UNESCO has published a report entitled “Women lead for learning” that shows a global gender disparity in education leadership.
The report mentions the impact a woman leader in education can have: “In some cases, when women lead schools, learning outcomes also improve. Schools led by women have been found to improve learning outcomes by the equivalent of an additional year of schooling in some francophone African countries, and by up to 6 months in some South-eastern Asian countries.”
Statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder.
“These past 19 months, Gaza has been deadly for children and there are no safe spaces. From North to South, children are being killed and maimed in hospitals, in schools-turned-shelters, in makeshift tents, or in their parents’ arms.” “Children’s rights in Gaza are being gravely violated every day and urgent action is needed to protect children from widespread grave violations of their rights and threats to their survival. Nineteen months into this conflict, children have suffered violence without relent, including indiscriminate attacks. They have suffered multiple months-long blockades, denying them of essential food, water, and health supplies. They have suffered repeated displacements – being forced to relocate again and again, in search of safety and shelter. They have suffered in ways unimaginable. Their scars will endure a lifetime.”
Education Cannot Wait’s Director, Yasmine Sherif, has published this statement to highlight the situation of children in Gaza:
“In the past two months alone, more than 950 children have reportedly been killed in strikes across the Gaza Strip. That’s 15 children every day who lose their lives in this horrific conflict. Those who survive face the risk of famine, illness, and the collapse of essential services, including education.”
The Philippines is undergoing an education crisis. 24 million Filipinos aged 10-64 are functionally illiterate, with 5.8 million being basically illiterate. The World Bank reports that 91% of Filipino children aged 10 struggle to read simple text, a rate that has been worsened by the Covid 19 pandemic.
The article gives further detail and reasons: “Poverty and child labor are significant contributors to illiteracy with 678,000 (62%) of 1.1 million working children in 2023 being engaged in hazardous work. Early pregnancies also disrupt education with a 35% surge in live births among girls under 15.”
Niketan and Biblionef have launched an audiobook version of the story “My Name is Runa”, the true story of a girl named Runa who lives in Bangladesh and has cerebral palsy.
The audiobook is available in Dutch, English and Bengali. As Runa said: “Hello, I am Runa. I have Cerebral Palsy and I live in Bangladesh. Because I walk and talk with difficulty, everyone calls me “an idiot”! Now I play the lead role in a storybook, in which I tell everyone what it is like to have a disability and to be teased. My story has a surprising end. I hope it helps to raise awareness about how it feels to grow up with a disability”.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya.
Application Deadline: 13 June 2025.
LM International, a Swedish global foundation, is looking for an Inclusive Education Hub Coordinator for Africa. The Inclusive Education Hub Coordinator for Africa (IE Hub) is a critical dynamic role responsible for driving the process towards achieving SDG 4 by accelerating the development, implementation, and scaling of inclusive education initiatives across the African continent through the Community of Practice (CoP).
The purpose of the IE Hub and the focus of the CoP is ensuring that children and youth with disabilities have equitable access to quality education and are supported to thrive in inclusive learning environments.
A GPE youth leader gives insights from her experience of inclusive education in a Caribbean context. She gives an example from her own life:
“The most challenging subject for me in school was mathematics where visual representations were critical but rarely accessible. I often felt excluded during geometry lessons where teachers would point to shapes on the chalkboard saying ‘this angle here’ without verbal descriptions. These experiences taught me that inclusion requires thoughtful communication, not just physical presence in a classroom.”
This blog tells the story of one boy who had dropped out of school to explain Mongolia’s strides in inclusive education. Thanks to a teacher who was trained in inclusive education the boy was encouraged to return to school. The boy received counselling sessions, too, to gain confidence. The boy’s progress “reflects Mongolia’s expanding system-wide investment in inclusive education – ensuring that schools are equipped with appropriate teaching and learning tools for children with disabilities, awareness-raising activities among peers, active engagement of parents, and targeted training for mainstream teachers.”
“With less than half of children in South Sudan currently in school, inclusive education isn’t optional – it’s essential,” this blog states.
It describes a programme by Education Cannot Wait in South-Sudan that promotes inclusion, in this case teacher training in sign-language and braille. There are other initiatives within this programme like providing assistive devices.
“Despite these investments and the dedication of implementing partners and educators, education continues to be one of the most underfunded sectors in South Sudan.”
The blog ends on a positive note: “When Beatrice [a teacher who learned sign language] returns to her community, she’ll be more than a teacher – she’ll be an advocate, helping children who’ve long been excluded enter the classroom and create a future beyond it.”
“Failure to limit global heating to 1.5°C would condemn nearly a third of today’s five-year-olds to unprecedented levels of dangerous heat during their lifetimes.”
The figures, released by Save the Children and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) map out the scale of climate extremes children will face at different levels of warming. Save the Children added:
“While we need a rapid and equitable phase-out of the use, subsidy and financing of fossil fuels to stick to the 1.5°C target, we must not lose sight of solutions. The report highlights initiatives like increased climate finance, child-centred and locally led adaptation and increasing the participation of children in shaping climate action. “
