Blog

Pakistan has a school for transgender students in Lahore. The transgender community in Pakistan encounters systemic discrimination in almost every part of life. For many, school is not an option; it’s a site of violence and expulsion. Many schools don’t recognise a third gender and gender-neutral facilities do not exist.

The school for transgender students was opened by the Gender Guardian organisation and provides free academic and vocational training. Inclusive education would allow all transgender learners to access schools. The government has taken some initiatives, but the overall attitude of society is detrimental to such steps. The author concludes:

“In the same way we respond to refugee children excluded from schools due to displacement, we must also respond to transgender learners pushed out due to prejudice and fear. The solution isn’t just opening doors to education; it’s rethinking the entire space so that everyone feels safe once they walk in.”

Read the blog.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has gained prominence as a global educational imperative over the last decades. This blog argues that SEL must move from its focus on individual behaviour to systemic transformation. It argues:

“A truly transformative SEL must incorporate intersectionality, a framework that explains how overlapping systems of power shape individual experience. This involves recognizing how caste, gender, ethnicity, disability, and socioeconomic status intersect to influence not only access to education, but also the emotional experience of schooling.”

Read the blog.

UNICEF in the Central African Republic has developed two comic books for children and families. The aim is to raise awareness on children’s rights, especially girls’ rights.

Book 1 is called “A Birth Certificate for Noella”; Book 2 is called “Laurette Wants to Go to School” and is about child marriage.

Download both books in French.

The International Disability Alliance hosted a webinar called “Leveraging the Global Disability Summit 2025 Commitments to Advance Inclusive Education for Learners with Disabilities”. Opening the discussion, Jose Viera, Executive Director of IDA, spoke of education as “the tool that unlocks independence, autonomy, and inclusion.”

Drawing from personal experience, he reflected on how inaccessible schools once limited his own opportunities, underscoring why inclusive education must be seen as a right rather than charity. He emphasized that efforts to include learners with disabilities must help to transform systems to be inclusive for all.

Read the summary and watch the webinar.

The Global Schools Forum has published a case study on Moldova’s National Programme for Childcare Services. The National Programme is a strategic response to a set of interlinked structural challenges that risked undermining Moldova’s social and economic progress. These include persistently high child poverty, low enrolment in early childhood education for children under three and limited avenues for women to re-enter the workforce. These pressures had been further intensified by the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, with Moldova now hosting the world’s highest per capita population of Ukrainian refugees, most of them women and children.

One key success has been the opening of the first family-based crèche by a Ukrainian mother, signalling that refugee families can be integrated into the childcare sector as a means to earn a livelihood. Another significant milestone has been the opening of the first childcare centre by two male caregivers, breaking traditional gender norms and contributing to a broader understanding of the childcare sector as an inclusive space.

Read the case study.

The Kenyan national and county governments together with The Action Foundation launched the Disability-Inclusive Early Childhood Development (DIECD) Strategy. The challenge lies now with implementing the strategy that will see the transformation of systems that support children with disabilities and their caregivers. By embedding rehabilitation, early learning, and caregiver support within public systems, the initiative seeks to create lasting change.

Read the article.

UKFIET has published the recordings of their webinars that followed the 2025 conference.

One is on inclusion and intersectionality, titled: Beyond Buzzwords: Reimagining Inclusion and Intersectionality in Education. The sessions intended to deepen the understanding of inclusion and intersectionality and how multiple complex identities intersect and interact with education systems and societal norms. A deep and varied explanation exposes structural barriers to inclusion, whilst also revealing opportunities to design equitable and responsive learning environments.

The sessions explored what works and for whom, while really amplifying youth voices and Southern epistemologies.

Watch the webinar / session.

UNICEF has published a report “Education aid cuts: A broken promise to children”. This analysis shows that international aid to education is projected to fall by US$3.2 billion by 2026 – a 24 per cent drop.

If the announced cuts to official development assistance (ODA) become a reality, UNICEF estimates that 6 million more children risk being out of school by the end of 2026, 30 per cent of them in humanitarian settings. This is equivalent to emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined. It would raise the estimated number of out-of-school children from the current 272 million to 278 million.

Read the report.

Read Bond article.

Child marriage remains a huge threat to girls worldwide. This research from Plan International reveals how this harmful practice puts girls in danger and limits their opportunities. Vulnerability and violence were key themes from the testimonies. Leaving school was another theme:

“Child marriage often results in girls leaving school early, severely hindering their opportunities in the future. The report found that over 1 in 3 (35%) dropped out of school after marriage and that 63% are not in employment, education or training.”

Read the report.