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Education Under Attack 2007
A global study on targeted political and military violence against education staff, students, teachers, union and government officials, and institutions. To differentiate this study from other examinations of violence affecting educational personnel, institutions and premises, the following terms of reference have been set. This study focuses on targeted violent attacks, carried out for political, military, ideological, sectarian, ethnic or religious reasons, against students, teachers, academics, education trade unionists, education offi cials and all those who work in or for education institutions such as schools, colleges and universities. It also includes attacks on educational buildings, such as the firebombing of schools.

Education Under Attack 2010
This report is a follow-up to Education under Attack (2007). Its remit is to track the extent, nature and impact of incidents from January 2007 to July 2009, as well as the measures that have been taken to increase protection for students and education personnel and to reduce impunity for perpetrators. Its findings are disturbing. The sheer volume of attacks on education documented demonstrates that the demolition of schools and assassination of students and teachers is by no means limited to supporters of the Taliban fighting in the hills of Afghanistan. Education has been attacked in at least 31 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America over the past three years.

This briefing paper aims to contribute to clarifying the main issues raised in [EU] workshops around the potential benefits and risks of budget support as implemented by the European Commission. It is hoped that this briefing paper can contribute to improving the general level of understanding about Budget Support and identify means to improve its implementation.

2009 Horizon Report
The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth annual report in the series. The report is produced again in 2009 as a collaboration between the New Media Consortiumand the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program. Each edition of the Horizon Report introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. In the first adoption horizon we find mobiles and cloud computing, both of which are already well established on many campuses — and still more organizations have plans in place to make use of these technologies in the coming months. Institutions at the leading edge of technology adoption are also already applying the two clusters of technologies we have placed on the mid-term horizon, geo-everything and the personal web. All four topics on the first two horizons are already in common use in other sectors, including entertainment, commerce, and the world of work. The two technologies placed on the far-term horizon, semantic-aware applications and smart objects, are not yet commonly found in an educational context, although research is being conducted in both areas and the rate of development seems to indicate that these topics are well worth watching.

UIS Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education
In a groundbreaking move to put in place internationally standardized methodologies and indicators to monitor the growing integration of information and communication technologies into education across countries, the UIS has released the Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education. In addition to the UIS core set of indicators, this guide presents an expanded list to address a wide range of policy concerns in relation to the new paradigm of ICT-enhanced education service delivery. It will help to ensure consistent use and interpretation of ICT in education statistics among policymakers, statisticians, researchers, experts and statistical institutions across the world. This technical paper should serve as a reference and training guide for collecting comparable data at the country level and for completing future UIS questionnaires on ICT in education. Given the rapidly evolving nature of this field, this is intended to be a living document that will be subject to future refinements.

ICTs for Higher Education: Background paper from the Commonwealth of Learning
A short text on Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICTs) in Higher Education presented as one of the background papers for the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) which has the overarching theme The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development. This paper is intended primarily for an audience of newly appointed ministers, officials and institutional heads in higher education in developing countries. It examines the roles that information and communications technologies (ICTs) can play in strengthening the three traditional strands that make up the mission of higher education institutions (HEIs): research, service to the community, and teaching.

SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA
Published in 2007, this report synthesizes the findings from a survey that was initiated by the Information for Development Program (infoDev), a multi-donor partnership housed at the World Bank which investigates issues related to the effective and appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries. The survey was undertaken in response to needs expressed by international donor and development agencies, private sector organisations, governments, and NGOs for a consolidated database of information focused on the following key questions: • How are ICTs currently being used in the education sector in Africa, and what are the strategies and policies related to this use? • What are the common challenges and constraints faced by African countries in this area? • What is actually happening on the ground, and to what extent are donors involved?

Research Report for GeSCI Meta-Review of ICT in Education Phase 2
This second phase of a comprehensive meta-review of educational ICT research and practice addresses global developments reflected in the research and development literature appearing since 2006. Completed in April 2009, the Phase One (P1) report comprised a synopsis of research related to GeSci’s five thematic inquiry priorities. This Phase Two (P2) narrative builds upon the P1 report and responds to several refined GeSci declarations of purpose and mission.

Research Report for GeSCI Meta-Review of ICT in Education Phase 1
The purpose of this research is to provide a multi-disciplinary, multi-methodological lens for understanding the complexity and exponential growth of ICT around the world. The scope was limited to studies conducted between 2006 and 2008, and included articles from traditional peer-reviewed literature and “grey literature,” such as policy reports, conference papers, and reports from the popular media. Although the scope of the search was limited to five thematic streams outlined in GeSCI’s Terms of Reference, the comprehensive nature of those themes dictated a search methodology that was both focused and far-reaching.

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A Report by the Digital Connections Council of the Committee for Economic Development
This report is the work of the Digital Connections Council of the Committee for Economic Development (CED). We recommend this report to readers as an excellent analysis of how the institutions and processes of higher education can benefit from the application of greater openness through digital technologies.

A Strategic Approach: HIV & AIDS and Education
This document updates the 2003 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education publication, HIV/AIDS and Education: A Strategic Approach. It presents a strategic vision of the important role that education must play in addressing HIV, identifies key priorities for responding to HIV and AIDS through education, puts forward two central objectives for education responses, and outlines how the response should be tailored to the local epidemiological situation and other contextual factors. This publication provides a strategic framework for the critically important role that education must play in addressing HIV and AIDS. It targets decision-makers and practitioners in the education sector as well as colleagues who work on HIV and AIDS responses in other sectors. It can be used as an advocacy tool to build commitment to the role of education in the HIV and AIDS response and to generate multisectoral partnerships for implementation. It presents objectives that are central to all education sector responses to HIV and AIDS, and provides examples of priorities for action in two major areas, namely HIV prevention and the mitigation of impact. It highlights the importance of tailoring the response of the sector to: a) the epidemic dynamics; b) the social, cultural and economic context of the country (taking into account any regional differences); and c) the characteristics of populations at higher risk of exposure to HIV. It also presents some suggested priorities for the education sector in different epidemiological settings.

Success in First Grade
Success in First Grade, the first in AED’s new series examining quality education for all, looks at four principles drawn from experience and research that we believe form the foundation for successful learning and healthy sustainable learning communities. These principles are: • Maximize Opportunities to Learn • Build Multiple Support Structures • Create Learning Communities • Integrate Education with Other Child-Oriented Systems Each section of this publication introduces and examines one principle and provides pertinent examples of stories from the field, excerpts from technical reports, photographs, and other evidence to illustrate how the principle applies to real-world contexts. We recognize that there is room for disagreement or elaboration regarding the principles we put forward here. We offer this publication as a starting place for discussion. We hope it will stimulate debate, and we at AED welcome the opportunity to engage with everyone interested in quality education as we continue our essential shared mission: to help support teachers and learners, families, and communities around the world.

Rwanda and the Knowledge Economy: Business Unusual
Rwanda is making huge strides to creating an environment conducive to the provision of high quality education. Vision 2020, the Education Sector Policy, and numerous development documents highlight the promotion of science and technology in education with special attention to ICT as a core element for building the knowledge economy. GLP is assisting Rwanda achieve its education goals through the development of the Rwanda Education Commons (REC), a pilot program for the Africa Education Commons that seeks to identify teacher educational needs (primarily but not exclusively around the use of ICT) and to bring together the appropriate organizational stakeholders to solve those needs in a coordinated fashion. REC’s on-the-ground organization supported by GLP has already started building meaningful networks among stakeholder organizations, with strategic attention given to facilitating public-private partnerships.

A Chance for Every Child : Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015
This study assesses whether universal primary completion for boys and girls, the Education for All [EFA] goal, can be achieved by 2015, the target date set by the Millennium Development Goals. Education for All (EFA) Fast Track Initiative, Statistical Tools, Educational Policy Trends, Literacy, Basic Education.

Author: UNESCO Publisher: UNESCO, 2008. Abstract: The goal of this paper is to provide professional development partners with information needed to consider their participation in the UNESCO ICT-CST project and to revise or prepare their curriculum and course offering proposals. The paper presents the overall structure of the Standards by: 1) Identifying three complementary approaches that a policymaker can take to connect education reform and teacher professional development with a county’s economic and social development policies. 2) Listing six components of the ICT-CST framework. 3) Describing the contents and specifying the levels of the modules that correspond to the six components of each approach. 4) Detailing the objectives and suggested methods that a professional development provider may use to design learning materials that would support the goals of the UNESCO ICT-CST project. The paper also identifies and discusses issues that providers should consider as they develop or revise their materials. Subsequent materials will detail the mechanism by which professional development providers can submit their curriculum and learning materials for participation in the UNESCO ICT-CST programme.

Author: UNESCO Publisher: UNESCO, 2008. Abstract: By crossing the three approaches to education reform based on human capacity development— technology literacy, knowledge deepening, and knowledge creation—with the six components of the educational system—policy, curriculum, pedagogy, ICT, organization, and teacher training—a curriculum framework is created for the UNESCO ICT Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project. Each of the cells of the matrix constitutes a module in the framework. Within each of these modules, there are specific curricular goals and teacher skills. An overview of these modules is presented in this document and in the attached appendices. A draft description of detailed teacher competencies, objectives, and methods for each module is provided in a companion website, specifically designed for professional development providers and teacher educators. The intent is that providers and educators will review the curriculum framework and the competency standards with an eye to developing new learning materials or revising current materials so as to support one or more of the three approaches. In parallel, providers and educators can comment on the draft competencies, enabling the community to collectively shape the standards.

Author: UNESCO Publisher: UNESCO, 2008. Abstract: This paper explains the rationale, the structure, and the approach of the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project. It explains how teacher professional development fits into the larger education reform context, as countries review their educational systems in relation to producing 21st century skills in support of social and economic development. It can be used as a guide by those concerned with education decision-making and teacher professional development in preparing their training curriculum and course offering proposals.

Author: M. Bano Publisher: Religions and Development Research Programme. Oxford University. Oxford. 2007. Abstract: Within South Asia, Bangladesh has apparently been most successful in implementing the state administered madrasa modernization: 30 percent of secondary students in Bangladesh are in Aliya (reformed) madrasas. Given the current emphasis on madrasa reform programmes by many donor agencies, this study attempts to understand the nature of madrasa reforms in Bangladesh and to identify factors that led to acceptance of the programme within the religious establishment. The study argues that Aliya madrasas have indeed been able to combine secular subjects with religious education. On the other hand, while some present day Aliya madrasas might have converted from the traditional Qomi madrasas as argued by some authors, these state reformed madrasas have failed to displace the Qomi madrasas’ control over the Bangladeshi religious establishment. It is the Qomi madrasa students that are being trained to fill the religious positions in Bangladeshi mosques. Aliya madrasa students on the other hand are being trained to compete for jobs teaching the children of the secular schools. The control over religious authority and public interpretation of Islam remains in the hands of the ulema of the Qomi madrasas. Therefore, the study argues that it is misguided to see the Bangladeshi madrasa reform programme as a model for a more liberal interpretation of Islam, which is the focus of current reform efforts. Rather it is a very good model for making madrasas an effective tool for promoting education in conservative societies, where there is a clear demand for combining secular education with a strong religious input. Also, it argues that good financial incentives alone do not explain the rise of Aliya madrasas. The spread of the Aliya madrasa is embedded in a complex interaction between Islam and the Bengali language movement, in pre and post liberation (1971) politics, and in the support for the Aliya tradition within an influential segment of the Bangladeshi religious establishment, that is Jamiat-i-Islami. The paper thus argues that in studying madrasa reform programmes, it is important to be clear of the objectives of the reform. Modern interpretations of Islam within madrasas cannot be achieved simply through the introduction of secular subjects. They are only possible if the leadership of Qomi madrasas is successfully convinced of the need for a modern interpretation of religious texts and is supported in that process.

Education in Emergencies: Critical Questions and Challenges, Overview
USAID, 2003. Education in Emergencies can be defined as formal and nonformal education provided to children and youth whose access to education systems has been destroyed by war or other calamities. This document will focus on war-affected contexts.

Enseignement et formation techniques et professionnels pour le vingt et unième siècle
En 1954, L’UNESCO et l’OIT ont signé le Mémorandum de collaboration dans le domaine de l’enseignement technique et professionnel et les domaines connexes et, depuis lors, les deux organisations ont coopéré à différentes occasions et à divers niveaux. Récemment, nous avons réactualisé notre partenariat en matière d’EFTP et nous sommes engagés dans une série d’activités conjointes dans le but de maximiser les résultats et d’optimiser l’utilisation des ressources. Cette publication illustre une telle initiative. Elle peut également se révéler comme une démonstration publique de l’engagement renouvelé entre les deux organisations des Nations Unies d’exécuter le mandat qui leur a été confié pour travailler plus étroitement dans ce domaine.