October 2011 Archives

MWAI consultant Chris Johnstone recently traveled to Turkmenistan in a preliminary visit to setting Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) standards. The purpose of the visit was to observe classrooms, meet with school leaders, and confer with Ministry of Education officials on the feasibility and contextualized nature of CFS standards in Turkmenistan. The visit was sponsored by UNICEF Turkmenistan. Activities included school meetings in Ashgabat and school visits in Magtymguly and Balkanabad.

From October 4 to 8, 2011, two Miske Witt consultants, Anne Katz and Katherine Ramage, conducted a workshop in Pristina, Kosovo on developing Child-Friendly Schools dimensions and standards for improving educational quality in Kosovo. The 30 educators who participated in the workshop under the auspices of the UNICEF Kosovo Country Office represented a range of sectors, including the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; the Pedagogical Institute in charge of teacher training and development; teachers; municipal inspectors; and school directors from several regions.

While Kosovo already has a set of standards and curriculum frameworks, education stakeholders view the drafting of Child-Friendly Schools standards as a means of focusing on the needs of Kosovar children as well as integrating and unifying existing educational documents.

By the end of the workshop, a working group of 16 from among workshop participants had written an action plan for developing CFS standards and had begun work on drafting CFS standards for Kosovo. By the end of 2011, the group intends to produce the first draft of the standards and plans to complete a review and revision process by May 2012.  The group will then engage in a validation and feedback process to ensure the standards are representative and inclusive of all girls and boys in Kosovo.