Education strategy 2010
3.2 Our three priorities
We need to build on what we have done well and increase our focus on the three complementary priorities we have committed to in our new White Paper, Building our Common Future. See Table 1, below.
Table 1: Prioritising access, quality and the path to employment
| Priority | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. Continued focus on access and gender equality especially in conflict and fragile situations | 2. Improving the quality of education | 3. Strengthening the links between schools, skills and employment |
| Why? | ||
| Education exclusion both causes and perpetuates poverty.Improving gender equality in education has proven wider social and economic gains.
Investments in education have high post-conflict dividend for state-building and social stability. |
The social and economic benefits education can deliver are strongly influenced by the quality of education provided.Education can equip and recipients with the skills and attributes necessary to meet 21st century challenges such as climate change. | The educational profile of the workforce is a key component in shaping national economic growth.Education can contribute to the development of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Education enhances capacity to respond to rapidly changing market needs. |
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Our thanks for all the comments submitted. All of the ideas and suggestions put forward will feed into our new policy, helping to shape the direction of our work.
Once the final policy document is released you will be able to find it at www.dfid.gov.uk
Although the emphasis on gender equality is still important it is vital to ensure that DFID prioritises improving access to an inclusive, quality education for ALL children, particularly disabled children as it is estimated that they account for over one third of the world’s 75 million out-of-school children.
I agree with Faye about including disabled children in any DFID plans – also again, what about focusing on teacher training? Focusing on existing teachers is equivalent to shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.
Why no focus on disability? Barriers preventing disabled children from going to school include inaccessible curricula, difficulties in actually accessing the school and teachers who are not trained to deal with special needs. What strategies will Dfid be putting into place to ensure training of teachers in disability awareness and ways of delivering the curriculum?
One of the major barriers to producing credible plans to change this situation and enable disabled childrn to access a quality education is the lack of data available to show how many disabled children there are in a country.
UNESCO states that there is a need for a consensus on definitions and statitstical frameworks related to disability as well as the right tools for collecting the data. They calaim that in order to introudce international data collection there needs to be consensus among countries on concepts, statistical frameworks and data collection tools related to disability. This UNESCO claims is outside their mandate. Some of Dfid money could be used to work with other agencies (eg WHO) to set up internationally recognised tools in order to establish international monitoring and delivery of education.