Reports and updates
3rd National Raising Women Conference
MDGs and Gender Equality 3rd National Conference - Stakeholders Dialogue Meeting: "Learning from Local and Global Efforts for Increasing Gender Parity in Education and Social Participation" was held on November 15, 2007 in Istanbul.
It was the final conference in a project entitled "Raising Women: Reducing Gender Disparity in Education through Functional and Political Literacy, Parent Training, Collective Action and Advocacy," which the Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV), the Education Reform Initiative (ERI) and the Association for Supporting and Educating Women Candidates (KA-DER) began in 2005.
The conference gathered prominent academics, education practitioners, policy-makers and other stakeholders from both Turkey and abroad. After the plenary sessions on the current state of girls' education and women's social and political participation in Turkey and in the world, sessions were held on good practices. Examples of both local and global "good practices" in girls' education and social participation were presented. Presentations gave examples of policy- and advocacy-oriented initiatives and of service delivery programs.
Groups presenting policy- and advocacy-oriented good practice cases at the conference were Education for All Movement (Romania), Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe - Gender Task Force (Slovenia), Civil Monitoring Groups of "Raising Women" project (Turkey), and "Moustache" Campaign (Turkey). Examples of good practice in service delivery were Escuela Nueva (Colombia), BRAC Education Programme (Bangladesh), "Laundry Houses" of Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality Women's Center (Turkey), and Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labor through Education for Seasonal Agricultural Child Workers in Adana-Karataş (Turkey).
For more information about the event or the Raising Women project, please contact: Işik Tüzün, isiktuzun@sabanciuniv.edu
Second Assembly of Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC)
The second assembly of the Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC) was held on December 2-3 2007 in Baku, Azerbaijan, hosted by the Center for Innovations in Education.
Speakers presented the work, achievements and future plans of the network, which represents 23 organizations in 21 countries. Topics included policy work in Russia, a North Caucasus Initiative, the results of the OECD PISA process regarding student performance and socio-economic background, mapping of experts and expertise, and a summer school initiative.
One of the NEPC's biggest projects, the Parental Informal Payment to Education Study (PIPES) has been completed and a database for participating countries has been set up. The final monitoring report will appear in May 2008 based on the results of the monitoring studies carried out in seven countries.
The assembly also discussed new projects and initiatives on private tutoring, the DEDC project, and museum pedagogy.
For more information about PIPES and other NEPC activities, please contact Lana Jurko at: lana@idi.hr
Second volume of OSI's EUMap Monitoring Reports on Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma released
EUMAP released volume 2 of its series of monitoring reports on Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma. The volume includes both an international overview and country reports on Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia.
In 575 pages, the volume explores the current status of access to education; enrolment and retention data; trends and types of segregation; and government educational policies for each of the countries covered. Governmental policies and programmes on Roma and their state of implementation are reviewed, in particular with respect to the Decade of Roma Inclusion.
The reports describe the main constraints to access to education faced by Roma, including costs, residential segregation and school and class placement procedures, as well as barriers to quality of education such as school infrastructure, curricular standards, school-community relations and discriminatory attitudes. For the sake of international readers, the reports also briefly detail the organization and operation of the school system in each country.
The international overview report reviews international initiatives for the education of Roma, on the part of the European Union, UN, OSCE and NGOs as well as within the framework of the Decade of Roma Inclusion and the Roma Education Fund.
The country reports include detailed recommendations to the national governments and education agencies, local authorities, and training institutions. The overview report includes recommendations at the international level, both to the EU and to the bodies governing the Decade of Roma Inclusion and the governments participating in the Decade.
The volume encompasses case studies of three communities in each of the countries covered, as well as a comprehensive overview of the existing literature and relevant documents.
Volume 1 of the EUMAP reports, published in April 2007, covered four other countries participating in the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. Both volumes are compiled by EUMAP in cooperation with the Open Society Institute's Roma Participation Program (RPP) and Education Support Program (ESP).
Both volumes are available online, along with information about the project and methodology, press releases and an overview of selected media coverage, at http://www.eumap.org/topics/romaed.
Book Anti-Corruption Education at School available in six local languages
The RWCT International Consortium's Education against Corruption project has been running in Latvia since September 2006. Part of this project led by the Modern Didactics Center, was development of a book, Anti-corruption Education at School, first in English and then in the Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Armenian and Azeri languages. The translations of this resource book into these languages provides more adequate material for local teachers, educators, students, and anyone who is interested in the issues of corruption and its prevention.
The books in the relevant languages are available by contacting the following persons:
Upcoming conference
OSI National Foundations' Education Meeting
The Education Support Program (ESP) will hold a National Foundations' Education Meeting from February 29 to March 1, 2008 in Hammamet, Tunisia. Representatives of national foundations engaged in general education activities have been invited. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss OSI's mission in education and the role of education in creating and sustaining open societies.
For more information please see www.soros.org/initiatives/esp.
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