03 Jun 2016
Humanitarian Aid for Refugee Education: Why More is Needed By Aaron Benavot
By Aaron Benavot, Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO, Paris Conflict in all its forms has taken a huge toll on education systems. While often the attention is on the source of the fighting, the visible influx of refugees seeking safe haven in Europe this last year has turned Western eyes towards the plight of refugees.... Read More
01 Jun 2016
Refugees, Displaced Persons and Education: New Challenges for Development and Policy By Kenneth King
By Kenneth King, Editor NORRAG News. >>NORRAG NEWS 53 on ‘Refugees, Displaced Persons and Education’ – is now online The greatest humanitarian emergency in over 70 years On 23rd May 2016 the UN Secretary General convened the first ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to discuss ways to reform the global humanitarian system as the... Read More
30 May 2016
How Shanghai Does It By Xiaoyan Liang
By Xiaoyan Liang, World Bank. The World Bank’s recent publication “How Shanghai Does It: Insights and Lessons from the Highest-Ranking Education System in the World” has created much media buzz. The book launch was also accompanied with a three-day Global Conference on Equity and Excellence in Basic Education in Shanghai China May 17-19, 2016, attended... Read More
18 May 2016
The Education Cannot Wait Fund: Imperfect, but a Great Start in an Imperfect World By Robert Palmer
By Robert Palmer, University of Nottingham and NORRAG. The Education Cannot Wait Fund is a positive step in the right direction, but is it really ambitious enough? Even if the Fund is resourced as planned, the world will still witness millions of children in crisis-affected countries waiting for a quality education, and millions more will... Read More
09 May 2016
Weak Institutional Capacity: A Growing Barrier to Reaching the Education Sustainable Development Goal in sub-Saharan Africa By Birger Fredriksen
By Birger Fredriksen, Results for Development Institute. A blog posted on April 27th on NORRAG NEWSbite reflected on the massively increased funding that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will need, compared to other regions, to reach the 2030 education Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4), and the danger that the recent economic slowdown could severely affect countries’ ability to... Read More
06 May 2016
How to Bridge the Skills Gap? The Scientific Benefits of Old-Fashioned Drill By Helen Abadzi
By Helen Abadzi, College of Education, University of Texas at Arlington In 2014, a television show in the United Kingdom, “The Apprentice”, selected candidates for their business acumen and quick wits. Two young women and a man teamed up to develop a product that would be marketed and sold. They had to calculate the amount... Read More
27 Apr 2016
Funding Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Can the Momentum be Maintained During the Current Economic Slowdown? By Birger Fredriksen
By Birger Fredriksen, Results for Development Institute. The impact of good quality education on a country’s economic growth is now quite well understood. The inverse relationship – the impact of economic growth on education — is given less attention. This is especially so with respect to the importance of sustained high per capita income growth needed to generate... Read More
21 Apr 2016
International Organizations and the Setting of Educational Agendas: The Case of the Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Educational Quality By Clara Morgan
By Clara Morgan, UAE University There is growing interest among scholars in understanding the internationalization of domestic policy and the important role international organizations (IOs) play in setting educational agendas.[1] With IOs such as the World Bank, UNESCO and the OECD positioning themselves as designers of universal educational solutions, political authority in education has gradually... Read More
14 Apr 2016
Reflections from Geneva – Vocational Education in the Context of Violence Extremism By Tara Noronha
By Tara Noronha, Mercy Corps. A few weeks ago, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) – supported by NORRAG – convened a workshop in Geneva that brought together key practitioners, donors, policymakers, and researchers for thoughtful, honest discussions on vocational education in the context of violent extremism. The world as we know it... Read More
11 Apr 2016
Countering Violent Extremism – can Education and Vocational Training Play a Role? By Martine Zeuthen
By Martine Zeuthen, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). European specialists in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) and education programming gathered in Geneva last month, to discuss the role of education and vocational training in CVE programming. I was invited as a CVE practitioner. I run an EU-funded CVE programme in the Horn of Africa which... Read More