Education Civil Society Organizations Survey

The Education Support Program (ESP) has recently published the Education Civil Society Organizations Survey (CSO) which was carried out to identify current trends, developments, and needs of the education sector in countries where OSI has a presence, and to provide recommendations for the redesign of ESP’s grant-making program. ESP has provided almost 2,000,000 USD since 2004 in support of civil society organizations in Central and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine through its RE:FINE grant program.

The survey targeted civil society organizations that were directly or indirectly involved in ESP activities over the past five years. This involved 400 education leaders from Soros Foundations, Foundation spin-offs, education organizations and professional associations, policy centers, think tanks, and formal and informal networks.

One of the main findings of the report is that education for vulnerable and marginalized children is seriously underserved and neglected by governments and donors alike. The report concludes that education provisions for vulnerable and marginalized children should be the key priority for the OSI network.

The survey is available here

For more information, please contact: nshablya@osi.hu

Transparency, Ethics, and Anti-Corruption Measures in Education Seminar (April 25-27 2007, Ohrid, Macedonia)

Corruption has negative economic and social impacts on Kosovo's society. As education has an important role in shaping ethical attitudes and behaviors of citizens, there was a need to organize a seminar on this topic.

The purpose of the seminar is to increase transparency and reduce corruption in society by promoting different anti-corruption measures. Participants will be representatives of educational institutions, teachers and NGO workers.

This seminar will help participants to understand how education can play a crucial role in educating a new generation of people to build a stable democracy where transparency, rule of law and professional codes of conduct are respected.

Representatives from the Kosovo Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, municipality educational directorates, teachers, university professors and NGO representatives will attend the seminar. Trainers will include Jacques Hallak and Muriel Poisson, authors of the book Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: What can be done?

The expected outcomes of the seminar include an increased awareness on how to fight corruption in the education sector, acknowledgement of the important role that education plays in fighting corruption, and planning for in-country follow-up activities with the participation of different stakeholders.

The event will take place in Ohrid, Macedonia. The seminar will be conducted in English with translation into Albanian.

The event is organized by the Kosova Education Center (KEC) and supported by the Education Support Program (ESP). For more information, please contact: mmula@kec-ks.org.

Participation by invitation only.

Initiative for Students at Risk and Those with Disabilities in Central Asia

On March 7-8, 2007, OSI’s Education Support Project hosted a joint meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with the OECD and local partners to plan for a regional project targeting children with special education needs and children at risk.

The overall objective of this initiative is to review educational policies of Central Asian countries for children with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages, and provide recommendations to national governments and initiate advocacy work.

This meeting brought together 40 education professionals from four countries of the region: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, as well as colleagues from Ukraine, and partners from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Participants represented governmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with access to education for children with disabilities, learning difficulties and socio-economic disadvantages.

OECD will be leading the review in partnership with OSI, National Foundations, Ministries of Education, civil society representatives, and local experts. It is planned that the review will be launched in September 2007 upon the completion of preparatory trainings and development of the research program design.

For additional information please contact Natalia Shablya nshablya@osi.hu or Valentin Deichman valya@soros.kg

Gender-sensitive textbooks and classroom practice in the Balkan region (May 12-13 2007, Budva, Montenegro)

Women’s Action, a RE:FINE grantee, will hold a regional conference on gender-sensitive textbooks and classroom practice in the Southeast European region on May 12-13 in Budva, Montenegro. Research results and recommendations on how to develop gender-sensitive textbooks and facilitate gender sensitive classroom interaction will be presented for textbook authors, teachers (pre- and in-service), educational ministries, and teacher education institutions. Conference participants will develop a common set of indicators for gender-sensitive textbooks that could be used as a tool for those who write and approve textbooks.

For more information please contact: sslavica@cg.yu

UNESCO IIEP Summer School on Transparency, Accountability, and Anti-corruption issues (June 6-15 2007, Paris, France)

Since 2001, the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) has been conducting a research project on ethics and corruption in education with the aim of assessing the nature and extent of the problem, and identifying good practices and solutions. It has focused on the financing of schools, teacher management and behavior, public contracts, production and distribution of textbooks, organization of examinations, accreditation of higher education institutions, private tutoring, and more.

The IIEP now launches its first international course which will be based on the numerous activities carried out within the framework of the project. IIEP’s 2007 Summer School on Transparency, Accountability, and Anti-corruption Measures in Education will be held on June 6-15, 2007 in Paris. The summer school will target governmental officials and NGOs and aim to increase awareness on anti-corruption issues. Participants will also be trained in designing and implementing strategies to improve transparency and accountability in education, and to design and implement various diagnostic tools aimed at assessing distorted practices in the use of education resources. The Summer School will bring together about 30 participants from various countries.

The participants will be primarily chosen from among high-level managers and administrators from Ministries of Education and Finance in developing countries worldwide. They will also include representatives of the civil society and donor agencies.

Application deadline: April 25, 2007.

More information is available here.

The IIEP will collaborate with the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the Open Society Institute Education Support Program (OSI/ESP) for preparation and organization of the summer school. Transparency International (TI) and the Utstein Anti-corruption Resource Centre (U4) will be involved in this initiative. ESP will provide professional as well as financial support for the summer school.

Development of diagnostic tools to improve children`s reading skills

RE:FINE grantee Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center developed reading assessment instruments in Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Slovak, and Slovenian in the fall of 2006. Seven local teams of master teachers from partner countries started to train primary school teachers how to use the reading assessment instruments and develop remedial strategies to help children improve their reading skills. By March 2007, a total of 118 teachers got an average 20 hours of training, and 746 children from 26 participating countries were assessed for their reading skills.

All children who were assessed were tutored with the suggested teaching methods. After they were assessed again, they scored significantly higher than before the pre-test. A case study conducted of the first graders in Romania indicates that after an 8-week tutoring program (240 minutes), the students scored over 50% higher than before.

Based on the achievementsof the project, the grantee plans to take the following steps:


1) Disseminate the assessment instruments and teaching methods developed through the project to a wider audience in each country.
2) Develop culturally inclusive teaching materials to make it easier to teach and learn reading;
3) Develop comprehensive programs for teaching for emergent literacy and beginning reading in kindergarten and first grade, complete with materials, lesson plans, and activities for learning centers.

If you are interested in starting a similar project, or would like to get further information, please contact Maria Kovacs at maria_rwct_ro@yahoo.com.