Your Questions Answered – pose your questions live to the authors of the 2020 GEM Report

Launched on 23 June, the 2020 GEM Report on inclusion and education draws on the latest available data, evidence, and commissioned research from leading experts around the world.  The Report benefits from a 18-month production cycle and is authored by an international team of researchers based in UNESCO, under the leadership of the Report’s director. Today, in our Any Questions Answered session hosted on this blog in the comments section, you can ask what you will to the team and we will endeavour to respond.

Our aim in writing the 2020 GEM Report, All means all, was to provide up to date policy analysis, recommendations and a call to action for all educators to widen their understanding of inclusive education to include all learners, no matter their identity, background or ability.

So, did we succeed in our aims? Were you surprised by the Report’s findings and recommendations? Are you intrigued by how we arrived at some of the Report’s top line figures? Do the Report’s findings reflect your own experiences and research on inclusion and education?

Along with the Report, we also launched a new online monitoring tool, PEER, which stands for Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews, with laws and policies on inclusion in education for every country in the world. What questions do you have about our reasons for launching this tool, how it is compiled and how we coded the profiles to extract key global findings used in the 2020 GEM Report?

Today, we are providing a direct line to the GEM Report’s authors in the comments section of this blog. The initiative is aimed at academics, one of the core audiences for the GEM Report, but is open to anyone with an interest in education who would like to take part.

To inspire you as you draft your comments, these are the five questions that the 2020 GEM Report set out to address as laid out in its initial concept note:

1. What are the key policy solutions for each of the elements of inclusive education to ensure the achievement of SDG 4?
2. How can common obstacles to the implementation of such inclusive education policies be anticipated and overcome?
3. What arrangements are needed to coordinate and collaborate among government sectors, tiers of government and with other stakeholders to overcome overlapping dimensions of exclusion?
4. How do education systems monitor exclusion in education (both from the aspect of individual education attainment or success and systemic factors) and how can current practices be improved?
5. What channels of financing are used for inclusive education policies around the world, how are they monitored and how do they affect local practice?

You are also welcome to share relevant literature and case studies you know of in your responses that could help inform our writing of the forthcoming regional reports on inclusion and education in Latin America and the Caribbean (October) and Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (December).

Post your questions in the comments box below and we look forward to providing you with a response!