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| May 2006 |
Kosovo:
No More Pencils, No More Books
12 April 2006
In a Kosovar village, sometimes just getting to school – when there is one – can be an achievement. Also in Russian.
by Fatmire Terdevci
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Albania:
Empty Seats
20 April 2006
Poverty, disillusionment, and feuds are keeping an increasing number of children away from the classroom in Albania. Also in Russian.
by Artan Puto
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Czech Republic:
To Each According to His Birth
28 April 2006
Increasingly, the Czech higher education system opens its doors to those born with all the advantages – and shuts others out.
by Michael Smith
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TOL Web Chat on Rural Education
On Tuesday, 9 May, Transitions Online will host a web chat with Lavinia
Gasperini, senior agriculture education officer and Education for Rural
People Partnership coordinator in the Sustainable Development Department
of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. A lack of access to
education in rural areas is linked to a host of other problems,
including gender inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the
exploitation of children. Gasperini will talk about where and how her
organization is working and what, if any, programs have shown results.
Among other things, her program is working to achieve the first three
millennium development goals: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
achieving universal primary education, and improving girls' access to
school. In post-communist Europe, the Food and Agriculture Organization
has conducted pilot projects to support rural education in Kosovo and
has done studies on the educational needs of rural people in Serbia,
Bosnia, and Croatia.
Join TOL online or submit questions in advance to http://www.tol.cz/q-a.
REI
The Roma Education Initiative (REI) finished in December, marking the end of its four-year term (2002-2005). Originally conceived as a three-year project (2002-2004), REI underwent many changes as a response to conditions as they arose. From inception, evaluation was intended to be an integral component of REI projects, with each country responsible for its own evaluation. Though countries developed their own evaluation plans, those plans were related to the common REI outcomes and were supported by central technical assistance provided by REI.
For a combination of reasons, a centralized international evaluation was not originally envisioned for REI. However, in the third year of the project, the REI Working Committee became interested in an overall report that would document progress toward REI outcomes. To create such a report, in 2004 information was gathered from annual reporting and was supplemented with some centralized data collection in the form of a web survey, which continued into 2005. This data, as well as information gleaned from the seven national external REI reports, will contribute to the creation of a final REI report, which will combine cluster evaluation methods and multisite evaluation methods. This report is expected to be completed in May.
The seven external evaluation reports are available on the REI website at http://www.osi.hu/esp/rei. The REI final report will be posted upon its completion.
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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.
ESP Call for participating in Parental Informal Payments to Education - Study (PIPES)
The Education Support Program (ESP) has as one of its goals to support sustainable reforms in general education and to promote accountability in its governance. A system of education is free of corruption when it ensures equal access to education and fair distribution of educational materials, states fair and transparent criteria for accepting students, maintains professional standards of school administrators and teachers, and is accountable to its customers - students, parents, and the wider public. Therefore the issues of transparency, accountability, and prevention of corruption should be addressed through public participation with the help of local and international NGOs.
ESP has designed survey instruments and research methods for a Study on Parental Informal Payments to Education (PIPES). Currently ESP is piloting the approach in Azerbaijan and now is seeking four to five countries that are interested in carrying out the PIPES study in their country using these methods and instruments. ESP is accepting proposals for participation in this study.
For details, please click here.
Conference on Inclusive Education in Kiev, Ukraine (April 13-14, 2006)
The Education Program of the International Renaissance Foundation has been carrying out the project “Disabled Children’s Rights to Quality Education” with help from the All-Ukrainian Step by Step Foundation during 2005-2006. The aim of the project is to change national educational policy in order to provide equal access to quality education to children with special needs. The project team has conducted a needs assessment titled, “Disabled Children’s Rights to Quality Education: Analysis of the Situation in Ukraine” and Professor Yvonne Csányi has prepared an overview, “Experience of Transforming Education Provision for Children with Disabilities in Central European Countries,” which contains policy recommendations for the government on inclusive education. As a result of the project, policy recommendations on inclusive education in Ukraine have been developed.
The results of the needs assessment and the overview were presented at the international conference “Educational Policy Toward Inclusion: International Experience and Ukrainian Perspectives” on April 13-14, 2006, in Kiev, Ukraine. The conference was sponsored by the East-East Program.
Representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, Committee for Science and Education of the Parliament of Ukraine, the Academy of Pedagogical Science of Ukraine, UNDP, non-governmental organizations, state education institutions, and representatives of eight foreign countries (Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, and Hungary) took part.
Conference participants discussed policy recommendations for inclusive education in Ukraine and exchanged experiences in practice, development, and implementation of inclusive education in their countries.
Participants developed a memorandum with recommendations for the government of Ukraine on how to create an inclusive educational environment in Ukraine. The memorandum is available here.
For more information, please click here.
ESP has been providing professional expertise in the implementation of the project, particularly in the preparation of the needs assessment. ESP also financially supported Professor Yvonne Csányi`s participation in the conference and the development of the overview.
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Take a look at the previous education newsletters:
http://archive.tol.cz/nsl-list.html.
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