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The UN Transforming Education Summit: Update and How to Engage

• Members of the FRESH Partnership

This round table discussion will provide an update/review of the many activities underway in preparation for the UN Transforming Education Summit. The session will identify and discuss the activities of the TES, including:

• Action Track 1: Inclusive, equitable, safe & healthy schools

• Action Track 2: Learning/skills for life, work & sust. development

• Action Track 3: Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession

• Country-Led National Consultations

• Regional Consultations & Forums

• The Pre-Summit in Paris 28-30 June

• The Transforming Education Summit in New York (19 September)

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Participants will also have an opportunity to review a draft submission to the knowledge base for the Summit which promotes the use of Intersectoral Policy-Program Coordination Frameworks (IPPCFs). The submission is based on the FRESH Framework and informed by preliminary findings of the Fact-Finding Survey & Policy/Curriculum Analysis being done by several FRESH Partners

Recommended Readings & Resources

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TES Web Pages

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TES Online Open Events (Upcoming)

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Key Points in Draft Submission: Background

  • The Concept Note and related materials on the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES) state that given the interconnectedness of education and development, the national consultations and action tracks of the Summit should ensure cross-sectorial participation beyond the education sector to include health, social protection, agriculture, labour, environment, public safety, finance and heads of government.
  • Transforming school systems to better promote inclusion and equity is simply not be possible without significant contributions of funds or staff from other public sectors to work with or within school systems. All countries and UN agencies recognize this and have developed mechanisms to coordinate policies and programs across sectors. In most cases, these mechanisms have evolved into evidence-based and experience-tested Intersectoral Policy-Program Coordination Frameworks (IPPCFs) such as Child Friendly Schools, Education in Emergencies Standards, Health Promoting Schools, Safe Schools, and many others.
  • In 2000, in Dakar, several UN agencies and global organizations defined a core IPPCF “school health” framework and 13 thematic/topic applications on different health, social and development issues. In 2018, an expanded number of FRESH Partners broadened their approach to include a concern for student success, inclusion and equity as well as serving the needs of the whole child. Several cross-cutting themes addressing implementation, capacity and program sustainability issues were added in 2019.
  • Currently, there are over 20 IPPFs (multi-component approaches) being promoted by UN agencies addressing different barriers to inclusion & equity in education. Many more specific “multi-intervention programs” responding to urgent specific problems such as violent extremism, cyber-bullying or infectious disease outbreaks are also being promoted by UN agencies and many others. A Fact-Finding Survey and Policy/Curriculum Analysis being done by several FRESH Partners (UNICEF, UNESCO, ISHN) is investigating the status of these approaches and programs in each country

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Key Points: The Problem & Transformatioin Required

  • School-based/linked intersectoral frameworks are supported by research evidence/reviews, data-based reports, and practice-based program evaluations. Well-known approaches such as Health Promoting Schools, Community Schools, Social & Emotional Learning, school food & nutrition and other used in specific contexts such as education in emergencies or low resource countries are well-documented as being effective at the school level. Please See this extensive list of reviews, data correlations and significant evaluations
  • Despite the abundance of research evidence that IPPFs improve student health, well-being, safety and learning, almost all of the approaches and programs using these frameworks are not scaled up, coordinated, or sustained in the real world, especially after the initial or project funding runs out. Jurisdictions publish lofty statements or guidance documents about the framework but often do not adopt policies that require coordination of the interventions or provide financial & human resources. Annual or multi-year action plans are often not renewed.
  • Most countries use several 10-15) frameworks to address different barriers or specific barriers but they are not aligned and may even compete for funding or educator attention. Indeed, some global models are more of a “wish list” of interventions than a practice, policy or plan that can be or has been implemented by countries.

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Better Practices in Selecting, Scaling Up, Sustaining & Coordinating IPPCFs

  1. Measuring & Monitoring the Capacities of IPPCFs
  2. Identifying the Priority Issues for School-Age Children to Select the Most Relevant IPPCFs
  3. Ensuring that IPPCFs Address a Learning-Relevant, Realistic & Related Cluster of Issues and Programs
  4. Positioning IPPCFs within Whole of Government Policies/Action Plans on Child & Youth Development
  5. Formal Inter-Ministry Mechanisms to Coordinate IPPCFs
  6. Comprehensive Inter-Ministry Agreements to Implement IPPCFs
  7. Joint Sector Reviews to Assess the Implementation, Effectiveness of IPPCFs
  8. Structures and Staffing to Coordinate IPPCFs

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