UNESCO Global Action Week 2008 focused on quality education to end exclusion. The mission statement of the week was: "Efforts to expand enrolment must be accompanied by policies to enhance educational quality at all levels, in formal and non-formal settings. Education is a fundamental right for all children, youth and adults, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, opinion, disability, or social and economic status." To stimulate discussion UNESCO published the following: Every learner counts: 10 questions on inclusive quality education One of the questions is: Is inclusive quality education affordable? "It is inefficient to have school systems where children are not learning because of poor quality. Schools with high repetition rates often fail to work in preventive ways. The expenditure incurred by schools when students repeat a grade would be better used to provide additional support to those who encounter difficulties.Several cost-effective measures to promote inclusive quality education have been developed in countries with scarce resources. These include training-of-trainer models for professional development, linking students in pre-service teacher training with schools and converting special needs schools into resource centres that provide expertise and support to clusters of regular schools.The more relevant question to ask is about the cost of not providing education of good quality for all children. More resources are clearly needed. Official development assistance to education remains well below the $US9 billion required just to reach universal primary education. But governments and donors must develop and support national policies that foster inclusion, both in terms of access and of quality education." The South African Government has made a commitment to this approach by making additional funds available for the expansion of inclusive education in 2009 - 2011 as one of the national sector priorities. For this to work each programme manager at every level must ensure that the needs of all learners are being addressed and that no programmes are inadvertently contributing to the exclusion of some learners. Read More »
UNESCO Global Action Week 2008 focused on quality education to end exclusion.
The mission statement of the week was:
To stimulate discussion UNESCO published the following:
Every learner counts: 10 questions on inclusive quality education
One of the questions is: Is inclusive quality education affordable?
Read More »