Education Policy AND Equal Education Opportunities Albania Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Ireland Mongolia Montenegro Nepal Turkey United Kingdom Education Policy and Equal Education Opportunities Education is a priority for the Open Society Foundations. Our Education Support Program supports education reform in countries in transition, combining best practice and policy to strength open society values. Goals in education include equal access to quality education for low income families, integration of children from minority groups, and inclusion of children with special needs. In addition to education, the Open Society Foundations work in over 80 countries to advance health, rights and equality, education and youth, governance and accountability, and media and information. We seek to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Education Policy and Equal Education Opportunities Edited by Daniel Pop Copyright © 2012 Open Society Foundations. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Education policy and equal education opportunities / edited by Daniel Pop. p. cm. ISBN 978-1936133512 1. Educational equalization--Cross-cultural studies. 2. Educational equalization--For- mer communist countries. 3. Education and state--Cross-cultural studies. 4. Educa- tion and state--Former communist countries. I. Pop, Daniel. LC213.E378 2012 379.2’6--dc23 2011044191 Published by Open Society Foundations 400 West 59th Street New York, NY 10019 USA www.soros.org For more information contact: Nora Henter, Senior Admin Manager Education Support Program Open Society Foundations Tel: +36 1 882 3151 E-mail: [email protected] The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundations. The information in the report is accurate as of March 2010 when the papers were presented at the international Education Policy and Equal Education Opportunities workshop in Tirana, Albania. Cover designed by Jeanne Criscola l Criscola Design Text layout and printing by Judit Kovács l Createch Ltd. Cover photo © 2007 JupiterImages Corporation Contents About the Authors ..................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction: Social Inclusion through Education ............................................. 15 Gabriel Ba˘descu and Daniel Pop Part I—Educational Equity 2. Evaluation Frameworks and Educational Equity: Friends or Foes? .................. 51 Linda E. Lee and Larry K. Bremner 3. Striking a Balance between Economic and Social Objectives in Education: Insights from Western Europe ........................................................................... 69 Timothy R. Murphy Part II—Education Politics, Policy, and Governance 4. Politicians, Policy Communities, and Bureaucrats: Educational Change in Estonia ........................................................................... 89 Ingegerd Municio Larsson 5. A Review of Nepalese Public Education Policy: A History of Implementation and Achievements .............................................. 109 Indra Gurung 6. The ABCs of Good Governance in Education: Monitoring EFA Goals in Albania through a School-based EMIS in the Kukësi Region ........................................................................................... 135 Aurora K. Bushati and Edmond Sheshi 7. Promotion of Education for Sustainable Development in Montenegro ........... 163 Andriela Vitic´-C´etkovic´ 5 Part III—Roma Educational Opportunities 8. Early Tracking in the Czech Education System .................................................. 181 Jana Straková 9. Minority Cultural Rights or an Excuse for Segregation? Roma Minority Education in Hungary ............................................................... 207 Lídia H. Balogh 10. Policy Measures for Equal Educational Opportunities for Roma in Bulgaria ... 223 Valentina Milenkova 11. Segregating and Separating Roma Children in Czech Primary Schools ........... 245 Kristyna Syslova Part IV—Financial Matters of Educational Service Provision 12. Conditional Cash Transfers in Turkey: Advantages and Disadvantages ........... 267 Anil Duman 13. Financial and Environmental Challenges of Implementing Inclusive Education for Disabled Children in Mongolia ................................................... 287 Sarantsetseg Otgonlkhagva 6 About the Authors Gabriel Ba˘descu Gabriel Ba˘descu is an associate professor and and the director of the Cen- ter for Democratic Studies, at Babes¸-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania. He has a B.S. in Mathematics, a B.A. in Sociology and received his doctorate at the Babes¸-Bolyai University. He held a Fulbright post-doctoral research fel- lowship, at University of Maryland, College Park, U.S., and an Open Society Institute International Fellowship. Between 2009 and 2010 he coordinated the Romanian Agency for Governmental Strategies. He is the author or editor of five books and has published more then 30 articles on democratic and eco- nomic transitions in Eastern Europe, civil society, social capital, educational policies, research methodology, youth socialization and labor migration. Lídia H. Balogh Lídia H. Balogh holds three M.A.s: Nationalism Studies (Central European University, Budapest, 2009), Communication Studies (József Attila Univer- sity, Szeged, 1999), Hungarian Language and Literature (József Attila Uni- versity, Szeged, 1998). Currently, she is a Ph.D. student at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), Film, Media and Cultural Theory Doctoral Program. As a freelance researcher, she participated in numerous projects of the Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and of the RAXEN Program of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (contribution to annual national reports and to thematic studies on racism, xenophobia and ethnic discrimination). Besides this, she has been working for the MONA Foundation for the Women of Hungary since 2004, currently she is the program manager of the organization. 7 Larry K. Bremner Larry K. Bremner has worked in research and evaluation for over 35 years with extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods. Prior to founding Proactive, he was vice-president of a national Canadian market research firm. In 1984 he established Proactive Information Services Inc. to provide social research services to the not-for-profit and public sectors. He has assisted organizations (government ministries, post-secondary institu- tions, school districts, community-based agencies, foundations, other NGOs) in meeting their learning and information needs. He has worked throughout Canada, including in remote Northern and First Nations communities, as well as in East Central and Southeastern Europe and Mongolia. Bremner, a mem- ber of the Manitoba Métis Nation, is passionate about issues of equity and access. He believes that participatory approaches to research and evaluation can foster the empowerment of traditionally disenfranchised groups, while at the same time improving public systems and institutions. Aurora K. Bushati Aurora K. Bushati is responsible for the Basic Education Programme in the UNICEF Albania Office since the Kosovo war in 1999. She comes from the academic field where she taught Animal Physiology for more than a decade and a half. She is associate professor of Animal Physiology (Ph.D. in Nutri- tion) and has worked with well-known research groups in European Universi- ties. Being also passionately involved in the UNICEF education programme, she has focused on inequality issues tackling especially hidden aspects of marginalization in education. One of her main contribution is the “Hidden Dropout” Approach. It was recognized by UNICEF NY in 2010 as one of the best three approaches in the world (1—The School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI): Lessons Learned from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Mozam- bique; 2—Towards More Child Friendly Schools: Scaling-up “Hidden Drop- out” Approach in Albania; and 3—A Transitional Funding Mechanism for Liberia’s Primary Education Recovery Programme). She has followed a num- ber of relevant courses such as Evidence-Based Policy Analysis and Advocacy, etc. Her main goal is to contribute to changing policymaking to the benefit of marginalized Albanian children. 8 ABOUT T HE AUTH ORS Anil Duman Anil Duman is an assistant professor at Central European University, Political Science Department. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her broad research interests include political economics, industrial relations, welfare state policies, and redistribu- tion. Currently, she has been specializing in labour market institutions and their impact on various types of inequalities. In a number of publications she has extensively studied the links between the type and accumulation of human capital, its distribution, and its relation to individual policy prefer- ences across countries and over time. She is also involved in research proj- ects analyzing the transformation of the social protection regimes in several transition countries. Indra Gurung Indra Gurung has worked as a consultant for the Critical Thinking Network Program (CTNP) of the Open Society Foundations’ Education Support Pro- gram for Nepal during June 2009 to August 2010. Before this she worked for the Alliance for Social Dialogue, a partner of the Open Society Foundations. Currently, she works for ActionAid Nepal as Theme