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Team Europe, which consists of the European Commission and European Union (EU) Member States, has pledged this month to invest EUR 313 million to the United Nations’ ‘Education Cannot Wait’ fund.  Overall, the EU will invest EUR 3.2 billion during 2021–2027, working in line with  the Transforming Education Summit and Sustainable Development Goal 4.

‘Education Cannot Wait’ (ECW) is a global fund, in 31 countries, to prevent learners from being left behind. It works with partners including governments, donors and civil society and aid organisations to effectively support education in emergencies and crises, such as conflict and natural disasters.

The new investments will help ECW to realise its ambitious Strategic Plan 2023–2026. The Plan includes new priorities, such as responding to climate change, prioritising holistic learning outcomes, and advancing ECW’s commitment to gender equality and disability inclusion.

For more information read the European Commission press release or visit the ECW website.

Student mental health has become a top priority for schools as they hire more counselors, expand services, and invest more deeply in social-emotional learning.

But school buildings and environments—including classrooms, gathering spaces, and everything in between—are often left out of that conversation.

That’s why Claire Latané, a landscape architecture and environmental design professor at Cal Poly Pomona in the United States, has dedicated her career to helping school districts design buildings with a focus on student mental health and well-being.

“The school environment is so often ignored in terms of how it makes students and teachers and the community feel,” Latané said in an interview with Education Week. “For the last 40 years, they’ve really been designed to look like and feel like prisons, often by the same architects that design prisons.”

Read more about her pioneering work in the USA school system.

With a $100 million grant, GPE has supported integrated religious schools and trained teachers in five states in Nigeria to ensure more children attend and stay in school, particularly girls who are most at risk of missing out on an education.

Unlike regular education funding, the GPE grant was channelled directly to school bank accounts—jointly managed by the headteacher and community representatives through the school management committees—for the procurement of materials in support of improved student retention and learning.

A total of 46,366 pre-primary and primary schools were awarded the NIPEP school grants, of which more than 35% are integrated Islamiyya schools. A further 150 nomadic schools in Sokoto also received grants.

In early March 2023 the government responded to the SEND review Green Paper consultation by publishing its ‘SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan: Right support, right place, right time’.

The consultation highlighted very real concerns and a dire need for change in a system that is hampered by inequity, difficult and lengthy processes, and funding shortfalls, and the SEND and AP Improvement Plan outlines the first steps that the government will take in addressing the issues raised.

Nasen responded to the plan citing ‘we feel encouraged by the plan that the government has put before us today. It appears that they have listened, acknowledged the issues, and committed to change. We recognise alignment with Nasen’s vision of an equitable learning experience for all. We acknowledge that this improvement plan is not presented as a finished article, but rather marks the beginning of a new phase. In taking this approach, they are unlocking the true spirit of coproduction, enabling those most impacted to help determine the detail, and offering opportunity to test and learn as the process evolves. Authentic co-production can only be positive.’

Nasen’s full response to the plan is now available to read on their website.

To help bridge educational gaps in Mali, EDC trained 12- and 13-year-olds to provide tutoring to younger students.

Before the pandemic, teachers were taking up the challenge to transform literacy instruction. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to derail the effort, EDC trained 12- and 13-year-olds to provide basic instruction outside of school. Older students tutored younger “brothers and sisters” on the alphabet, read simple stories with them, and taught them how to decode words and write simple sentences.

The results were astounding. The tutors and tutees formed strong bonds and learning flourished. After eight weeks, the younger students, who were most in need of support, learned basic literacy skills and could recognize familiar words (0% recognition pre-tutoring, 79% post-tutoring). The tutors felt great pride, and some saw glimmers of a future as a teacher.

Read more on the EDC website. 

February 24, 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Amid widespread destruction and loss of life, schools and education have been severely damaged.  More than five million children inside and outside the country have had their education disrupted.

Theirworld investigated how Ukrainian children and youths have responded to the immense disruption to their lives and their education, and what their experiences reveal about education in emergencies more broadly.

Interviews for this qualitative report were carried out with mothers, school children and university students in Ukraine, the Netherlands and the UK by the OPORA Foundation, which is based in the Netherlands and provides evidence-based policy, research and operational solutions for and regarding displaced people.

An accessible Word version of the report is also available.

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to: realise their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and, understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives (UNESCO et al., 2018).

Monitoring is key to a better understanding of the gaps in CSE and to building capacity. To address the need for additional data on CSE, the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, in partnership with UNESCO’s Section of Health and Education, has developed country profiles on CSE.

The profiles provide a comparative perspective of the progress countries are making in relation to CSE.  Each country profile covers five main areas: context; terminology; laws and policies; governance; and monitoring and evaluation.

Fifty country profiles are available to date.

In a call to action, Special Olympics is challenging governments around the world to demonstrate their stated commitments to inclusive education policies by allocating three percent of their education funding to high-quality, evidence-based inclusionary practices that fully integrate students with learning disabilities into school communities.

People with learning disabilities represent three percent of the population. Allocating three percent of education budgets to develop programmes that foster social inclusion is an indisputably fair starting point for governments to ensure their inclusive policies are translated to practices that create truly inclusive school communities.

In their 2023 brief “Global State of Inclusion in Education”, they advocate to expand educators’ and policymakers’ understanding of how the vision of international inclusive education is falling short of including all learners, no matter their identity, background, or ability.