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| April 2006 |
Czech Republic:
Learning to Care
31 March 2006
Teachers and human rights advocates use film to introduce students to the troubles beyond their border.
by Dominic Swire
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The Csangos:
A Fugitive Tongue
8 March 2006
A modest educational scheme is trying to save the Hungarian language from extinction in eastern Romania.
by Aron Ballo
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Georgia:
A Door Opens
2 March 2006
Determined parents and teachers champion the country’s only school for children with learning difficulties.
by Ia Barateli
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Macedonia:
Both Sides Now
2 March 2006
A new account of the 2001 conflict, written by both ethnic-Macedonian and ethnic-Albanian teachers, triggers controversy.
by Ivan Blazevski
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Slovakia:
Cold Comfort Classroom
1 March 2006
Debts and teacher flight growing, budgets and class sizes shrinking. It adds up to a poor outlook for Slovak schools.
by Lucia Curejova
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TOL workshop for education journalists
On 24-25 March, ESP grantee Transitions Online hosted a workshop in Prague on covering education issues for journalists in Central and Eastern Europe,
the Caucasus, and Central Asia. From nearly 200 applications, 24 journalists from a mix of print, broadcast, and online outlets were chosen. They heard
from speakers from Romania, Georgia, and Lithuania, including Virginija Budiene, director of the Education Policy Center at Vilnius University and a coordinator
of the International Network of Education Policy Centers. Three journalism trainers with experience from The Irish Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, and
Evenimentul Zilei coached the participants on developing story ideas and finding sources. For more information about the workshop,
please click here
ISSA Reading Corner initiative
As a response to the lack of developmentally appropriate, contemporary books for early readers in the region, the Reading Corner initiative
was started in 2001. The primary goal is to make cost-effective, high quality children’s literature available in all the languages of the region by providing training
for local authors and illustrators and by publishing the best books they create for children up to age 8.
Talents have been drawn from across the region as well as from Mongolia and Haiti.
A unique feature of the Reading Corner is that the books are made available on-line in all languages of the region, and can, in fact,
be published in any language or multiple languages. This year, the Reading Corner will produce a set of books focusing on issues of diversity, respect
and inclusion. Supporting material will also be developed for teachers and parents.
Efforts are also under way to make the Reading Corner books available in Spanish and French and to include in the initiative new countries and continents from outside the ISSA network.
The long-term objective of the Reading Corner is to interest regional publishers in developmentally appropriate children’s books and to interest international publishers in the
work of this very talented pool of writers and illustrators.
To find out more information about the Reading Corner initiative, visit www.readingcorner.org.
More information about ISSA and about its other initiatives is available at www.issa.nl.
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To Subscribe
A bi-monthly newsletter sponsored by OSI's Education Support Program, the Open Society Education News highlights upcoming events, new publications,
and all of TOL's education articles. Subscribers to this newsletter will also receive notifications about opportunities to contribute to
TOL's education section. Subscribe at TOL’s newsletter signup page.
Comparative and International Education Society 50th anniversary conference
"Rethinking the Comparative," the Comparative and International Education Society's 50th anniversary conference, took place in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 14-18.
OSI's Education Support Program provided professional and financial support for several activities during the conference.
ESP and representatives of the Network of Education Policy Centers and Soros foundations participated in several events. First,
they organized a preconference workshop on the book Dealing with the Post-Socialist Educational Reform Package: From Baku to Ulanbaator, funded from ESP`s
RE:FINE program. In addition, four panel sessions consisted of ESP colleagues, representatives of national foundations and education policy centers:
1. presentation of the findings from the book above
2. School Dropouts and Consequences (advocacy activity)
3. Shadow Education: Private Tutoring in Central/Eastern Europe & Central Asia (advocacy activity)
4. Addressing Accountability and Transparency in the Education Sector
OSI also held a reception for the conference participants together with the leading universities in the field: Loyola University of Chicago, Indiana University,
Moscow State University, the University of Hawaii, Teachers College at Columbia University, and Stanford University.
For more information, please visit www.outreach.hawaii.edu/cies
Workshop on Education Reform Experiences and Issues,
April 4 - 6, Yerevan, Armenia
The goal of the workshop is to assist the Ministry of Education and its relevant agencies in the education-reform process in Armenia by providing
the relevant stakeholders and decision-makers with insight into the international expertise and best practices from countries
that have undergone large-scale educational reforms. In-depth discussions and analyses of the current status of educational reforms,
challenges and approaches in different countries will help to develop common approaches and methodologies to better implement the reforms.
The planned tasks will promote cooperation among ministries of education, educational NGOs and general education practitioners.
Experts arrive from Latvia, Norway and Serbia. Participants will be decision-makers and representatives of governmental and civil society organizations.
All three countries have undertaken comprehensive education reforms at different times and with different levels of completion.
ESP, together with the Open Society Foundation Armenia and three other international organizations, the British
Council, UNICEF and USAID, co-sponsors this workshop.
This project attempts to present the education-reform packages and the experiences from the participating countries.
The workshop is a good example of developing partnerships and exchanging information on education-reform experiences. For more information please contact: gmiljevic@osi.hu
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Take a look at the previous education newsletters:
http://archive.tol.cz/nsl-list.html.
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