CEC Reports & lectures
CEC Internal ReportsThe Annual Report for 2009/10 can be seen by clicking here (248 kb). The Executive Chairperson's address "Looking Ahead at 50" can be seen by clicking here (79 kb). The draft CEC "Three Year Plan 2009-2012" can be seen by clicking here (269 kb). Reports from previous years can be downloaded from the CEC Policy Documents page on this website.
Reports, lectures, etc.
CEC has a series of lectures and conferences as well as commissioning research on educational issues in the Commonwealth. The following is a list of reports which can be downloaded from this site. Go to the descriptive section below.
Commonwealth Women - Agents of Change
Nigeria: 50 years of progress and challenge in the Education sector
Educational Policies and Priorities in Commonwealth Small States
Rebuilding Education in Zimbabwe
Women as a force for Development in Commonwealth Countries
Hon. Ms. Simone Testa de Comarmond
The 2008 Gladwyn Lecture by Lord Kinnock of Bedwelty "A manifesto for a New Public Diplomacy"
Celebrating 60 Years of Educational Progress and Challenges in Education in Sri Lanka
India - 60 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge
Ghana 50 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge
Educating Nomadic and Pastoralist Children
Islam and the Education of Women and Girls in the Commonwealth
Climate Change in the Commonwealth
CEC Spring Conference 2007
UPE - Why some countries fail
Commonwealth Women - Agents of Change
A packed meeting held on Monday 14th. March, Commonwealth Day, issued a Call to Action
The meeting included major contributions from a number of women, starting with an address fromMrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar - Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Excerpts from her speech can be seen and listened to in this video:
Marie Staunton, Chief Executive, Plan International, UK, introduced a report which had been commissioned by the Royal Commonwealth Society called "Because You're a Girl: Growing up in the Commonwealth". Marie's introduction for this report can be seen and listened to in this video:
A pdf of the report referred to in this presentation can be downloaded from the Royal Commonwealth Society website by clicking here.
An inspirational and final contribution was made by Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, the General Secretary of the International Young Women's Christian Association. This can be downloaded in this video:
With the aim of changing societal forms and values towards patterns that reflect and respect the genius, needs and interests of both genders;
Recognising the progress that has been made, but regretting the cost to society and the blight on individual lives resulting from continuing educational inequality;
We the undersigned call on Commonwealth Governments to:
• Close the gender gap in access to education that leaves 121 million children, most of them girls, out of school and 500 million women unable to read or write — twice as many as men.
• Provide women with equal access to complete secondary education, recognising that the longer women remain in education, the greater, cumulative intergenerational benefits for their children as well as the economy and wider society.
• Ensure all sectors of education have trained teaching and support staff.
• Support pastoral policies that prevent girls and women from dropping out of education due to early marriage, domestic and childcare responsibilities, economic activity, including marginal employment and subsistence agriculture.
• Ensure education programmes in all sectors, including higher, adult, vocational and continuing education, reject cultural stereotyping of women to provide equal access in all subjects, including science and sport, and provide for the specific needs of girls and women, including childcare, sanitation, accommodation and remission of fees reflecting women's smaller financial resources.
• Introduce employment legislation to ensure women's economic rewards reflect their academic achievements and abilities, and to end the discrimination that still holds back women at work.
And to ensure equality in decision-making on education, to commit to achieving equal representation of women in Commonwealth Parliaments, Governments and inter-governmental agencies.
Signed
House of Commons Commonwealth Day March 14th 2011
Gladwyn Lecture "Nigeria: 50 years of progress and challenge in the Education sector."
Dr. Nosa Alad
eselu, Executive Director, African Women Empowerment Guild spoke with with Professor Michael Omolewa at a meeting held in Parliament on 8th. December 2010.
The paper by Professor Michael Omolewa can be downloaded by clicking here as a pdf (34 kb).
A fairly detailed report can be seen in the Guardian, Nigeria by clicking here to get the link. Another report in Nigeria can be seen in This Day Online by clicking here to get the link.
This presentation and meeting was done in co-operation with and support from the Britain Nigeria Educational Trust (click here for website) and CREATE (the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity) at the University of London Institute of Education (click here for website).
Educational Policies and Priorities in Commonwealth Small States
The conference was for those interested in education in the small states of the Commonwealth, in comparative and international studies and in the Commonwealth in general. Presentations reported on research findings from a study of educational policies and priorities in Commonwealth small states. The conference took place in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol on 25th. October 2010.
The conference was initiated by three speakers. Professor Michael Crossley gave an introduction to the meeting with the following presentation (click here (71 kb)). This was followed by Dr. Steve Packer describing the challenges, old and new, facing small states (click here (357 kb)) and Terra Sprague leading on the policieis and priorities of small Commonwealth states (click here (269 kb)). Professor Crossley finsihed the presentations by discussing the potential for higher education, international collaboration and research in small states (click here (136 kb)). The meeting concluded with a discussion with a number of representatives of the High Commissions of some of the small states in question.Rebuild
ing Education in Zimbabwe
The speech by Hon. Senator David Coltart, Minister of Education, Zimbabwe descrilbed the present position of education in his country.
David Coltart, who is the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture of the Republic of Zimbabwe and represents the Movement for Democratic Change (M) in Zimbabwe's Coalition Government spoke about how education was facing the challenge with the help of friends.The speech can be downloaded in mp3 format by clicking here and listened to. The audio file will open in a new, blank, window which will, in some cases, fill the whole screen. The speech takes about 30 minutes in all.
Women as a force for Development in Commonwealth Countries
Ms. Mmsekgoa Masire-Mwambe, Commonweatlh Deputy Secretary-General
This lecture, given on 8th. December 2009 in the Robing Room of the House of Lords, considered how best to unlock and realise the potential of women to transform their societies through greater participation in education and in business and employment. The text of the lecture can be downloaded by clicking here (182 kb).
Hon. Ms. Simone Testa de Comarmond, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Foundation and of the Forum for African Educationalists.
The presentation described how the partnerships between the Commonwealth, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and other civil society organisations in promoting the education of girls and women in
The meeting took place with the support of the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealt Secretariat in March 2009.
The 2008 Gladwyn Lecture by Lord Kinnock of Bedwelty "A manifesto for a New Public Diplomacy"
After years in politics in the
He started his address on international cultural relations with one assessment, among many others, of the alterations swirling around our World, and everyone in it, in the early years of the 21st Century.
Celebrating 60 Years of Educational Progress and Challenges in Education in Sri Lanka
The text of a lecture by Dr. Harsha Aturupane, Head of the World Bank in Sri Lanka given in Parliament in November 2009. This can be downloaded by clicking here (166 kb). A response by Professor Angela Little of the University of London Institute of Education can be downloaded by clicking here (16 kb).
India - 60 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge
A summary of the address by Professor Krishna Kumar, Director of the National Council for Educational Research and Training, Delhi, India can be downloaded by clicking here (34 kb). A response by Dr. Marie Lall, University of London Institute of Education, can be downloaded by clicking here (33 kb).
Ghana 50 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge
The text of the address by Dr. Kwame Akyeampong, Centre for International Education, University of Sussex and the former Director of the Institute of Education, University of the Cape Coast, Ghana. Click here (140 kb)
Educating Nomadic and Pastoralist Children
Jointly with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa
In almost all nomadic and pastoralist communities, the proportion of children who get even a primary or basic education is very small - in some areas, less than 10% and much less than that for girls. The proportions of literate women are tiny. What are the consequences in terms of health, well being, poverty? This is a report of a discussion held in September 2007. Click here for a copy of the report of this meeting (261 kb)
Islam and the Education of Women and Girls in the Commonwealth
This was the subject of the CEC Annual Conference in June 2007. The report comes in the following parts:
Part 1: Setting Scenes
Part 2: Commonwealth Experiences
Part 3: Inferences and Indications for Commonwealth Action
The main contributers were Shaheen Sardar Ali, Fatimah Kelleher, Haleh Afshar along with Kasturi Sen, Maria Jaschok, John Oxenham, Oley Dibba-Wadda, Azim Nanji, Basil Mustafa, Fauzia Ahmad, Elizabeth-Claire Mikkelsen, Richard Bourne and Andrew Firmin. The main Chair of the conference was Baroness Pola Uddin of Bethnal Green and Tower Hamlets. She finishes her Foreword as follows:
"We mustn’t allow ourselves to be bogged down by only talking about the distinctions between the poor and the rich, the deprived and the included, and between one and another faith community, as if all lead parallel and different lives. Such language only seeks to divide. It does nothing to reduce degradation or encourage the cooperation required everywhere to build confidence and empowerment. Only with time and extensive education will women resolve these situations, working in harmony together across communities, countries and world regions."
The report was developed by Rosemary Preston with Fauzia Ahmad and John Oxenham and was based on the CEC Annual Conference 2007. The whole project was supported by the British Council (for the conference) and the Commonwealth Foundation (for the preparation and production of this report).
The report can be downloaded from this website in two forms: The first, without illustrations and 533kb in size can be downloaded by clicking here and the second, with illustrations and 1.58mb can be downloaded by clicking here.
Climate Change in the Commonwealth
A member of the CEC attended the Commonwealth conference on "Preparing for Change: Adaptive Strategies for Climate Change and Disaster Management in the Commonwealth" The report by the CEC representative at this conference held in the Seychelles can be obtained by clicking here (26kb).
CEC Spring Conference 2007
This conference was attended by a wide range of the Council's membership, and had contributions which covered a wide range of areas. Two of the contributions can be downloaded from this website - and others will be added when available. The basic conclusions from the conference, which are still open to debate by members of the Council through the website email, were summarised as follows:
In the light of our interests, resources and capabilities, we should
1. keep the biennial CHOGM and the triennial CCEM as our main constituencies for influencing educational policy and focus our activities on making our contributions too substantive to be ignored;
2. strengthen our connections with Parliament, government, High Commissions and Commonwealth Secretariat as our main channels of influence;
3. bolster efforts to revive understanding of and enthusiasm for the Commonwealth in the British public at all levels.
To do this, CEC will need to involve larger proportions of the membership in its activities, not necessarily in formal or long term roles, but morelikely in occasional, limited tasks. A scoping study of the interests of our members and a mapping study of their geographical locations could be initial steps for the purpose.
Contributions from the conference:A Historical Introduction by Lord George Thomson of Monifieth, and Influencing Policy by Tim Boswell MP and by David Levesque from the Department for International Development
Civil Society as partners in Commonwealth Education Mark Collins, Director, Commonwealth Foundation
Challenges to education in the Commonwealth in the next decade or two
Steve Packer, formerly from the EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO
The Commonwealth and its Member Governments: Unlocking the Potential
Stuart Mole Director General, Royal Commonwealth Society
UPE - Why some countries fail.
A research paper investigating why, having nearly attained Universal Primary Education, some countries were unable to sustain it.
A research team from the Council for Education in the Commonwealth investigated some possible reasons why UPE in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia had been almost achieved, but had not been maintained. The work was presented to Ministers at the Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Cape Town, South Africa.
A full report has been published and is available to CEC members for £5 plus £1.50 for postage and packing. (The full published price is £20.) Please email CEC if you wish to take advantage of this offer.
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