Monitoring reading and writing to help children climb the ladder of education

By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

This piece was also published by the Global Reading Network.

In his short story “Instructions to climb a ladder,” Julio Cortazar uses more than 380 words to explain an action that, you would think, requires no explanation at all. He writes, for example: “The first steps are always the most difficult, just to acquire the coordination needed.” He also notes the coincidence of the raising of “the foot” and “the foot” of the ladder.

Continue reading

People’s Action for Learning Network: What a difference a year makes

Hannah-May Wilson, Program Manager, PAL Network Secretariat

What a difference a year makes. Last week in Nairobi, when we woke to find a grey blanket of fog wrapped around our conference centre, it was hard to believe that only a year ago, the founding directors of our citizen-led assessment movement set up the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network. The Network is a south-south partnership whose member countries carry out sample-based, citizen-led assessments to measure the learning levels of all children in their own homes, regardless of their age, gender, or whether they go to school or not. Continue reading

Why equity and inclusiveness are so important for the SDG indicators

Daniel Capistrano, Researcher at the National Institute for Educational Research and Studies – Inep/Brazil, and member of the Technical Cooperation Group (TCG) on SDG 4 – Education 2030 Indicators.

The fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is not only about quality education – it is about inclusion and equity. These two words define the very substance of the quality education that we want for the world’s children. None of the targets related to SDG 4 can be achieved without them (indeed, target 4.5 is dedicated entirely to equity). So they have to be reflected in the indicators. Continue reading