.

The 11 eurozone countries that got the green light from EU finance ministers in January to move forward with a coordinated tax on financial transactions could deliver as much as €35 billion for their national budgets. But the clear consensus shared by these 11 nations— which collectively represent two-thirds of the EU’s economy— on the timeliness and necessity of implementing such a tax now is not equally matched by a consensus on allocating part of the revenues to international development, let alone education. This is an unfortunate state of things given that the idea of using part of the revenues to support global development was a big reason for the huge social movement in support of the tax.

The backdrop to this uncertainty is the austerity agenda being pursued by many governments, in which foreign aid budgets are under pressure. As a consequence, foreign aid to global education risks falling faster than overall aid levels.

To date, only one of the vanguard countries in the FTT movement, France, passed its own FTT in mid 2012 and committed to allocate part of the revenues to development and climate finance. At the time, many called for 50 percent of FTT revenues to be dedicated to overseas development assistance and climate finance, but that figure soon dwindled to 10 percent, and ultimately 4 percent, for health and environmental projects. The ray of hope is that France has expressed its willingness for the EU FTT to also be partly allocated to development and climate finance, and is currently gathering support.

Civil society groups in France and in Europe generally are more effectively mobilized within the health and environment sectors, and are comparatively weaker on the education front. Yet given that global education is a sine qua non for successful economic development, it’s vitally important that global education activists in France and elsewhere not only mobilize within their countries to earmark revenues for development-- including basic education— but also collaborate across the larger European landscape to set a precedent for the use of financial transactions taxes around the world. An EU financial transaction tax for development could indeed put more kids in school and improve their learning outcomes in developing countries.

The European Union, via its member states and the European Commission, is among the largest donors to global education in the world. But the recent OECD Development Assistance Committee data release revealed a decrease in official development assistance for the second year in the row with significant cuts in countries like Spain and the Netherlands. And an agreement among EU heads of state at the February 8 European Council for the 2014-2020 EU budget is not going to fill this gap. In fact, the budget froze the portion earmarked for development at 2007-2013 levels, leaving the EU far from its commitments to reach 0.7 percent ODA/GNI by 2015.

Another worrying fact is that global education may not be a priority sector for the EU in many countries moving forward according to early word from several developing countries partners.

For low-income countries that simply cannot grow and improve their basic education systems without external financing, a decrease in aid flows without a compensating or greater infusion from innovative financing such as the financial transactions taxes, spells disaster. That is why, in addition to pushing donors to respect their commitment in developing countries to aid, the education community should do all it can to ensure that newly enacted financial transaction taxes allocate part of their revenues to global education.

If these examples are indicative of the way financing for global education has worked to date, they amply underscore the patchwork approach that even pieced together will still leave students in developing countries falling behind.

Authors

Sarah O’Hagan
Rebecca Winthrop

Image Source: © Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters

Education Rising: Reflections on the Learning for All Ministerial Meetings

Liesbet Steer — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:08:00 -0400

Last week was a big one for global education. For the first time in history, education ministers and finance ministers featured together on the agenda of the annual World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings. The World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown co-hosted the Learning for All Ministerial, a series of high-level meetings to discuss specific challenges and concrete steps to accelerate progress toward ensuring that all children go to school and learn. Finance and education ministers from eight countries— Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen— that are collectively home to nearly half of the out-of-school population met together with international development partners, and civil society and private sector leaders.

A series of country papers that were prepared in consultation with a range of stakeholders and coordinated by the Center for Universal Education at Brookings tracked the progress (and in some cases regress) toward reaching the education goals. These papers also proposed specific actions that must be taken in order to meet MDG targets by 2015. In many countries, impressive progress has been made in providing access to education and reducing gender differences in education opportunities. This has occurred even in some of the poorest countries such as Ethiopia, where more than 10 million children have enrolled in primary school over the past decade, more than doubling the enrollment rate. There is cause for celebration and optimism about what can be achieved in the future.

But great challenges still lie ahead. Even in countries with strong performances, progress in school enrollment and gender equity has been highly uneven. Significant and often overlapping disparities exist between regions, fragile and non-fragile areas, rural and urban areas, and socioeconomic groups. Poor children in urban slums in Bangladesh, the North-Kivu and Kasai-Occidental of the DRC, the nomadic regions of Afar and Somali in Ethiopia, or the North Eastern states of Nigeria are much less likely to go to school than children in other areas. Girls account for two out of three out-of-school children in South Sudan.

Hugely encouraging numbers in terms of access also hide a crisis in learning. International as well as national studies of learning across countries show unacceptably low and even declining levels of learning as coverage expands. As a result, this often leads to high dropout rates. In most of the countries present at the meeting, less than two-thirds of children enrolled manage to complete primary school. In Haiti, only half of the children starting in grade 1 complete primary school. The MDGs, with their focus on education access, do not put sufficient attention on education quality and learning outcomes. This must be remedied in the post-2015 development framework.

Overcoming these challenges will require addressing bottlenecks well beyond the sector. Many children are not going to school because of persistent economic and socio-cultural barriers. With an average of two or more children per household, tuition costs in Haiti can consume up to 50 percent of a household’s income. Child labor and early marriage are also limiting education opportunities for a large number of children. Proposals to address these demand-side barriers include scaling up cash transfer programs in Nigeria, removing school fees in the DRC, providing school subsidies in Haiti, and providing girls’ stipends in South Sudan and Yemen. Achieving universal basic education will also require addressing broader issues such as early childhood development (including health and nutrition), the transition to secondary education, and the development of relevant life and job skills.

Critical to progress is the commitment of government and leaders at national and local levels. Many countries have institutionalized the right to free and compulsory primary education and have translated their commitment into sector plans and investment. In countries where state provision fails, non-state actors have stepped in to fill the gaps. Provision of basic services by civil society groups in Bangladesh is vital to educational achievement in the country. A proposal for flexible education provision in Bangladesh’s urban slums, using NGOs, builds on this strength. But discussions also highlighted the need for state capacity to set minimum standards and a regulatory framework for all providers, including the private sector. The Haitian school system is dominated by the non-public sector, which is largely unregulated and mainly financed by school fees that constitute a major expenditure for poor households.

Urgent improvements in what the World Bank president calls the “science of delivery” are needed. All country cases included proposals to strengthen infrastructure, teacher qualifications, and in some cases (e.g. Ethiopia) performance based school grants to improve access and quality. There is a broad recognition that all possible channels of delivery should be considered, including civil society and the private sector, particularly in fragile contexts such as in South Sudan. Also, decentralization can in many circumstances increase local responsiveness to local issues and opportunities. But political will is needed. The ministers of education and finance in Nigeria stressed the need to motivate their state governors to invest in education and proposed organizing a convention with all governors and the president to highlight the education crisis. Critically, accountability needs to be strengthened. This includes ensuring that teachers get paid, depoliticizing teacher hiring and transfers, and measuring education outcomes. It also includes local accountability through parent associations, and publishing amounts of funding and resources made available to local levels. Finally, participants also stressed the need to evaluate and scale up “revolutionary and innovative methods” of delivery, taking advantage of new mobile technologies.

More money is required, particularly as greater effort is focused on reaching marginalized, hard-to-reach groups, and improvements in education quality. Domestic resource allocations to education have increased dramatically in some countries. For example, up to 25 percent of Ethiopia’s budget is spent on education. But, in most other countries, education spending remains much too low at around 10 percent of total spending or even lower, such as in South Sudan at 7 percent, which is well below international standards. Education sector reform will need to go hand in hand with wider finance and tax reform to generate the resources needed. International support also needs to be sustained, expanded and better coordinated. For example in South Sudan, education assistance is delivered by 20 donors overseeing 46 projects of about $2 million.

The meetings last week resulted in a number of concrete commitments, which will be monitored by the Global Partnership for Education. A set of new meetings with other off-track countries (such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Myanmar) is also planned for the UN General Assembly in September. A number of other education events coinciding with the Ministerial also led to a coalition to prevent child exploitation and an agreement to build a platform for business engagement in education.

The ministerial meeting ended with the premier of “Girls Rising”, an inspiring new documentary about the power of girls’ education. The film reminded all of us that education is a fundamental human right and a blessing that unlocks almost all other development goals.

Authors

Liesbet Steer

Image Source: © STR New / Reuters

The Sprint to the 2015 Development Goals: Reaching the Marginalized with Quality Education and Learning

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:00:00 -0400

Event Information

April 17, 2013
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Saul/Zilkha Rooms
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036

On April 17, the Center for Universal Education hosted members of the global education community for a public discussion on the two main challenges preventing the realization of universal education. As the clock winds down on the deadline to achieve the Education for All targets and Millennium Development Goals, there are still 61 million children out of primary school and another 71 million not enrolled in secondary school. There are 250 million children that have not mastered basic reading skills, and 200 million don’t have the relevant skills to support meaningful livelihoods. Evidence shows that education is one of the most effective ways to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Clearly, more must be done to ensure that all children are in school and learning, especially marginalized groups that are furthest behind.

The first panel examined issues related to financing education. CUE Director Rebecca Winthrop emphasized that although there is a $26 million financing gap for global education, donor support has stagnated and some countries like the Unites States, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium have cut their foreign aid to education. Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), pointed out that education ministers from developing countries are creating compelling education sector plans and working hard to improve their education systems. She stressed how important it is for governments and development partners to invest and support the efforts to help fund the $1.3 billion in pending GPE grants. She noted that innovative solutions could include financial transaction tax systems, local financing mechanisms, private sector partnerships and the use of technology. Nigel Chapman, CEO of Plan International, highlighted the importance of adding a gender lens to the issues of education. In an austere budgetary climate in many advanced economies where official development assistance is evaporating, it is essential that education is not forgotten because it requires complex and long term vision. Elizabeth King, director of Education for the World Bank’s Human Development Network, described the demand for education by countries, governments and communities. She highlighted how education is regularly cited as a top priority for people, even those living in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. King argued that this should send a strong message to the international community that education can play a role in building good citizenship within societies and can be a lever for growth and development. Therefore, it is important for resources to be used effectively and efficiently.

The second panel explored the need for more equitable and better quality education. CUE Senior Fellow Kevin Watkins presented data on the large numbers of out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, and the causes of non-enrollment and school dropout, such as early marriage, child labor, conflict and poor educational quality. He pointed out that one of the biggest failings of the international donor community is the lack of provision within national education strategies to reach the most marginalized. Watkins emphasized that the reason why progress has stalled is largely because the same interventions and strategies are being used for marginalized groups when new and different approaches are needed. Baela Raza Jamil, director of programs at the Center of Education and Consciousness, described her work with the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in Pakistan and how she has been able to mobilize country-wide attention to issues around deficiencies in quality education in Pakistan.

She discussed the large-scale household and school assessment tools that have been created to measure differences within districts and across provinces. Jamil also talked about a new program, “Learning for Access”, that targets youth literacy and numeracy. Sumaya Saluja of the YP Foundation discussed the critical role that youth can play in tackling challenges in the education system. She described her work to measure school quality and her efforts to change traditional mindsets about girls’ education in India. Albert Motivan, head of Education Indictors and Data Analysis at UNESCO Institute for Statistics, presented evidence to illuminate the macro-level challenges facing global education, including UNICEF’s Out of School Initiative, which shows patterns of enrollment and progression across different segments of the global population. He also discussed the newly released report by the Learning Metrics Task Force, which outlines the different areas of learning that need to be measured, including readiness to learn, literacy and numeracy, competencies around analytic thinking, problem solving and ICT literacy.

Video

Audio

The Sprint to the 2015 Development Goals: Reaching the Marginalized with Quality Education and Learning

Event Materials

Civil Society Support from the Global South for an Equitable Learning Agenda

Allison Anderson and Kristen Molyneaux — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:53:00 -0400

Following the final meeting of the U.N. secretary general’s High-Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in Bali, Indonesia from March 25-27, panel members are now engaged in drafting a report that will recommend the vision and shape of a post-2015 development agenda that responds to the global challenges of the 21st century.

Last week, in an effort to inform the writing of this report, HLP members received a consensus brief, Equitable Learning for All elaborating on a vision and goal for education within the post-2015 development process. This brief was developed in response to members of the HLP’s request for consensus from the education community around a specific theme and vision for the post-2015 agenda. It was developed from an analysis of the many voices that have provided input for the post-2015 education consultation process, and it has been endorsed by 93 civil society organizations (CSOs) and other partners around the world, the vast majority of which are from the global south.

Given the role that quality education and learning play in empowering people to make informed decisions that impact their families’ well-being and equip them with the skills to live healthy and productive lives, the brief recommends that the post-2015 development agenda include education as a cross-cutting issue that affects all development goals. In addition, it calls for an explicit education goal focused on ‘equitable learning for all,’ encompassing equity, learning and the need for a learning continuum from early childhood through to adolescence. The brief states that the post-2015 development framework must focus on reducing the learning gap between the poorest and richest children, and girls and boys, through targets that promote equity, emphasizing the need for particular attention to rising inequality within countries. Finally the brief identifies six measures for tracking learning for all at the global level drawn from the work of the Learning Metrics Task Force, itself a global effort engaging over 800 people across 70 countries, the majority of which are from the global south.

Voices from the Global South

Civil society organizations play key roles in working with communities to ensure that global and national-level policies reach those for whom they are intended. As such, CSOs are strong advocates for social change at the community level, with their success rooted in their ability to organize, build consensus and mobilize community stakeholders who are willing to work for the change they desire.

Therefore, local and national CSOs from Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as regional and global CSOs such as the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), the Global Fund for Women, Pratham and ASER Centre were eager to give input into and eventually sign onto this brief as a show of solidarity around a common global goal. Organizations requested their names be added while articulating the importance that they saw in having a unified global voice for action; for example:

Tanzania Home Economics Association stated: “because we believe [in] one voice to positive change and [that] Education is the only possible way to escape poverty…[we] would like to be officially signed on to the brief.”

“[We] ask you to have Chikanta's name added to the brief as a sign of consensus around the importance of equity, learning, and the need for a learning continuum.... Indeed we would like to take part.” - Chikanta Community Schools Development Zambia.

“African democracy and good governance will not prosper without investing in education. We strongly support united international action for access to quality education for all and let the post 2015 MDGs speak!” – Pemba Island Relief Organization (PIRO) in Tanzania.

CSOs are already working to improve learning within their communities. Building consensus with and among them will only lead to faster change at the grass-roots level. Indeed, it is through the consensus building amongst and between CSOs, and the many stakeholders invested in educational improvement, that an equitable learning for all agenda can gain momentum and have a real chance to succeed beyond the pages of a post-2015 framework. Hopefully members of the HLP will heed this call.

Authors

Allison Anderson
Kristen Molyneaux

Welcome to Education + Development

Rebecca Winthrop — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:42:00 -0400

Welcome to Education + Development, a new blog by the Center for Universal Education. Our blog will cover issues on global education, learning and international development, with a particular focus on the post-2015 development agenda process. Over the next two years, we will regularly blog on the process toward creating the new development agenda that will replace the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set to expire in 2015. In addition, we will track the progress toward achieving MDG 2 – to provide high quality education for all boys and girls.

Our blog will also examine issues at the heart of the global education and development debate, provide updates on the Learning Metrics Task Force, and analyze the latest research, policy initiatives and developments impacting global education, including:

• Addressing inequality and improving equity in education financing
• Reaching marginalized communities
• Providing access as well as quality learning opportunities for all children
• Promoting youth skills and livelihoods
• Weighing education provision through the strategic use of public and private funding
• Engaging corporate philanthropy in global education

Our hope is that the Education + Development blog will serve as forum for Brookings scholars and guest contributors to have a dynamic dialogue on the critical issues impacting education in developing countries and also serve as an online space to collectively share information and new ideas.

We have included several previous blog posts on the progress thus far in the post-2015 discussions, which serve as a foundation for continued debate and engagement from all members of our community.

We look forward to sharing new blog posts with you and welcome your thoughts and input.

Warm regards,

Rebecca Winthrop
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Universal Education
@rebeccawinthrop

Authors

Rebecca Winthrop

Quiet Progress for Education in Pakistan

Rebecca Winthrop, Elena Matsui and Baela Raza Jamil — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:00:00 -0400

The issue of education in Pakistan rocketed to front page news after the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old girl who was targeted by Taliban assassins last October. Unfortunately, violence and attacks against education persist. At the end of March, Shahnaz Nazli, a 41-year-old teacher, was killed on her way to work at a girls’ school near the town of Jamrud in the Khyber tribal district. Five teachers were killed in January near the town of Swabi in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Acts of violence like these undermine an already weak education system where an estimated 30 to 40 percent of school-aged children are out of school. These enormous challenges are compounded by political uncertainties given the upcoming elections and denouement of the war in Afghanistan.

However, in the shadow of these difficult circumstances, progress is quietly being made in thousands of schools located in Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province. A recent report, The Good News From Pakistan, shows positive results emerging from a program that instituted a number of reforms to the education sector in over 60,000 government schools. Based on global evidence of what works in school system reform, the Punjab Education Reform Roadmap targets access, equity and quality, and uses an innovative monitoring tool that can be used to support and encourage policy dialogue. Over the past two years there have been increases in student enrollment, teacher presence and the availability of functioning facilities in the regions where the program has been implemented.

Student learning levels in Punjab have also improved. An independent, citizen-led household-based study, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), assessed over 60,000 children from all 36 districts in Punjab and profiled almost 2,000 public and private schools in the region. It reveals significant gains in learning outcomes for literacy and numeracy. Grade 4 English language learning levels have improved 12 percent since 2011; Arithmetic levels in Grades 4 and 5 have increased 10 percent. Perhaps even more remarkable, the study indicates that gaps between public and private education are closing. Whereas private schools have historically performed better in terms of teacher attendance rates and learning outcomes, now public and private school attendance rates for children (86 percent) and teachers (87 percent) are on par. Public school facilities are also improving. There are more functioning toilets and available drinking water in government schools, which has further reduced discrepancies in relation to private schools.

Something is definitely working. A critical component of the Punjab Education Reform Roadmap includes strengthening district administration by involving, incentivizing and holding officials accountable for progress or failure, as well as acknowledging them publicly. In addition, a culture of evidence-based tracking and accountability is growing throughout the Punjab districts. In particular, monthly monitoring and ranking based on a number of key indicators around governance and quality has helped to bolster the attendance rates in public schools.

The engagement of policymakers as well as citizens is essential to the success of any large scale public sector education reform. While the Punjab Education Reform Roadmap is involving high-level officials and community leaders, Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan is doing its part to include citizens in the dialogue. Every year, 9,000 volunteers from across Pakistan work to collect ASER data that is then shared with the government, civil society organizations, media, bilateral and multilateral agencies and other stakeholders working in the education sector. This process supports the Right to Education (RTE) campaign that has collected almost 2 million signatures from in-school and out-of-school children in an effort to pressure the Pakistani government to implement free and compulsory education for all children aged five to sixteen. United Nations special envoy for Global Education and former prime minster, Gordon Brown, presented 1 million signatures from the RTE campaign to the president of Pakistan on Malala Day, November 10^th, 2012, which lead to the ratification of the first RTE bill in Pakistan. Following the death of Shahnaz Nazli, Malala started a new petition in honor of the slain teacher, which continues to put pressure on the Pakistani government to end the killings and violence that deny children their right to an education–especially for girls.

These advances are important for the people of Pakistan and the 5.1 million children out of school throughout the country. But these efforts also offer lessons for the international community. The Punjab Education Reform Roadmap as well as the work of ASER Pakistan and courageous individuals like Malala and Shahnaz Nazli show that even in the face of daunting challenges and an uncertain future, ambitious goal setting, collaboration and the effective use of evidence can deliver impressive results in a relatively short amount of time. Governments and partners working to improve education systems everywhere should take note.

Authors

Rebecca Winthrop
Elena Matsui
Baela Raza Jamil

Syria's Children are in Desperate Need of Educational Aid

Maysa Jalbout — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:57:00 -0400

The UAE is increasingly viewed as an important player in the field of humanitarian aid, particularly in situations of crisis. Since 1971, the UAE has given more than Dh225 billion in foreign aid to more than 90 countries. This trend continued at last week's Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference, where the UAE received praise for its pledge of Dh1.1 billion to assist Syrian refugees.

Syria's refugees are in desperate need of safe shelters, medical assistance, food and water. The UAE's money, which it will distribute outside of the UN framework, will go a long way in providing these basic services.

But the UAE could also play a leadership role in ensuring that Syrian children have access to something often overlooked during times of conflict: education.

In their recent report Childhood Under Fire, the UK-based agency Save The Children detailed the effect of the two-year crisis on Syrian children. Young people have been uprooted from their homes, and witnessed death and destruction. Many are separated from their families. Syrian children have experienced tragedies that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Without the much-needed physical protection and psychosocial counselling offered to refugee children in schools, Syria's displaced young people will not be able to cope. As reported by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there have been cases of children taking their own lives in refugee camps, overwhelmed by the stress. Others, especially those who are not protected by a parent, are in danger of being subjected to harm, exploitation and abduction.

Read the full article on The National »

Authors

Maysa Jalbout

Publication: The National

Dakar Consensus: Equitable, Quality Learning for All

Allison Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:37:00 -0400

More than 120 education stakeholders from civil society, youth, private sector, foundations, academics, governments and the United Nations met last week in Dakar, Senegal to review global education progress achieved since 2000, discuss the remaining challenges, and develop recommendations around an education goal for the post-2015 development framework.

Gordon Brown succinctly captured the spirit of the conference discussion in a blog based on a video message he delivered to the Dakar conference, writing that “universal learning is a goal of goals, or a super goal,” because without education we cannot unlock the other development goals, such as employment opportunity, gender equality, environmental care and good health. He concludes that “this is not just about education. It is about achieving the promise of globalization: that there is opportunity for all. Education should be reversing, not reinforcing, inequalities. Let us make sure that with stepping stone targets for education that focus not just on enrolment but on learning too, we can make the next 15 years even more successful for education than the last.”

In their deliberations, the delegates reviewed a wide range of existing proposals and inputs, including recommendations from the U.N.-led global thematic consultation on education, on how to address these challenges. Despite differences on a range of issues, a clear consensus on four priorities emerged during the discussion. The organizers summarized the deliberations as a call for: “equitable, quality life-long learning for all.” The four areas of consensus include:

Equity: A post-2015 education goal must include a clear focus on reaching the marginalized, and in particular populations affected by conflict and disaster were frequently mentioned, as were people living in poverty, ethnic minorities, rural girls and those living with disabilities.
Quality Learning: The goal must also include a strong emphasis on improving the quality of learning outcomes and experiences, something which the existing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have failed to do.
Expanding Access to More than Just Primary Education: The goal must include a continuum of learning opportunities from early childhood on.
Cross-Cutting Nature of Education: The post-2015 development agenda must include education as a cross-cutting issue that supports other development goals. One way for this to be operationalized is to produce targets that integrate education is into other development sectors such as health and the environment. The idea of conceiving of education as helping building resilience across a range of other issues was introduced in this light.

A similar consensus around these themes of equity, learning and the need for a learning continuum from early childhood through adolescence was cited in the summary report of the global thematic consultation on education: Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. This report, which is still in draft form, presents the main themes from the education consultations that have taken place since late 2012, including the global online forums focused on equitable access to education, quality of learning, global citizenship, jobs and skills, and governance and financing of education. The report highlights two priority themes, or imperatives, for the post-2015 development goals on which there is consensus within the global education community: equitable access and equitable quality education, and specifically learning, within a rights-based approach that focuses on tackling inequalities.

Priority One: Equitable Access

As the report from the global thematic consultation on education notes, equitable access to all levels of education remains a key gap in the education agenda. The education Millennium Development Goal focuses on universal primary enrollment; however, there is abundant evidence that education begins at birth and continues in post-primary opportunities, whether through secondary schooling or nonformal technical and vocational education. Thus, the global education report asserts the need for a “foundational commitment” in the post-2015 framework to a goal focused on equitable access across the learning continuum. Within the report, the learning continuum is conceived of as universal coverage for early childhood care and education, from birth to school entry (0 to 8 years), through to basic education, or nine years of schooling that includes lower secondary education.

Priority Two: Equitable Quality Education, Specifically Learning

The global education report states that good quality equitable education and learning emerge “at the heart of the post-2015 education agenda” and that there is an emerging consensus on an education goal with learning as a proxy measure of quality. The report notes that this could be couched in broad terms such as ensuring that all children are prepared for school entry and “leave school with measurable learning standards and the skills, knowledge and values to become responsive, active and productive members of society and the world.”

This is in line with the recent vision laid out by the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF)— a global effort engaging over 800 people, the majority from the global south, across 70 countries— in its report, Toward Universal Learning: What Every Child Should Learn. The report presents a broad, holistic framework for learning beyond literacy and numeracy. While being able to read and write are critical for enabling all girls and boys to access a broader education, these core skills are far from sufficient. In addition to reading and numeracy, children need to learn relevant transferable skills such critical thinking, problem solving, civic values, mental health and well-being, and 21st century skills such as communication and technological literacy, to prepare them for the workforce and to be active, productive members of their communities.

The global education report and discussion in Dakar also highlighted the importance of having equity as a cross-cutting aspect underpinning these two priority areas of equitable access and equitable learning, with a strong focus on marginalized and vulnerable groups. In particular, gender equality and the needs of children and youth affected by emergencies have been singled out.

The Next Challenge: Targets and Metrics

As noted in the global report and discussed at the Dakar conference, now that there is broad agreement on the themes of an education goal, the challenge will become setting targets and metrics. Across all discussions, there is a debate about balancing global and country-level goals and metrics. It is clear that global goals must reflect national priorities and that more attention must be paid to neglected contexts such as conflict and post-conflict contexts, as well as to those countries with the least promising education metrics. However, one of the lessons from the Millennium Development Goals is that clear internationally comparable measures of progress have acted as a significant spur to global progress. Striking this balance between such goals and allowing for national or regional-level discretion is one critical question, not just for education in the post-2015 framework, but for all policy areas.

The Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF) met last month to discuss these challenges and identified a small number of measures for tracking at the global level that should feed into the discussion of targets and metrics moving forward. The task force emphasized the need to operationalize these while simultaneously helping to build measurement capacity at the national level. The six areas for measurement that are important to enable children and youth to constructively participate in a globalized world are:

Access to and completion of learning opportunities through enrollment and completion indicators.
Early childhood experiences that result in readiness for primary school through a school readiness indicator.
The ability to read and understand a variety of texts through a learning to read indicator and reading to learn indicator at the primary and secondary level.
The ability to use numbers and apply this knowledge to real-life situations through numeracy indicators at the primary and secondary level.
An adaptable, flexible skill set to meet the demands of the 21st century through an indicator still to be developed (e.g. collaborative problem solving).
Exposure to a breadth of learning opportunities across all seven domains (physical well-being, social and emotional, culture and the arts, literacy and communication, learning approaches and cognition, numeracy and mathematics, science and technology) through an indicator still to be developed.

Information for these areas of measurement would be collected using internationally comparable assessments in some cases, such as reading comprehension and mathematics, and using alternative assessments for others. Data collected against these domains of measurement should describe average achievement levels in addition to progress over time and equity across groups (girls/boys, urban/rural and wealth levels, at a minimum). The work of the LMTF on this front will continue to inform the discussion on targets and metrics within the education community and an open consultation process will begin in mid-April.

The Dakar meeting discussions and outcomes will result in a synthesis report that combines all of the consultation outcomes to date, which will eventually inform the deliberations of the secretary-general’s High Level Panel (HLP) this spring and the secretary-general’s report to the U.N. General Assembly this fall. An explicit education goal focused on equitable access to learning opportunities should resonate well with the HLP as it addresses issues that are integral to ensuring sustainable development, equity and inclusive growth in the post-2015 development agenda. It is also a goal that is relevant to high, medium and low-income countries alike. The focus on equity, learning and a learning continuum from early childhood through to adolescence will also bind together the education discussion within the process to develop sustainable development goals with the post-2015 development framework. For the education community, this prioritization of equitable, quality life-long learning within the post-2015 development agenda will help bring a more coherent approach to the post-2015 development framework and the Education for All goals by addressing the most notable gaps and weaknesses between them.

Authors

Education and President Obama’s Trip to the Middle East

Maysa Jalbout and Rebecca Winthrop — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:33:00 -0400

In President Obama's visit to the Middle East this week, one aspect that should not be overlooked on his agenda is education in Syria. Education is often not seen as an immediate priority during a conflict, yet is as critical now to Syrian youth and children as it is for the longer-term stabilization and eventual rebuilding of their country. The state of education in Syria is not only a reflection of the current turmoil but, as we have learned from neighboring countries in-post conflict times, especially Iraq, it is also a strong indication of its future.

UNICEF's recent report on the state of education in Syria is alarming. At least 2,400 schools have been destroyed and an additional 1,500 are being used as shelters for displaced persons. In some cities, children have already missed out on almost two years of schooling. Across the country, parents, understandably, are reluctant to send their children to school as school buildings have been targeted by armed forces. Many children fled Syria with their families disrupting their education and forcing them to adjust to new, and often time harsh, conditions. The two years of conflict in Syria has had a severe impact on its education system. If not prioritized now, the consequences could be devastating in the long-term for Syria, as has similarly occurred in Iraq.

Education in pre-war Iraq was arguably one of the best in the region with 100% gross enrollment rates, almost complete gender parity, low drop-out rates, and government spending of approximately $620 per student. Compare that with Iraq during and after the war: gross enrollment dropped, the gender gap increased significantly, the drop out reached 20% and government spending per student dropped to $47. Education continues to be the target of violence and destruction even today. UNESCO reports that going to school in Iraq remains a dangerous activity. In the span of five years (2003-2008), over 31,500 attacks on educational institutions were reported. The impact of the conflict in Iraq on its education system has been devastating and will continue to be felt for generations to come.

For Syria, as in Iraq and in most countries affected by conflict, if education is not prioritized urgently and systematically, we can also expect the same devastating legacy. It will result in less children and youth going to school, fewer years of schooling, lower literacy rates and even worse outcomes for those who were marginalized before the conflict, including girls and women. This Syrian mother's quote in Save the Children's recent report, Childhood Under Fire, depicts the new grim reality:

“My daughter, she is 16 and she loved school. She was the first in her class, and she wanted to become an architect. But this war...we were too worried for her. We could not protect her, so we had to marry her. I know that men are hurting women, old women, single women – everyone. We needed her to have a protector…What about marriage? ‘Your cousin is a good man, take him, he is good.’ So she said ‘As you wish’. But she did not want to get married, she wanted to study. But there were no more schools. So... she was married. This is happening a lot within Syria, many women I know are marrying their daughters – even younger than 16 – to protect them.”

If Syria’s post-conflict education system is left to follow in the same path as Iraq’s, it will not only exacerbate state fragility, but also obstruct development and hurt those who are most vulnerable. This 16-year-old Syrian girl's story could become the story of an entire generation of young women who lose the chance to be educated, to be empowered and to have the tools they need to participate in the rebuilding of their country.

The United States government could lead the way in supporting an education relief plan and a longer-term multi-stakeholder rehabilitation plan of the sector as a whole. It should begin by funding UNICEF's $20 million ask for education programs in Syria for which it has only received $3 million so far. Proven strategies for ensuring continuity of education amid crisis, such as setting up child friendly spaces for learning in homes and other safe spaces, are important not only for children’s learning outcomes but their psychosocial well-being. Funding shortfalls are preventing the provision of urgently needed prefabricated classrooms, repairs and rehabilitation of learning spaces, and the provision of learning materials. For Syrians who fled to neighboring countries, targeted support should be given to U.N. agencies and particularly to Jordan, where over 29,000 Syrian children have been given access to schools despite Jordan’s own schools being already overcrowded and burdened by previous flows of refugees.

To stop at the urgent needs of Syria's education system however, would be short sighted. Supporting Syria's education needs over the long term is a must. As President Obama and his administration consider the future of Syria, they must ensure that the legacy of Syria’s conflict is not another broken education system and its devastating consequences for Syria, the Middle East and the world.