Tag: Inclusive Education

The monthly eBulletin from the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education outlines recent Agency activities and resources.

Check out the rest of their website for other news and projects.

What are national SDG 4 benchmarks?

Check out the factsheets:

English / French / Spanish

The 2024/5 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report will examine the requirements of good leadership in education and how they vary between countries and over time. It will look at the visions and goals that are driving leadership in education, and will examine the extent and through what practices the exercise of leadership contributes to better education outcomes.

External factors including social, cultural, governance conditions will be looked at to see how they impact on effective leadership, as well as the policy levers that can be used to develop leadership skills in different contexts.

A set of questions will be formulated alongside the report to guide the collection of information and laws and policies related to the selection, preparation and development of school leaders that will be featured in PEER country profiles and will inform the report.

Take a closer look at the concept note for more information. 

This research article considers different approaches to lesson observation and their potential for understanding and evaluating classroom practice in sub-Saharan Africa.

It includes a critical appraisal of Teach, a recent World Bank initiative and reviews evidence from school-based research from the region to identify four salient aspects of conditions for learning: the use of languages; the role of peers; the use of resources to support learning; and differentiated support.

UNICEF have released their report  ‘Children in Crisis – UNICEF emergency response in
Sudan and neighbouring countries’ explaining impact of the conflict on children and their education.

Schools and learning institutions in conflict affected areas remain mostly closed. Nearly 7 million school-age children were already out of school before the conflict, one in three girls and one in four boys. These numbers have increased significantly, especially in Khartoum, with girls less likely to return to school. Out of school children are at greater risk of physical and mental threats, including recruitment into armed groups and GBV.

UNICEF is supporting children’s access to safe schooling and other learning
opportunities by providing supplies to schools, individual learning materials
and establishing safe and child-friendly learning spaces such as 42 E-learning centers
currently operational.

The latest edition of Inclusion Now magazine is now available.

The magazine comes out three times a year and includes articles on inclusive education: personal experiences, opinion pieces, policy updates and research.

In this edition there is a tribute to Joe Whittaker, a visit to Pyrcroft Grange school, the SEND Review,  and an article on the history of the movement.

Text and audio versions are in the articles or you can read it in magazine format on Issuu.

Inclusion Now is produced in collaboration with ALLFIE, World of Inclusion and Inclusive Solutions.

At its latest meeting, the Education International Africa Regional Committee (EIARC) has taken stock of current and upcoming activities and challenges for educators and their unions in the region and called on member organisations to join the Education International Go Public! Fund Education campaign.

Opening the meeting held in March 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa, EIARC Chairperson Christian Addai-Poku stressed that it has been eight years since our governments adopted the global education goal, the sustainable development goal (SDG) 4.  He, however, regretted that more than half-way to 2030, the deadline for achieving the global education goal, many children, youth and adults in Africa remain excluded from education.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated education challenges on the African continent. This, coupled with conflict and climate change, has seriously impacted countries, education systems and communities. The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to have wiped out two decades of education gains in Africa,”

Read more about the conference on the Education International website.

CSIE have written a blog on the DfEs latest improvement plan.  They state how it is not unusual to read a document which appears committed to inclusion, and to wonder if its intention is to create inclusive change or just pay lip-service to it.

One year on from the publication of the Green Paper, the DfE has published the ‘SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan’, outlining how it intends to move forward in light of the consultation responses received.

‘This latest offering from the Department for Education (DfE) is not talking the talk. First it speaks of a strong commitment to developing inclusive education, then it announces plans to strengthen alternative provision and prepare teachers to work in separate settings. This flies in the face of inclusion and goes against the spirit of the Equality Act and its commitment to disability equality’.

‘In our opinion, and we are certainly not alone in our thinking, more special schools and alternative provision does not inclusion make’. CSIE

Read more on the CSIE website

Educational technology, arguably, plays an important role in helping to ensure children / young people with disabilities in low and middle income countries (LMICs) have fair and optimised access to the school curriculum and ensuring they have opportunities to develop their independence, agency, and social inclusion.

This systematic literature review, supported by the World Bank and UKAID suggests two sets of recommendations for further research into EdTech and disability:

• The first set of recommendations address ways of increasing our evidence base of robust studies on how EdTech can be used to support the education of diverse groups of learners in LMICs.
• The second set of recommendations are addressed at policy makers and donors who are responsible for implementing EdTech programmes within LMICs.