Inclusive Education
The Education for All movement is a worldwide effort to ensure that all children have access to a good quality education. This is also reflected by the Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3. There has been real progress—for example, the number of out-of-school children has been reduced from 100 million in 2000 to 72 million in 2007.
Two of the biggest factors of exclusion are crisis and conflict situations and a lack of responses to the needs of children with disabilities. More than half of the children without access to primary education live in countries affected by conflict, and one-third are children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are by far the single group most likely not to be in school.
The FTI Secretariat has been making efforts to be more responsive into getting more out-of-school children into school. In 2009, the FTI Secretariat commissioned a study, “Reaching Out to Out-of-School Children: Putting Inclusive Education on the Fast Track” to explore how the EFA FTI Partnership could develop a targeted outreach program. Overall approaches to use in “targeting” out-of-school populations should: (a) tailor the approach to specific marginalized groups, (b) reduce obstacles for children to go to school, (c) use an inclusive lens, and (d) use multi-sectoral approaches.
HIV/AIDS
Evidence shows that education has a critical role to play in multi-sectoral responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic at the country level. Well-implemented, high quality HIV and AIDS education has been found to increase knowledge; develop skills (i.e. self-efficacy to refuse sex and obtain condoms) and positive attitudes required to change risk behaviors (such as values about sex and pressuring someone to have sex); and to reduce sexual risk behaviors among the sexually active.
The FTI Secretariat has been active with the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education as an observer. In January 2010, it became a full member. Through our work with the IATT, the FTI Secretariat is supporting a greater focus on HIV and AIDS within the EFA FTI Partnership. The overall aim of this working group is to support the mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS into EFA FTI processes, procedures and plans at the country level. Mainstreaming ensures that addressing HIV and AIDS is not an add-on or a separate activity but rather an integral part of the sector’s operations and activities.
For more information about the Task Team please contact info-iatt@unesco.org or visit the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education Web site.
Equity and Inclusion Tool
The FTI Secretariat worked with the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task team (IATT) on Education, the Global Task Force on Child Labor and Education, the EFA Flagship on the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities (convened by UNESCO), and civil society partners including World Vision to create a Tool on Equity and Inclusion in Education. This FTI tool supports education sector plan preparation, revision, and appraisal. The tool was designed primarily for Ministries of Education as they prepare and revise their education sector plans; for coordinating agencies and Local Education Groups as they provide support to governments in plan preparation; and for donors as they review plans for FTI endorsement in conjunction with the FTI Indicative Framework and Appraisal Guidelines.
The tool was recently piloted in three FTI Partner Countries: Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho and Malawi. The results are presented in the report “EFA FTI Equity and Inclusion Tool. Report of the Piloting Process.” The tool is currently being adapted to include comments from the pilot and it will be field tested in a number of FTI and potential FTI countries.
For more information, please contact Koli Banik
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