A | B | C | D – E | F – G | H | I – J | K – L | M | N – O | P | Q – R | S | T – Z
Achievement: Examination results or test performance. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with educational quality when describing the evolution of the education system or comparing the situation of a school or group of schools.
Adult literacy rate: Number of literate persons aged 15 and above, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group. A person is considered literate if he/she can read and write with understanding a simple statement related to his/her everyday life.
Basic education: The whole range of educational activities, taking place in various settings, that aim to meet basic learning needs as defined in the World Declaration on
Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990). According to the ISCED, basic education comprises primary education (first stage of basic education) and lower secondary education (second stage). It also covers a wide variety of non-formal and informal public and private activities intended to meet the basic learning needs of people of all ages.
Basic learning needs – as defined in the World Declaration on Education for All: These needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning. The scope of basic learning needs and how they should be met varies with individual countries and cultures, and inevitably, changes with the passage of time. (http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/JOMTIE_E.PDF)
Citizenship Education (Education for Citizenship): Citizenship education has become an increasingly important means for people to learn about their rights and responsibilities. The range of educational initiatives to encourage the values of citizenship is continually expanding, from lessons in morality to learning basic values.
Compulsory education: Educational programmes that children and young people are legally obliged to attend, usually defined in terms of a number of grades or an age range, or both.
Dakar Framework for Action: Adopted in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegalre, it reaffirmed the international community’s commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015, and identified six key measurable education goals which aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf; other languages: http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-conf/dakfram.shtm)
Dropout rate by grade: Percentage of pupils or students who drop out from a given grade in a given school year. It is the difference between 100% and the sum of the promotion and repetition rates.
Early childhood care and education (ECCE): Programmes that, in addition to providing children with care, offer a structured and purposeful set of learning activities either in a formal institution (pre-primary) or as part of a non-formal child development programme. ECCE programmes are normally designed for children from age 3 and include organized learning activities that constitute, on average, the equivalent of at least two hours per day and 100 days per year.
Education for All Development Index (EDI): Composite index aimed at measuring overall progress towards EFA. For the time being, the EDI incorporates only the four most quantifiable EFA goals – universal primary education as measured by the net enrolment ratio, adult literacy as measured by the adult literacy rate, gender parity as measured by the gender-specific EFA index, and quality of education as measured by the survival
rate to grade five. Its value is the arithmetical mean of the observed values of these four indicators.
Enrolment: Number of pupils or students enrolled at a given level of education, regardless of age. See also gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio.
Entrance age (official): Age at which pupils or students would enter a given programme or level of education assuming they had started at the official entrance age for the lowest level, studied full-time throughout and progressed through the system without repeating or
skipping a grade. The theoretical entrance age to a given programme or level may be very different from the actual or even the most common entrance age.
Gender: The wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between female and male entities, extending from biological sex to social roles. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines it as “the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”.
Gender Equality: The measurable equal access, participation and representation of persons regardless of sex or gender. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), it implies that all persons have equal conditions for realizing their rights and for contributing to, and benefiting from, economic, social, cultural and political development. Gender equality is therefore the equal valuing by society of the similarities and the differences of people regardless of sex or gender, and the roles they play.
Gender parity index (GPI): Ratio of female to male values (or male to female, in certain cases) of a given indicator. A GPI of 1 indicates parity between sexes; a GPI between
0 and 1 means a disparity in favour of boys/men; a GPI greater than 1 indicates a disparity in favour of girls/women.
Gross enrolment ratio (GER): Total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the official age group corresponding to this level of education. The GER can exceed 100% due to late entry or/and repetition.
Illiterate: A person who cannot read and write with understanding a simple statement related to his/her everyday life.
ILO: International Labor Organization. The ILO is the international organization responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards. It is the only ‘tripartite’ United Nations agency that brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes promoting Decent Work for all. (http://www.ilo.org/)
Inclusive education: UNESCO defines it as “a process of strengthening the capacity of the education system to reach out to all learners … As an overall principle, it should guide all education policies and practices, starting from the fact that education is a basic human right and the foundation for a more just and equal society”.
Inclusion: According to UNESCO, inclusion can be seen as a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all children, youth and adults through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing and eliminating exclusion within and from education. It is based on a values system that welcomes and celebrates diversity arising from gender, nationality, race, language, social background, level of educational achievement, disability, etc. Inclusion also implies that all teachers are responsible for the education of all learners.
Integration: This is generally linked to preparing pupils for placement in ordinary schools. It carries with it an idea that learners need to be educationally and/or socially ‘ready’ to transfer from special to ordinary school. The expectation is that learners will adapt to the school rather than the school changing to accommodate the learner and meet a wider range of diverse needs.
ISCED: International Standard Classification of Education (http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/international-standard-classification-of-education.aspx)
Jomtien Declaration: The EFA movement was launched in 1990 at the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand. There, representatives of the international community (155 countries, as well as representatives from some 150 organizations) agreed to “universalize primary education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade”. From this conference, the World Declaration on Education for All was adopted, which stressed that education is a fundamental human right and pushed countries to strengthen their efforts to improve education in order to ensure the basic learning needs for all were met. (http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/JOMTIE_E.PDF)
Net enrolment ratio (NER): Enrolment of the official age group for a given level of education, expressed as a percentage of the population in that age group. Net intake rate (NIR). New entrants to the first grade of primary education who are of the official primary-school entrance age, expressed as a percentage of the population of that age.
Normative instruments: Standard-setting instruments which help the Member States to aspire to and maintain those standards in their national systems. The normative instruments are usually documents developed following extensive technical consultation at the international level.
Out-of-school children: Children in the official school-age range who are not enrolled.
Quality education: There is no one definition, list of criteria, a definitive curriculum, or list of topics for a quality education. Quality education is a dynamic concept that changes and evolves with time and changes in the social, economic, and environmental contexts of place. Because quality education must be locally relevant and culturally appropriate, quality education will take many forms around the world.
UN: United Nations. The UN is an international organization founded in 1945 by countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. (http://www.un.org)
UNAIDS: the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative partnership that leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support (http://www.unaids.org)
UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. (http://www.unesco.org)
UNESCO-IBE: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization – International Bureau of Education. The IBE is the UNESCO institute specializing in educational contents, methods and structures. Its overall mission is to contribute to the attainment of quality Education for All (EFA). (http://www.ibe.unesco.org)
UNGEI: The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative was launched in 2000 by the UN Secretary-General to assist national governments as they fulfill their responsibilities towards ensuring the right to education and gender equality for all children, girls and boys alike. (http://www.ungei.org/)
Education UNcovered 