UNESCO Clearinghouse on GCED

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Supporting women participation in higher education in Eastern Africa: building sustainable and equitable higher education systems in Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda Year of publication: 2023 Author: Winnie V. Mitullah | Sibrino Forojalla | Benon Basheka | Saidou Sireh Jallow | Endris Adem Awol | Scheherazade Feddal | Daniele Vieira do Nascimento Corporate author: UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) | UNESCO Nairobi <Executive Summary>Some takeaways from the Report:Policy frameworks and various legislations have enhanced the implementation of programs aimed at improving women’s education from primary school to university level. At the Higher Education (HE) level, some progress has been made, but the institutions are lagging behind in having gender parity, more so in top leadership positions. Men dominate leadership positions. At lower education levels, progress is hampered by socio-economic and cultural gender inequities, and limited resources. Socio-cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages have also had a negative effect on women’s advancement to HE.There are multiple factors that hinder women’s participation in HE and in reaching leadership positions. These include fewer women having PhD, maternal household engagement, limited time for participation in research and related activities that are a requirement for upward mobility as well as lack of child care and women-friendly facilities within universities. Ongoing mainstreaming of gender in HE is improving the situation, albeit minimal. More effort is needed to increase the number of women in HE. In addition, there is limited administrative commitment on the part of the universities to address gender inequality in leadership positions.Overall, HE institutions have not fully exploited opportunities that exist for gender advancement in HE, including potential partnerships for supporting the advancement of women. There is need for effective governance to achieve gender equality and collaboration between HE institutions, and development partners through public-private partnerships. Such partnerships have the potential for making resources available and for funding opportunities to enhance the support to women students, in particular those undertaking STEM courses which require more time for study.In Kenya, higher education has evolved over time from the technical and commercial institute in Nairobi – the Royal Technical College of East Africa – established in 1951 to offer technical courses within the East Africa region. The college was transformed to Royal Technical College in 1961, and later to the University of Nairobi in 1970. From this initial one university, Kenya currently has 32 chartered public universities, 9 public university constituent colleges, 21 chartered private universities and 3 private university constituent colleges.In South Sudan, at its commencement, missionary education did not provide for girls. When schools re-opened in August 1956, the Sudanese government authorities maintained the closure of the girls’ schools, irrespective of whether government or missionary, for the following four to five years. The impact has been the severe retardation of girls’ education for almost a generation. Tradition and tribal customs regarding gender equity are still very strong and dominant in everyday life. Consequently, traditional male stereotypes also dominate within almost all higher education institutions, including the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHEST) itself. This research is in fact the first time an effort is being made to investigate the participation of women in HE and in leadership positions in universities and other tertiary institutions. This explains the very limited response to the questions sent out to the institutions outside Juba. Today, however, a good start has been made in advancing girls’ education in general.In Uganda, under similar circumstances, women do not have good access to higher level jobs, positions, voice and wealth like men. The low representation of women in leadership positions in higher education institutions in the country can be traced back to the late start in women’s enrollment in modern schooling due to a number of factors.

Global citizenship curriculum in higher education: evolving policy and practice and a future research agenda; proceedings of a symposium held on 9-10 December 2013 in Hong Kong Year of publication: 2013 Corporate author: Bath Spa University | General Education Centre (Hong Kong) | Polytechnic University This symposium was an outgrowth of a UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded International Networking Project. A collaboration between academics in the United Kingdom/Europe, North America, and Asia, this project responds to the fact that there is an increasing interest in understanding how universities can educate students to become more engaged and globally-minded citizens. The premise is that higher education should contribute to the public good by training more global citizens with cultural awareness, a strong sense of civic responsibility and skills to participate in a knowledge-based global economy. The following report documents the symposium proceedings, summarises the presentations and provides key insights drawn from presentations. Comments made by individuals are paraphrased and/or synthesized.

The 1994 Genocide as Taught in Rwanda’s Classrooms Year of publication: 2017 This blog looks at how textbook and curricula reforms in Rwanda have worked to cover the 1994 Genocide and instill the ideals of tolerance, unity and reconciliation in students. It is part of a series of blogs on this site published to encourage debates around a new GEM Report Policy Paper: Between the Lines, which looks at the content of textbooks and how it reflects some of the key concepts in Target 4.7 in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).by Jean-Damascene Gasanabo, PhD, Director-General, Research and Documentation Center on Genocide, National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Kigali, Rwanda. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi saw the slaughter of more than one million people over the span of three months, and placed Rwanda at the forefront of the world’s political consciousness. Almost 23 years later, Rwanda has rebuilt and become a modern hub of progress and development, putting in place social, political and economic systems that are grounded in national unity and reconciliation – with education reforms playing a central role.The large-scale participation of children and adolescents in perpetrating acts of genocide made it clear that an education system that fails to integrate basic human values, will also inevitably fail the nation. Education was used prior to the Genocide to inculcate fear, intolerance and hatred; and so too is it being utilized by the current Government to foster peace and inclusivity, and combat genocide ideology. Post-genocide Rwanda has used education as a main tool to correct biased perceptions of its socio-political history, and to provide accurate representations of the root causes of the genocide, and preventative measures.With over 60% of Rwandans under the age of 24, the formal education system needs to instill the ideals of tolerance, unity and reconciliation in the next generation. With this realization, the Rwanda Education Board and the Ministry of Education have integrated genocide studies in the curricula of its primary, secondary and higher education institutions so that they are better able to lead a nation that is cognizant of its past. Instead of highlighting difference, the national curriculum of post-genocide Rwanda has been reconfigured to emphasize the politics of inclusion and to encourage a spirit of critical thinking that pursues peace, social cohesion and harmony above all else.Prior to the Genocide, educational resources were used as a tool by the genocidal regime to promote ethnic division, discrimination and propaganda. The biased curricula and teaching methods cemented ethnic segregation within classrooms and fostered genocide ideology. The students who were not expelled from primary and secondary school due to the ethnic and regional quota system were forced to identify themselves as being Tutsi – inherently separate to those who were Hutu or Twa. The pre-1994 curriculum lacked “the essentials of human emotion, attitudes, values and skills” as it continued to promote discriminatory and divisive ideologies that were “imparted through formalized rote learning in history, civic education, religious and moral education and languages.”Post-Genocide Rwanda faced the herculean task of rebuilding its dismantled institutions. With a profound lack of qualified teachers, a huge pool of orphaned children, insufficient funds and inaccurate textbooks following the genocide, many education challenges lay ahead. In early 1995, a moratorium was placed on history textbooks which disseminated biased information, as the country grappled with how and to what extent the nation’s past could be incorporated constructively in the education system, without causing pain or resurfacing conflicts.Rwanda chose a gradual, yet comprehensive, approach. In the years immediately following the Genocide, the history curriculum lightly touched on the subject so as to protect students from their recent past, and prevent division in classrooms based on differing family experiences. Classrooms promoted knowledge based on the essential ideas of unity, peace, tolerance and justice. In 2008 the National Curriculum Development Centre within the Ministry of Education published the new history curriculum which incorporated the Genocide against the Tutsi, coinciding with the renewed emphasis on the unifying and inclusive qualities of nationality, citizenship and patriotism, instead of ethnicity.The current national curriculum was formulated by the Rwanda Education Board in conjunction with varying public institutions, UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations. It incorporates the Genocide into the curriculum of every grade level, and discusses it in various contexts suited to the student’s particular stage in learning. Eyewitness accounts and the presence of elders in the classroom allow for a “multi-generational opportunity” for learning. In understanding how violent conflict erupts in society, it is possible to prevent future atrocities from beginning. Teaching the Genocide in present-day Rwanda aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the event by using primary sources, encouraging class discussions on genocide denial, the persistence of genocide ideology, and the reconciliation efforts embarked on after the Genocide.Moreover, this change in the curriculum has been supplemented by a shift to transform learning from one based on standard rote memorization to one that encourages discussion and a spirit of critical thinking and analysis. This approach identifies the student as an active participant in the learning experience, not merely a silent recipient of history as “evangelical speech.” By promoting an environment that encourages spirited, objective discussions, the Ministry of Education seeks to redress the biases taught by the genocidal regime, as well as prepare young people to thoughtfully and constructively enter the workforce.Genocide education nevertheless faces some challenges ahead. With genocide denial still present, not only are ongoing revisions of educational resources required, but teacher training is also necessary to ensure that revisions to the curriculum are well presented by teachers.The way conflict and genocide has been taught through textbooks in Rwanda has evolved over time. For Rwandans, learning about the 1994 Genocide is not only vital in understanding the history of their country, but also in developing critical thinking skills that help young people become informed citizens in today’s globalized society. Peace education, as well as tools for conflict resolution and genocide prevention, are now heavily featured. Indeed the initiatives embarked on by the education sector signal a promising start to the continuous pursuit of truth through knowledge of the past.In comprehensively integrating the study of genocide into the national curriculum and by empowering students to become agents of their own learning process, Rwanda offers an ambitious recipe for successfully teaching one’s own history for the better.

Higher Education and Democratic Culture: Citizenship, Human Rights and Civic Responsibility (Council of Europe Higher Education Series No.8) Year of publication: 2008 Author: Josef Huber | Ira Harkavy Corporate author: Council of Europe This book on the responsibility of higher education for a democratic culture is the 8th volume in the Council of Europe's Higher Education series. It is the direct result of a Higher Education Forum held in June 2006 on the responsibility of higher education for citizenship, human rights and sustainability. This forum was a part of the Council of Europe's long-standing commitment to work in the area of education for democratic citizenship and human rights. It complements earlier work on the public responsibility for higher education and research which led to a recommendation of the Committee of Minister to the member states of the Council of Europe in 2007. If our aim is to work for sustainable democratic societies, the responsibility of public authorities for a high-quality higher education system must go hand in hand with the responsibility of higher education institutions towards the advancement of society.

Six ways to ensure higher education leaves no one behind Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) This policy paper, written in partnership with the UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP), makes policy recommendations for equitable and affordable higher education to better support the implementation of the SDG agenda. To do this, it reviews recent trends in higher education expansion, identifies disparities in student participation, examines policy tools and practices for fostering equity, and explores ways to target assistance at those who need it most.

SDG-4: Flexible Learning Pathways in Higher Education – from Policy to Practice: An International Comparative Analysis Year of publication: 2022 Author: Michaela Martin | Uliana Furiv Corporate author: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) Higher education systems across the world are currently faced with a massive influx of learners with more diverse needs. They are expected to respond to this growing diversity through a more flexible learning offer and pathways that allow all learners, including those from disadvantaged groups, to access, progress through, and complete, higher education.To enhance knowledge on how to provide increased flexibility in higher education, IIEP–UNESCO undertook an international research project on SDG-4: Planning for Flexible Learning Pathways (FLPs) in Higher Education. The project included a stocktaking of policies, instruments, and practices, an international survey among UNESCO Member States, and eight in-depth country studies on Chile, Finland, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Morocco, South Africa, and the UK.This book presents the findings from the research, including a cross-country analysis of available FLP policies and practices, and how they enhance equitable higher education systems. It also presents a series of country experiences with innovative approaches to alternative entry, flexible progression, and governance systems in support of FLPs.

Address by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the Opening of the International Conference on Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Higher Education Beyond 2014; Nagoya University, Aichi, Japan, 9 November 2014 Year of publication: 2014 Corporate author: UNESCO. Director-General, 2009-2017 (Bokova, I.G.) This address had been made by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the opening of the International Conference on Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Higher Education Beyond 2014.

Higher Education, Peace & Security in the Eastern Africa Region Year of publication: 2023 Author: Sabiti Makara Corporate author: UNESCO Nairobi This paper stems from issues that were deliberated on at a regional conference titled, Emerging Issues in the Sciences, Climate Change, Peace and Security and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), organized in Djibouti, in May 2017 by UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa. The paper examines the issues and challenges of peace and security in Eastern Africa region. It puts into perspective higher education in the region, in terms of assess, quality, relevance, knowledge and skill products, and capacity to solve social challenges of society. The May 2017 Djibouti Conference on Higher Education, Peace and Security aimed at placing higher education at the center of understanding the complex regional challenges with regard to peace and security in a broad context, including poverty, climate change and environment, intergenerational transfer of knowledge, colonial/neo-colonial heritage, regional integration, cultural resources, and unemployment. The centrality of education as a tool for social transformation in Africa, and elsewhere is a critical element of transforming society, however that very element is up for debate. Specifically, the impact of higher education as a means of accelerating the sciences (natural and social sciences) is due for robust debate, as to whether or not, it is leading to innovations, creativity, and research-led solutions to challenges of society. The critical issue for the Djibouti Conference deliberations was: could Science, technology and in more recent years, information and communications technology, lead to transformation of society in the region? The other issue was: is it only the natural sciences that have the greatest potential for that transformation, or that the social sciences and humanities are relevant in this context? Besides, since issues of peace and security are complex, could multidisciplinary approaches be appropriate? This paper is not a rapporteur's report of the Djibouti conference. It is a set of reflection and reframing of issues for further debate and discussion.

Flexible Learning Pathways in Malaysian Higher Education: Balancing Human Resources Development and Equity Policies Year of publication: 2020 Author: Morshidi Sirat | Abdul Karim Alias | Hazri Jamil | Wan Zuhainis Saad | Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff | Munir Shuib | Mahiswaran Selvanathan | Muhammad Muftahu | Majid Ghasemy | Mazlinawati Mohamed Corporate author: Commonwealth Tertiary Education Facility (CTEF) | UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) Malaysia’s higher education system is highly centralized, with a set of legislations to govern and monitor public universities and regulate the private higher education sector. The latest discourse, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG4, pitted against existing policies on lifelong learning, presented an opportunity to assess practices at the institutional level. In the national context, there is a need to confirm the extent to which the linkages between national policies on lifelong learning, strategies, instruments, and institutional practices in terms of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) have benefited nontraditional learners, disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Hence, this research aims to investigate how FLPs have benefited particularly the bottom 40 percent of households (B40 households), disadvantaged and marginalized groups, persons with disabilities, and also women in Malaysia.

Programa Mundial para Educação em Direitos Humanos: segunda fase, plano de ação Year of publication: 2012 Corporate author: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights According to Human Rights Council resolution 12/4, the second phase of the World Programme (2010–2014) will focus “on human rights education for higher education and on human rights training programmes for teachers and educators, civil servants, law enforcement officials and military personnel at all levels” and “Member States should also continue the implementation of human rights education in primary and secondary school systems”. The plan of action focuses on human rights education in two broadly defined sectors, i.e. higher education and training for civil servants, law enforcement officials and the military.