Blog

The British Council has updated its professional development website for English language teachers. It has published an updated CPD framework:

The framework recognises the need for teachers to be lifelong learners, and can be used at any point in your teaching career as a tool to enable you to understand and plan your own development. If you’re a teacher educator, the framework can also support you in the creation of training and learning resources for teachers.”

The website has further resources, for example, “Using inclusive practices”.

Access the website.

The Human Rights Council is preparing for the first session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

If you want to make sure inclusive education is part of the conversation, you can take part by sending a contribution by 18 May 2025. There is also an opportunity for children to participate – the deadline for submissions from children is 8 June 2025.

Read more information about taking part. 

At the GDS 2025, a session titled “From Gradual Actions to Systems Change: Transforming Education Systems to be Inclusive and Accessible to All,” gathered key global actors to identify concrete steps for accelerating inclusive education systems. A major outcome of the session was the launch of a new coalition led by the UK, Norway, UNESCO, UNICEF, IDA, and IDDC, joined by other global partners such as the Government of South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Global Partnership for Education. This coalition aims to drive the development of inclusive education systems worldwide.

Read more details.

A defining moment of the Summit was the adoption of the Amman-Berlin Declaration on Global Disability Inclusion, advancing the rights of persons with disabilities globally. It reinforces strong commitments to disability-inclusive international development cooperation and humanitarian action, and emphasizes the central role of meaningful engagement with OPDs.

Read the declaration.

Inclusion International is testing a tool designed to help humanitarian organizations build their capacity on the inclusion of children with disabilities in education during emergency situations. The learning tool is currently in its pilot phase. During the pilot phase, users will be invited to fill out a form to share their thoughts about the tool without sharing their names. The project team want to know if the tool is easy to use and helpful for learning. This feedback will help the project team improve the tool so it works better for everyone, both now and in the future.

Read more and take part in the pilot phase. 

At the Global Disability Summit 2025, education partners reemphasized their commitment to ensuring quality education for girls and boys with disabilities. In this blog from the Global Partnership for Education, the authors reflect on how agencies can take action to accelerate progress towards inclusive education. They give four recommendations: embed inclusion from the start, support the collection and uptake of data and evidence, support equitable financial allocations, and engage diverse voices.

Read the blog.

A new UNESCO report examines the alarming state of the right to education in Afghanistan.

It provides an analysis of the evolving legal and institutional framework governing education since August 2021, drawing on a combination of desk-based research and on-the-ground interviews.

The report was launched in the wake of the High-Level Conference on Women and Girls in Afghanistan organized by UNESCO on 7 March. The systematic restrictions on girls and women have made Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond the primary level.

Download the report.

This blog tells the story of Nizar, who was injured in the Syrian civil war when he was five years old. Now a 15-year-old teenager, his injury means that it is difficult for him to access education.

“School, which should have been a place of safety, only intensified his struggles. Bullied for his disability, he was left feeling misunderstood and alone.”

Then his mother heard about an UNICEF learning center and enrolled him there.

“At the centre, Nizar found himself in a welcoming, supportive learning environment for the first time. With a teacher who cared deeply, classmates who treated him kindly and a curriculum tailored to bridge his learning gaps, he was given a chance at a fresh start.”

Syria remains one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The armed conflict, which lasted over a decade, has not only disrupted the education of millions of girls and boys but has also exposed them to horrendous violence and ongoing protection risks.

Read the blog.

UNESCO is celebrating 70 years of publication of the ‘International Review of Education’ (IRE), the longest-running international journal of comparative education in the world.

UNESCO has published an interesting history timeline (Note: unfortunately the journal’s articles are for subscribers only).

“Anti-capitalist demonstrations at the end of the 1960s sparked much debate about the role of education in supporting social progress.”

“Women’s education grew in prominence as a topic across the 1970s and 1980s.”

“UNESCO’s lifelong learning perspective became increasingly marginal, as this instrumentalist turn in thinking about education took effect, and the lens through which learning was viewed became increasingly economistic. A 1998 issue focused on ‘the global trend towards the instrumentalization of education as a means of preparation for employment above all other purposes’. This was a recurrent theme over the following two decades.”

“With the world facing new challenges, from artificial intelligence to democratic backsliding and political disinformation, as well as familiar ones such as climate change, conflict and inequality, lifelong learning has never been more important.”

Check out the timeline.