Learning and the post-2015 education and development agenda: New goals? New actors? New agendas?

Learning and the post-2015 education and development agenda: New goals? New actors? New agendas?

When

13 February 2013    
11:30 - 12:45

Where

University of Bristol Graduate School of Education
Berkeley square, Bristol, BS8 1JA

Event Type

Learning and the post-2015 education and development agenda: New goals? New actors? New agendas?

Organised by Centre for International and Comparative Studies and the Learning Societies Theme, Graduate School of Education

Speaker: Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex
Discussants: David Turner, University of Glamorgan and Terra Sprague, University of Bristol
Chair: Angeline M. Barrett, University of Bristol

Room 1.20, Graduate School of Education, 35 Berkeley Square, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1JA. 11.30 am – 12.45 pm

In 2000, the UN assembly set a target of ensuring that every child everywhere will complete primary school by 2015 and another of ensuring gender parity in participation in primary and secondary education. These two targets together with the six EFA goals have since become the driver of international aid to education resulting in the official number of out-of-school primary-aged children nearly halving within a single decade, although there are signs of stagnation in the last two years. However, findings from various cross-national and national surveys show dismally low rates of literacy and numeracy skills amongst primary school leavers in many low and middle income countries with about 250 million children still unable to read or write by the time they should be reaching grade 4 of school.

As 2015 approaches, the form that a new post-2015 goal for education should take is a hot topic of debate. A consensus is beginning to emerge that a new goal should focus not just on physical enrolment in school but on Learning. The GSOE, with its brand new strap line – Researching Learning;Transforming Lives – and its three new Learning themes, has its finger on the learning pulse. This event is an opportunity to invite you to contribute your views on the idea of an international learning goal for all children everywhere within the context of the post 2015 education and development debate lead by UNICEF and UNESCO. Should there be such a thing? What should it look like? What targets should be agreed and how should they be monitored?

Yusuf Sayed is a Reader in International Education and the University of Sussex. He is currently preparing a review on the post-2015 debate, commissioned by UNESCO.

To book email ed-events@bristol.ac.uk