Blog

[EENET news] Closing EENET’s online shop

For almost 30 years, EENET has made a commitment to provide free printed inclusive education materials to readers with limited or no access to the internet.

While the spread of mobile technology has increased exponentially since EENET started, there have remained significant access gaps. That’s why we have tried to maintain our free hard-copy distribution option as long as possible.

However, various factors mean we can no longer continue this service:

  • Reliable courier costs have become unaffordable.
  • Standard airmail costs have also risen hugely despite the service being slow and often unreliable, with many packages getting ‘lost’.
  • Basic parcels of documents are now more likely to incur customs charges which recipients cannot afford.
  • It has always been difficult to secure funding for hard-copy distribution, but the global funding crisis now makes it even harder.

Sadly, therefore, our shop of free printed materials has now been removed from the website.

We still have some stock of printed materials, such as posters and editions of Enabling Education Review. If you would like any – and can pay the postage or courier costs – please get in touch to discuss.

You can, of course, still access – free of charge – about 1000 inclusive education documents and videos on our website.

[Blog] Transforming education in Zimbabwe through gender-responsive pedagogy

Zimbabwe has taken several significant steps toward gender parity in education. In this blog, the author explains the meaning and history of gender-responsive pedagogy (GRP) in Zimbabwe. However, she writes:

“While GRP holds significant promise for addressing gender barriers in schools in Zimbabwe, we still lack a clear understanding of how it is being understood by teachers and practiced in real classroom settings and to what extent it is supporting learners to learn better and realize their full potential, especially girls”.

Read the blog.

[Blog] How to reimagine education for the 21st century

In this blog, the authors describe the move from a traditional, “factory model” of education to a new, active playful learning model.

“The science of learning demonstrates that students learn best through experiences that are active rather than passive, engaging without being distracting, and meaningful by connecting to prior knowledge or real-world contexts. Learning is also deepened when it is socially interactive, encouraging collaboration with peers and teachers; iterative, allowing space for experimentation and revision; and joyful, fostering a positive emotional connection to learning.”

Read the blog.

[Blog] How safe spaces and after-school programs are transforming students’ lives across Latin America

This blogs explains the approach of Glasswing International’s community schools, which are a comprehensive strategy to transform schools into inclusive, safe and supportive environments across Latin America.

“Teachers participating in the program receive training in active learning methodologies and restorative practices, integrating these approaches into both classroom teaching and extracurricular activities. Community school model components include: after-school clubs, academic tutoring, leadership opportunities, mental health promotion and community-based initiatives—all supported by trained volunteers from the local community or partner organizations and in collaboration with teachers.”

Read the blog.

[Article] ECW Interview with Dr Faiza Hassan, INEE Director

Education Cannot Wait has published an interview with Dr Faiza Hassan, Director of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. The interview touches on the shrinking budgets for international aid, education in crisis, girls’ education and localisation.

Dr Hassan says: “In a time of shrinking aid budgets, protecting and expanding investment in education is not optional; it is the most strategic and cost-effective investment we can make. If we want to solve the world’s greatest challenges, from climate change and public health to economic inequality, we must stand behind communities to invest in education.”

Read the interview.

[Blog] Benin: Building on momentum of learning gains

The government of Benin places a strong emphasis on education. It allocates one of the highest portions of its budget to the education sector in West and Central Africa, and has placed a greater focus on the quality of learning. This has led to a significant improvement in learning outcomes and made the education system more inclusive. For example:

“The education ministry collaborated with the Department for People with Disabilities and the Elderly and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance to identify children with disabilities, consult with their families about each child’s needs, provide assistive devices such as crutches or hearing aids, pay their school fees and provide school supplies and textbooks, and cover home tutoring costs.”

Read the blog.

[Blog] Don’t Forget About the Boys: Educational Equity in LMIC Contexts

In this blog, Cody Ragonese talks about a panel titled “Don’t Forget About the Boys: Educational Equity in LMIC Contexts”. The blog argues:

“Supporting boys’ engagement in education does not mean restricting girls’ advancement. When boys’ education includes learning values relating to gender equality, boys not only enhance their own well-being but also become powerful allies in the movement for a more just and equal society.”

Read the full blog.

Bridges Beyond Barriers: My journey in education in emergencies and connection

By Ayman Qwaider

When people ask me where I’m from, I say it with both pride and pain: Gaza. A land known for its resilience, resistance, and reality. Born and raised in the Gaza Strip, I was shaped by a world wrapped in layers—layers of occupation, separation, blockade, and yet, despite it all, education.

Education wasn’t just a chapter in my story—it was the story.

From public and UN schools to university halls in Gaza, I studied in classrooms where power outages interrupted lessons, and the hum of drones sometimes replaced the sound of school bells. But even amidst such chaos, I learned. Not just from books, but from the environment around me. It taught me patience. It taught me grit. And above all, it taught me the power of connection.

I remember vividly the thrill of a simple email pinging into my inbox from outside Gaza. It felt like a beam of light breaking through concrete. A message—just a few lines—could lift my spirits, give me hope, remind me I was seen. In a place where borders were barricades and movement was luxury, a text message could become a lifeline. Such was the weight of communication in Gaza—where small gestures carried immense meaning.

I began working with international and community-based organizations, including UN agencies. And early on, it became crystal clear to me: education isn’t just about curriculum. It’s about community. It’s about creating space—literal and metaphorical—for educators to unite, learn from one another, and share strategies to overcome the unique obstacles we face. We forged solidarity not just through shared hardship, but through shared hope.

Then came a turning point.

In 2010, I received a scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies in Spain. Leaving Gaza was more than a trip—it was an act of defiance against the narrative that Gaza was all there was. For so long, Gaza had felt like the whole world, because it was the only world I was allowed to know. But there I was, boarding a plane, stepping into a space where borders didn’t define me.

In Spain, surrounded by students from Iran, Colombia, Morocco, Germany, the US, Nigeria, and beyond, I finally saw the magic of global learning spaces. It was in those conversations—often over meals or late-night debates—that I realized how powerful it is to humanize ourselves by telling our own stories. No filters. No headlines. Just lived experience.

When I returned, I carried more than a degree—I carried a mission.

We launched the Gaza Children’s Cinema Initiative, a simple yet revolutionary idea: give children in Gaza a chance to watch movies in safe, child-friendly spaces. Why? Because many of these children had never traveled, never seen different cultures, never experienced joy unfiltered by war or blockade. So we brought the world to them through film—different stories, colors, music, food, landscapes. And then we talked. We sparked imagination in a place where imagination often gets stifled.

Today, my work continues—driven by the same core belief that shaped me: connection is resistance.

For the past 15 years, I’ve been part of global education networks like the Enabling Education Network and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. These communities are more than professional spaces—they are lifelines. They are where ideas travel faster than borders, where solidarity stretches across oceans, and where isolated educators feel held, heard, and empowered.

Sometimes, I wake up to voice notes and texts from fellow educators in crisis zones, asking for support, tools, training, or just a digital shoulder to lean on. These messages overwhelm me—not because they’re too many, but because they are proof. Proof that despite conflict, despite trauma, people still believe in the power of education, and the necessity of connection.

And that’s what I’ve dedicated my life to: building bridges across the barricades, lighting up the darkness with learning, and turning isolation into inspiration.

Because no matter where you are—from Gaza to Bogotá, from Jordan to Johannesburg—your story matters. And it deserves to be told, heard, and connected.

Today in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel’s genocidal regime, and their enablers in too many other governments, are trying to silence the voices of Palestinian educators and break the connections with their peers locally and globally.

Join me and EENET in ensuring these educators, and all educators, are heard and connected.

Ayman is EENET’s Arabic/MENA Network Manager.

Contact:
aymanqwaider@eenet.org.uk

 

[Advocacy] Education multiplies possibility: young people’s call for action

This is a call by young people to invest in education. You can sign their petition on the Global Partnership for Education website.

“As young people from around the world, we are living in a time of challenge and opportunity. Inequality, youth unemployment, conflict, and the rapid pace of digital change are reshaping our futures. In the face of all this, we believe one thing can multiply possibility more than anything else: education.”

Sign the youth statement.