Latest content: Education

High-quality and accessible Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) lays the foundation for healthy and well-functioning societies. Effective ECCE systems equip young children with the means to develop to their fullest potential during their formative years, in a safe and inspiring environment, nurtured by well trained professional teachers and carers.

Since 2015, when world leaders first committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Commonwealth Education Ministers recognized the importance of the quality and equity for their attainment, education and SDG 4 have lain at the heart of realising the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Coordinated action on education policy remains necessary at national and international levels, Therefore, the Commonwealth Secretariat released the first Commonwealth Education Policy Framework (CEPF) in 2017. This second CEPF is designed to inform and enable the development and update of national policies to help Commonwealth countries achieve their targets under SDG 4.

High-quality and accessible Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) lays the foundation for healthy and well-functioning societies. Effective ECCE systems equip young children with the means to develop to their fullest potential during their formative years, in a safe and inspiring environment, nurtured by well trained professional teachers and carers.

Commonwealth Education Ministers and stakeholders have consistently stressed the need to improve school leadership given the impact that it can have on school performance and learning outcomes.

The Commonwealth Secretariat commissioned 11 papers to provide baseline information on how COVID-19 has impacted education systems in Commonwealth member countries. The papers have been edited and restructured so that they are now similar in length and arrangement, with the results collected into 11 chapters under four sections.

Much of the literature surrounding education in emergencies focuses on the impact of armed conflict on children.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is an essential element of the global response to environmental challenges.

The Sixth Commonwealth Teachers’ Research Symposium brought together education researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to share experiences from developed and developing countries both within and outside the Commonwealth.

Despite their inherent commonalities, there can be no ‘one size fits all’ model for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and for the provision of Education for All.

Inclusion in education is a process of enabling all children to learn and participate effectively within mainstream school systems, without segregation.

Commonwealth countries face a range of significant challenges in contemporary times, relating to conflict, HIV/AIDS, gender inequality, threats to social cohesion and disengagement of young people.

Ensuring that teachers’ professionalism is appropriately recognised and rewarded is a challenge, especially at a time when that professional status itself is often under threat.

With a shortfall of 18 million teachers in the numbers required to meet the education Millennium Development Goals, research on the global teaching force becomes critical in informing planning and preparation for future learners.  Yet data about teachers across all regions of the Commonwealth is not yet reliable enough or adequate for truly effective planning and policy-making.

This report, commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat for the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2009, explores progress towards achieving good quality basic education for all.Section A describes briefly the composition and the diversity of the Commonwealth before providing two short overviews on trends and significant advances in basic education across all of the countries of the Commonwealth and regional trends and patterns for Commonwealth Asia, Commonwealth Sub-Saharan Africa, the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Commonwealth Pacific.Section B presents data for each Commonwealth country in graphical and diagrammatic form, contrasting wherever possible, the state of basic education in 1999 with the latest available statistics.

International teacher migration poses a wide range of challenges to the recognition and transferability of teacher qualifications across borders.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goal to promote gender equality and to empower women is a continuing aim for all developing countries.

Every country that has worked towards, and then attained, universal primary education has celebrated that achievement as a great step forward.

The Gender-Responsive School shows teachers, headteachers and school administrators how to spot the key spaces in school life where gender is important.

Education, especially girls’ education, is seen as the most effective protection against the HIV epidemic that has severely affected the school systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

In recent years developing countries have expanded their government education systems in an attempt to meet the Millennium Development Goals on education by 2015.

Ensuring Education for All at the primary school level is not just a matter of recruiting enough teachers: they must be deployed effectively across the education system.

Double-shift Schooling primarily aims to extend access and minimise unit costs.

Gender disparity in education has usually been experienced as disadvantaging girls.