29 Apr 2013

If Data is Not Wisdom, then Non-Data Certainly is Not

Karina Veal, Asian Development Bank. Where hide the wise answers to questions vexing TVET policy makers and practitioners in developing countries today? They ask, for example: will benefits outweigh costs of building a National Qualifications Framework. What works best to engage the most marginalized youth in skills training? How can one measure learning outcomes from...
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24 Apr 2013

Don’t Get Lost – Focus on Quality

Eric A. Hanushek, Stanford University. UNESCO has done both a service and a disservice to those concerned about global development.  GMR 2012, Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work, brings its analytical attention to bear on the relationship between skills and economic development.  The power of the idea of Education for All has been to...
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22 Apr 2013

Transforming Education into Better Jobs and Better Lives

Andreas Schleicher, OECD. Everywhere skills transform lives and drive economies; and without the right skills, people are kept on the margins of society, technological progress does not translate into economic growth, and countries can’t compete in today’s economies. But the toxic co-existence of unemployed graduates on the street, while employers tell us that they cannot...
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15 Apr 2013

Is a Skills Goal Feasible for Post-2015?

By Simon McGrath, University of Nottingham.   It sometimes feels like all of us interested in development are getting sucked into the business of debating and even lobbying for development goals for the post-2015 period.  Whilst I remain deeply sceptical of the inherent value of global goals, I have found myself over the past few...
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08 Apr 2013

The Future of Education Financing - Mobilizing Domestic Savings?

By Dan Bond, international economist and development finance consultant. The recent OECD announcement that official aid from rich to poor countries declined four percent last year after having fallen three percent in 2011 gives additional impetus to efforts to find innovative sources of financing for education and other development needs.  Additional impetus comes from February’s...
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20 Mar 2013

Coming Full Circle? Reflections on the International Education Agenda for 2015 and Beyond

By Sobhi Tawil, UNESCO. This text summarizes some of the ideas presented at the annual CIES conference (10-15 March 2013) during the NORRAG panel devoted to ‘Education Post 2015: Re-invigorating the agenda, or reshuffling the lobbies?’ Parallel education agendas since 2000 Since 2000, the international education agenda has been defined by two parallel frameworks. The...
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18 Mar 2013

The 2013 Human Development Report: education, skills and decent work matter; just don’t ask us what any of these mean!

By Simon McGrath, University of Nottingham. I always read the UNDP Human Development Reports with interest, finding that they combine grand narrative and detailed statistical tables with some innovative theoretical thinking. In the latest report, the grand narrative is one of progress – all countries have improved HDI in the past decade – and a...
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