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This UNICEF report draws on evidence from multiple fields to present a framework for understanding children’s evolving capacities. The authors note:

“The United Nations has pointed to growing evidence of a pushback against children’s rights and respect for their evolving capacities in favour of a stronger emphasis on parental rights. In addition, climate change and environmental degradation are negatively impacting the lives of many more children… Furthermore, the United Nations estimates that hundreds of millions of children live in conflict zones, facing profound and often devastating immediate and long-term consequences.. Given these shifts and their tremendous impact on children and families, it is time to re-examine how the concept of evolving capacities is being applied and understood to advance child rights.”

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Summaries are also available in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Mohamed, born with quadriplegia, spent much time in his home. A mobile education team offered self-learning classes for out-of-school children and Mohamad’s mother enrolled him. The impact has been profound. Mohamed now reads confidently and often wins Holy Quran verse competitions with his brothers.

Salsabeel has severe visual impairment after a shelling attack. She started to miss classes but has now started non-formal learning through her phone and an educational app. The experiences shows how flexible, education models can give children with disabilities a second chance to learn, even in the most challenging contexts.

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In a small meeting room in Bong County, a group of women gathers to review school attendance lists and plan their next outreach. Their goal is simple but urgent: to ensure that every girl in their community knows her right to education and is supported to stay in school. These gatherings reflect a shift in how girls’ education policy is understood, not as a distant government framework, but as a shared community responsibility. Through direct engagement with schools and local stakeholders, the women’s groups helped strengthen accountability and secure the endorsement of school safety and WASH policies by parent teacher associations and school boards and help improve girls’ attendance and retention at schools.

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The Inclusive Education Policy was introduced in Uganda to allow children with special needs to learn alongside their peers. However, the reality in schools tell that those children still struggle. The article gives the example of several schools and the issues these schools face like lack of learning tools, teacher training and weak implementation. The author interviewed teachers, a representative from a teachers’ union, a representative from the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda, and the Commissioner Special Needs Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports. Uganda is making progress but this is not sufficient to allow for inclusive education in all schools.

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What began as concern over long waits for speech therapy grew into a powerful community-led advocacy success, increasing the number of therapists and helping children catch up with their peers. In 2023, there was only one speech therapist in Drochia, Moldova, responsible for more than 90 children with identified support needs. It was estimated, though, that around 800 children, 18% of the child population in the district, needed speech-therapy.

After evidence gathering by an NGO and awareness raising with parents, educators and school management, findings on how many children needed speech-therapy were submitted to the district council, which led to increased budgets for speech-therapy. The number of speech-therapists increased, which also helped to reduce disparities between urban and rural areas.

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A new, three-week course is available online, co-designed by the CoMOOCs team from UCL, the Inclusive Education (InEd) Team, and partners in displacement settings along the Thai-Myanmar border. The course is the second in a teacher development series, building on Understanding Education in Conflict and Crisis Settings, available on FutureLearn and on OpenLearn Create.

Teaching in conflict and displacement settings brings unique challenges. Educators must support learners affected by trauma while navigating limited resources and caring for their own wellbeing. This course offers practical strategies to help teachers create safe, inclusive and empowering learning environments in such contexts.

Find out more.

Viet Nam is scaling up mother-tongue-based bilingual instruction, supporting ethnic minority children to learn in both their mother tongue and Vietnamese. Vietnamese is the official language of instruction at all education levels, including preschool. This creates a significant barrier for children from ethnic minority communities, particularly those living in mountainous and remote areas, who may not speak Vietnamese at home. Teacher training has given teachers the tools to change their teaching practice, using everyday classroom items and local resources to create phonological games, and teaching through play, integrating Vietnamese naturally into daily routines. This shows positive results: Children respond more quickly, participate enthusiastically and become more confident using Vietnamese.

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Maldives is made up of over 1,000 islands. It has nonetheless achieved near-universal access to pre-primary and primary education, with strong gender parity. However, Maldives has modest learning outcomes and substantial regional disparities. The Maldives government has worked to find financing that increases funding, improves efficiency, and incentivises reforms. The new learning plan builds on a previous programme, run from 2020 to 2024, which aimed to strengthen primary education curriculum implementation, enhance teacher training and improve the measurement of student learning. Schools with the lowest learning outcomes received learning materials for improving foundational literacy and numeracy, benefiting almost 15,000 students, while parental engagement initiatives reinforced home-based learning.

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In the past, school lessons in Nepal were taught only in Nepali, a language many children did not speak at home. It was a well-meaning effort to prepare the children for the wider world, but it often left children fearful of speaking up. This began to change with the introduction of multilingual education (MLE) training programs.

Teachers participated in the training, which encouraged them to start education in the mother tongue of the children and gradually introduce Nepali as a second language. Parents describe the shift in their children’s confidence and eagerness to share what they learn. The multilingual approach helps close the gaps that too often leave children behind, especially those from ethnic minorities, remote areas or low-income families.

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BERA (the British Educational Research Association) have published several blogs on how digital technologies have been used with forcibly displaced populations in educational provision. In this special issue of blogs, emphasis is placed not on the technological sophistication of the models being discussed but rather on the notion of ‘connectedness’. Connectedness promotes embeddedness in local and global communities, values the opportunities and pedagogical importance of face-to-face instruction supported by technology, and is rooted in collaboration, pastoral support and human relations.

Read the blogs.