TOL/OSI-ESP Summer and Fall Newsletter

This newsletter is a joint publication of materials from July-August and September-October. The next publication of TOL/OSI-ESP Education News will appear in early 2010 for technical reasons.

Second NEPC International Summer School Discussed Curriculum Policies

The second NEPC Summer School was held in Croatia on July 13-17 July 2009 on the subject of "Curriculum Policies: Making Education Respond to Society and the Labor Market". The event was organized by the Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC) and supported by Open Society Institute - Education Support Program. Participants arrived from nine countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Malawi, Romania, Zambia, Serbia, the United Kingdom and the USA.

The school consisted of a core course and four elective module courses on specific aspects of curriculum policies: curriculum and political ideology, curriculum and knowledge and the economics of curriculum, and the social aspects of curriculum.

Elective courses included topics such as economics of the curriculum; curriculum, migration and social cohesion, outcome-oriented education and principles of curricular design

NEPC team plans to organize the 3rd Summer School in the summer of 2010 on which information will be available in February 2010.

For more information, please contact: nepc@edupolicy.net or visit: www.edupolicy.net

This news item was provided by NEPC.

The Roma Education Fund Publishes a Study on Special Education in the Slovak Republic, entitled School as Ghetto

The Roma Education Fund has recently published a study on special education in the Slovak Republic entitled "School as Ghetto - Systematic overrepresentation of Roma in special education in Slovakia." The study identifies the number of Roma in special education for children with mental disabilities in Slovakia and analyzes the factors accounting for this level of representation. In so doing, it seeks to provide a sound empirical basis for measures to address the situation in such a way as to reduce the gap in education outcomes between Roma and non-Roma.

Slovakia has one of the highest rates of enrollment in special education in Europe, and the over-representation of Roma is one of the main reasons. The considerable differences between standard and special curricula severely reduce the possibilities for (re-)integration of children from special schools and classes to standard education.The study combines desk research with field research conducted on a larger scale than research published to date on special education in Slovakia. The field research draws on two overlapping samples, in order to combine quantitative and qualitative research on the situation of Roma in relation to special education in Slovakia.

Based on the field research conducted for the study, approximately 60 percent of children in special education in Slovakia in the 2008-2009 school year are Roma. A complex set of factors contributes to the continued overrepresentation of Roma in special education. Some of these factors are related to the procedures and mechanisms by which children enter and leave special education. Other factors include the motivations of relevant institutions and of Romani parents to enroll children in special schools and classes. Factors leading Romani parents to enroll their children in special education include not only the aspects of special schools and classes which make them attractive, but also various difficulties Romani children experience in standard education. Additionally, some parents are simply not aware of the options available and of the differences among them.

The Slovak government has made a political commitment to addressing the situation. The study's recommendations to help the government meet its commitment include: discontinuing psychological testing as a mechanism for assigning children to special education; abolishing special primary schools for children with mild mental disabilities; promoting and practicing informed parental consent; ensuring access to ethnically integrated standard pre-schools; reviewing and revising the school funding scheme to provide a financial incentive for integration of Romani children in standard primary schools; and providing appropriate pre- and in-service training for education staff.

The full study is available at: http://www.romaeducationfund.hu/documents/special_education_slovakia.pdf)

For any further information please contact Eben Friedman and Mihai Surdu on efriedman@romaeducationfund.org; msurdu@romaeducationfund.org.

This news item was provided by the Roma Education Fund (REF).

Update on Bantwana School Integrated Program project Lisango/Liguma

The number of orphaned and vulnerable children in Swaziland has escalated as a result of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Most programs target younger children, leaving the unique needs of adolescents unmet. "Without parents, adolescents miss out on important life lessons and risk growing up in a cultural vacuum because they don't learn about Swazi traditions and appropriate behavior," says Thulani Earnshaw, Program Director of the Bantwana School Integrated Program (BSIP) in Swaziland. To address these critical issues, BSIP consulted with parents, community members, teachers and adolescents to design an evidence-based psychosocial support program (PSS) called Lisango/Liguma ("in the kitchen/by the cowshed") as one of the core BSIP services. Based upon the tradition of mentoring, advising and guiding teens as they transition into adulthood, Lisango/Liguma builds the competencies of local partners to improve children's sense of self-agency, personal strengths and resiliency by tapping into traditional communal relations and linking adolescents with adults and teachers who provide guidance and advice on homework, household management, hygiene, education, peer, friend and sibling relations, responsibility and discipline among others. These important relationships can reduce stigma and isolation, reinforce adolescents' self-esteem, socialization with peers, and responsibility, all of which are considered protective factors that reduce vulnerability. Lisango / Liguma ensures that schools are safer for vulnerable children and promotes a culture of dignity and respect in communities. Lisango / Liguma tools and methodologies, will be shared with the National Children's Coordination Unit in Swaziland as well as the National Psychosocial Working Group.

For more information, please contact: Naomi Reich, naomi_reich@worlded.org

Call for papers for Education Policy And Equal Education Opportunities workshop

The Education Support Program (ESP), the Local Government and Public Services Reform Initiative (LGI) and the Open Society Foundation Albania (OSFA) are pleased to announce the call for papers for the Education Policy and Equal Education Opportunities workshop. The event will be held on March 18-21 2010 in Tirana, Albania.

The workshop will provide a venue for policy analysts, practitioners, and educational researchers to share their findings on the impact of changes in education management and finance policy on equal education opportunities in general education. It will also offer an important learning opportunity on the longer term effects of education finance policy choices on education justice and social cohesion and a place for serious discussions between researchers and practitioners regarding the reform priorities and outcomes. Participation of young professionals and advanced post-graduate students is encouraged.

Those interested to present their research and accounts at the workshop are invited to submit their abstracts by September 30, 2009 in the following themes :

• 1. The comparative effects of different financing systems for general public education on academic achievement and the generation of equal educational opportunity outcomes.
• 2. Education equity problems related to household participation in general education in the public sector.
• 3. The educational equity outcomes of the newly established public educational policy in the target countries.

For detailed information please visit: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/news/education_20090825

Transitions Holds Second Education Reporters' Workshop

Eight journalists from Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania attended a Transitions' workshop in Prague 31 August - 5 September on covering education issues. The workshop was follow-up training for the most successful participants of an online distance course held earlier in the summer. The trainer was Linda Christmas, a former journalist at The Guardian and respected journalism trainer. The workshop covered interviewing techniques, observation skills, getting and keeping contacts, and featured individual and group feedback on feature stories.

You can read the articles produced as a result of this course here: http://chalkboard.tol.org/improving-coverage-of-education-issues-2009