The IAU HEEFA Project

From HEEFA to SDG4: Building on AchievementsSant Pau Art Nouveau Site, Barcelona, Spain8-9 October 2015

Education for All (EFA)6 goals to be reached in 2015

• Expand early childhood care and education

• Provide free and compulsory primary education for all 

• Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults

• Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent

• Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015

• Improve the quality of education

No mention of higher education

Why Higher Education?

• Higher education has generally not been involved as a sector up to now, with the exception of teacher training

• The three missions (teaching, research and outreach) of higher education institutions can be of help to EFA

• The higher education sector is generally not aware of the initiative, issues at stake, and how to become involved

• The higher education sector will, if not already, be impacted by EFA: growing number of secondary-school graduates; quality of pre-higher education schooling; teacher education reforms

Starting point of the HEEFA Project: Maputo, Mozambique 2007

Higher Education and Education For All: The case of two solitudes?

Photograph: IAU

The Expert Meeting validated a real need for exploration of the linkages between Higher Education and the UN Education For All initiative and requested information sharing and capacity building.

And consequently:

An international - with no region left out - Reference group to bring in people’s experiences and expertise from diverse locations, culture and environments was created.

IAU HEEFA Reference Group – 30 peoplePresent here

Varghese, IndiaBijan Pant, NepalValtencir Mendes, SpainMontanus Milanzi, TanzaniaLimbani Nsapato, Zambia

Loise Gichuhi, KenyaNorzaimi Azman, MalaysiaDjénéba Traoré, MaliMarianne Granfelt, SwedenSemukeliso Gono, Zimbabwe

But it also has Members from: USA, Mexico, Senegal, Canada, Haiti, Uganda, Australia, the Netherlands, etc.

An Information kit was drafted and published to both address and answer the questions of what is EFA, why and how should HE get involved; where can HE activities be developed, and who is engaged

A collaborative Portal – the HEEFA Portal - was set up to allow academics to publish online their expertise, work and projects related to EFA. It also provided information on recent developments in the EFA field.

The HEEFA Newsletter extracted information published on the HEEFA Portal and provides highlights on recent developments in the HEEFA Project and activities of Reference Group Members.

Both were halted in 2015, waiting for new developments

The Collaborative Workshop : A three-step activity to envision higher education for Education for All was tested in Cuernavaca, State of Morelos, Mexico and conducted in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Katmandu, Nepal, Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India

Brings together local representatives of HEIs, pre-HE sector, students, teachers, NGOs, UNESCO – IAU as facilitatorAims to inform both the higher education community of what EFA is and the other EFA stakeholders of what higher education can bring to EFA, Identifies local needs and higher education’s possible intervention(s) in a commonly agreed upon document for a way forward.

A meeting was held in Ankarra, Turkey in November 2014 to evaluate the results of the capacity building sessions

IAU’s capacity building approach to involve the higher education sector in EFA is:

• Participant-centred• Inclusive• Based on Dialogue• Result-focused• Embedded in a

process• Local but not

closed

UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 was adopted in September 2015

EFA ends in 2015, great progress made but no goal will be reached/ new issues are emerging

17 sustainable development goals, 1 is on education Universities are included for the 1st time

 

4.1 Free, equitable, quality primary/secondary education for all4.2 Pre-primary education for all4.3 Equal access to affordable quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.4.4 More youth and adults with relevant skills for employment4.5 No gender disparities and equal access for all4.6 All youth and more adults achieve literacy and numeracy4.7 Education for sustainable development.

all that by 2030

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all

… and also

4.a build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all

4.b by 2020 expand by x% globally the number of scholarships for developing countries in particular LDCs, SIDS and African countries to enrol in higher education, including vocational training, ICT, technical, engineering and scientific programmes in developed countries and other developing countries

4.c by 2030 increase by x% the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially LDCs and SIDS

The Framework For Action developed to provide guidance towards the accomplishment of the Education 2030 agenda is to be adopted at a High-Level Meeting which will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France on 4 November 2015