The existence of diverse teacher education partners, when well regulated and monitored, may contribute to the development of stronger teacher education methodologies and pedagogical methods throughout a national teacher education system. In Mozambique, for example, 11 teacher training colleges run by ADPP Mozambique, a national non-governmental organization that is a member of the Humana People to People Federation, function alongside a network of state-run teacher training institutions (Humana People to People, 2013). They teach the same curriculum, and trainees take a common examination; the ADPP-run institutions are widely considered to have had a positive impact on the teacher education training methods employed by the state-run institutions ( UNESCO, 2019: 56)

UNESCO. 2019. Teacher Policy Development Guide. Paris: UNESCO.

Inclusive education does not mean dividing and separating students based on their “abilities”, nor physically integrating them into schools without adapting the infrastructure, curriculum, pedagogy and teacher roles. The focus should in fact be on the characteristics of each individual and how each person can learn more and better by being part of a collective learning space with peers and teachers.

Opertti, Renato. 2017. 15 clues to support the Education 2030 Agenda. Current and critical issues in the curriculum 14. Geneva: UNESCO-IBE.

In order to construct a good indicator, one must be able to identify the most interesting phenomena to measure. These will depend,inter alia, on the country’s choices as inspired by the objectives of its education policy. The relevance of some indicators is more universal and descriptive, but in every case their importance will depend on the context. The enrolment rate in primary education is a good indicator (Sauvageot, 2007: 17).

For most countries, the appearance of indicators and indicator systems in higher education constitutes a response to two policy objectives: exercising more rigorous monitoring in this field and, in times of fiscal restraint, establishing a more direct and observable link between funding and performance. The goal of using a system of indicators is to make the autonomy and diversification of higher education institutions compatible with accountability and effective management of these institutions. Indicators thus provide a means of not only external monitoring of these institutions by governments, but also internal monitoring of overall institutional goals or specific ones set by departments or service units (Martin and Sauvageot, 2009: 20).

In general, informal learning does not involve teaching by a second party, is not organized, and does not lead to a recognized credential. Informal learning, experience and practice are closely-related concepts. Without careful distinction, most life experiences can be viewed as involving informal learning, but clearly certain types of activities are more relevant than others when it comes to the formation of relevant competencies (Desjardins, Rubenson and Milana, 2006: 54).

Desjardins, Richard; Kjell Rubenson, and Marcella Milana. Unequal chances to participate in adult learning: international perspectives. Fundamentals of Educational Planning 83. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP, 2006.

We reaffirm that the most effective policy to integrate ICT in education is through whole school-based planning, teacher training and professional development. We highlight that the challenge is not only to develop ICT competency standards for teachers and prepare teachers to integrate ICT in their pedagogy, but also to offer continuous support and to provide them with the incentives and the professional motivation to unlock ICT to enhance the quality of learning. To incentivize teachers, governments and institutions are recommended to integrate the evaluation of the use of ICT by institutions and teachers into the systems and practices for monitoring the quality of learning. (2017 Qindago Statement: 4).

UNESCO. 2017. Qingdao Statement: strategies for leveraging ICT to achieve Education 2030. Paris: UNESCO.

Finally, in many countries, education authorities have been granting greater freedom to individual schools to manage their own affairs, or, as a result of being constantly required to negotiate with unions even small changes in practice, have been losing control over what goes on in schools. The erosion of the role of school inspectorates illustrates this trend (Kellaghan and Greaney, 2001: 31).

An example might be a proposal to restructure schools or universities and merge two institutions on the grounds that this will increase internal efficiency and reduce unit costs through economies of scale (Woodhall, 2004: 38).

In this way, educational researchers in participating countries keep abreast of the latest developments in research techniques, while reports of the international studies make the techniques available to researchers in non-participating countries (Beaton et al., 1999: 17).

Three levels of education are represented; namely below upper secondary, upper secondary and tertiary education, or their equivalent in vocational qualifi cations. These groups correspond to Level 2 or below, Level 3, and above Level 3 respectively on the International Standard Classifi cation of Education (ISCED) scale. They can be broadly thought of as low, intermediate and high levels (McIntosh, 2008: 19).