Curriculum development

Content under review

Promising policy options

Early childhood education

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Incorporating learning through play

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Sufficient financing for implementing education through play

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Provide clear, user-friendly curriculum implementation guides for teachers and managers

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Making inclusive, context-based and human-rights-based content

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Incorporating peace education into the curriculum  

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Curriculum Review, Integration, Assessment, and Evaluation

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Student Assessment and feedback, Teaching and Teacher Education

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Other policy options

Digital exchange for comparing different curriculum

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Resource Allocation for better implementation of the curriculum

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Policy options for improving Equity and Inclusion

Gender-responsive policies

Promising policy options

Develop gender-responsive curricula

Ministries of Education and all relevant stakeholders involved in curriculum design and development must ensure that new curricula are not only free of gender-bias, but most importantly, it is used to challenge gender roles and stereotypes in society (UNESCO, 2018). This can be done by developing gender-responsive curricula. A gender-responsive curriculum acknowledges the existence of gender norms, roles, and relations, and actively tackles down their harmful effects (GPE and UNGEI, 2017).

Policies on curriculum design and development include a participatory process with important stakeholders and gender experts, with curricula designed in view of available resources.

As well, gender-responsive content should be:

• age-appropriate and culturally relevant (essential to choose the most pertinent way to present certain areas of content);
• provides positive and more expansive concepts of masculinity;
• highlights consent and healthy communication;
• questions and challenges societal gender norms and power dynamics;
• provides characteristics of positive relationships;
• discusses personal, familial and societal norms of sexual behaviour, health, and rights. For example, the Health Action Schools project in Bangladesh, developed in more than 700 schools, actively engaged children in health and sexual education (INEE, 2010). Sweden has a ‘long-established curriculum that teaches sexuality in the context of its psychological, ethical and social dimensions and personal relationships, and supports the equal sharing of sexual decision-making by girls and boys’ (UNESCO and UNGEI, 2015: 42);
• informs children about menstruation as a natural development process and tackles negative attitudes and misconceptions towards it (e.g. the initiative Dignity Period in Ethiopia, for more information, consult their website https://www.dignityperiod.org.); and
• informs children about all forms of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), including violence against LGBTQI populations. It also informs children about how to access reporting structures within schools and the larger community.

Finally, curriculum delivery should follow these guidelines:

• training of motivated teachers to teach gender-responsive curriculum should use participatory pedagogical methods;
• it should follow a community-integrated approach; and
• it must ensure all instructional materials, such as textbooks, handouts, and workbooks, are gender-responsive (for more information consult Policy page Textbook availability and content).

There is a multitude of entry points:

• comprehensive sexuality education;
• HIV education;
• life skills education;
• civics education;
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): teach children about non-violent behaviours, and break gender stereotypes and norms since an early age; and
• school-based clubs: Create ‘safe-spaces’ –environments in which students feel both physically and emotionally secure (e.g. Girl empowerment clubs, co-curricular activities) – led by well-trained facilitators.

Review existent curriculum

Periodically review the curriculum to guarantee it does not perpetuate gender stereotypes and perform pertinent modifications to make it gender-responsive (e.g. countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, Ghana, Guinea, and Nepal have supported large education initiatives to eliminate gender-bias from curricula (UNESCO and UNGEI, 2015).).  

Include a curriculum’s gender-review within a curriculum reform. To do this, establish a specialized committee, as was the case in South Sudan a specialized committee performed the curriculum review to make it gender-sensitive (South Sudan, n.d.).), ensuring the Committee is gender-balanced, involving gender-experts, and when gender-experts are not available, train the curriculum developers to mainstream gender and produce gender-responsive curricula (For example, in Viet Nam, 104 curriculum developers –34 men and 70 women– were trained to mainstream gender (UNESCO, 2017).). When nationwide review efforts are not deemed possible, encourage school members to work together to make their own adaptations to the curriculum (Frei and Leowinata, 2014).

Perform a gender analysis before the review and modification process, which requires an in-depth historical and sociological unpacking of national curricular norms, as well as a recognition (if not deconstruction) of the various male and female forms of knowledge and their representations in curricula’ (Marshall and Arnot, 2008:14).

Ensure a participatory process with important stakeholders. Ministries of education should enhance the support and engagement of multiple stakeholders to ensure that modifications are accepted by the community (INEE, 2010). A sharp contrast between the new content and the belief system can lead to unintended outcomes, such as high dropout rates (Munawar, 2004). Make sure women are encouraged to participate throughout the process. This usually involves:

• members from School Management Committees (SMC);
• community and religious leaders;
• teachers (Teachers Union);
• research centers and Universities; and
• gender experts.

Teacher education curriculum

Planning must take into consideration the time and resources needed to review teacher training and education curricula, and to train or retrain teachers (e.g. Nigeria updated its teacher education curriculum in 2012 to address gender issues (UNESCO, 2018).). Comprehensive institutional reforms of Teacher Training Institutes would be needed to mainstream gender throughout their offer (for more information consult Policy page Teacher content knowledge). Teacher Training Institutions should ensure teachers get in-depth gender-responsive knowledge, skills, and attitudes, help teachers to recognize gender-issues in the current curricula (both formal and hidden), and provide them the necessary skills and knowledge to rectify them within the classrooms (UNESCO, 2015).

*For more information consult Policy page Classroom practices.

Policies for children with disabilities

Promising policy options

Inclusive curriculum

Ministries of Education should ensure that a common core curriculum is provided to all students –instead of applying a separate one for children with disabilities and special needs (IBE-UNESCO, 2016; UNESCO, 2009c; UNICEF, 2014a; Vrasmas, 2014). Core curricula should:

• emphasize academics, as well as life skills, social development, and practical skills;
• ‘address the child’s cognitive, emotional and created development, and be based on the four pillars of education for the 21st century –learning to know, to do, to be and to live together’ (UNICEF, 2014a:41); and
• provide quality education for all students: Inclusive classrooms give access to a wider curriculum and provide more time on academic instruction than segregated specialized settings (UNICEF, 2014a). Yet, the core curriculum must accessible and flexible to ensure quality education for all (see below).

Ministries of Education and all relevant stakeholders involved in the curricula’s design, development, review, and modification, must ensure that it is inclusive. An inclusive curriculum promotes the values and principles of inclusive education and is used to build inclusive, equitable societies. These usually are curriculums which:

• recognizes and embraces diversity;
• respects the principles of non-discrimination and tolerance; and
• recognizes every child’s potential and the right to learn.

Breaks negative stereotypes and encourages positive attitudes towards children with disabilities, among others (UNESCO, 2009c). For instance, one of the various positive outcomes of the curriculum reform in Canberra, Australia, was the improved relationships between children with and without disabilities (UNESCO and EFA GMR, n.d.).

An inclusive curriculum is flexible. A flexible curriculum allows teachers to implement curriculum differentiation, adjusting its content and instructional strategies to fit pupil’s individual needs, abilities and learning styles (UNESCO, 2009c; UNESCO, 2004; Vrasmas, 2014). An inclusive curriculum moves away from rote learning into child-centred, interactive, experience-based teaching and learning approach (UNESCO, 2009c) (for more information on Inclusive pedagogy consult Policy page Classroom practice).

A flexible curriculum also allows teachers to act as facilitators instead of instructors (IBE-UNESCO, 2016) by encouraging students to have an adaptable time-frame to accomplish skills at different periods. Individual Education Plans might be deemed necessary, as is the case with strategies implemented in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and Malta. In some of them the implementation of IEP for children with disabilities is required by law (Hayes and Bulat, 2017; Vrasmas, 2014).) For more information consult Policy page Individual learning needs.

Finally, individual progress and formative assessments are encouraged (to learn more about inclusive assessment methods, consult Policy page Student learning assessments).

An inclusive curriculum should also be accessible. Curriculum content should be represented through multiple means within the classrooms (Universal Design for Learning) (UNICEF, 2014-Webinar 11). The following alternatives can be implemented: ‘(a) modifications (e.g. computer responses instead of oral responses, enlarging the print), (b) substitutions (e.g. Braille for written material), (c) omissions (omitting very complex work), and (d) compensations (e.g. speech therapy, mobility and orientation)’ (Vrasmas, 2014: 338).

An inclusive curriculum ensures appropriate and accessible teaching and learning materials are available in the classroom (UNESCO, 2009c) (for more information consult Policy pages: Textbook availability and content; Availability of teaching aids; and, Teacher guides and lesson plans).

An inclusive curriculum should be implemented since early childhood (for more information consult Policy page School readiness). Ministries of Education should involve parents and other relevant stakeholders throughout the development or review process, and ensure the inclusive curriculum is context-based. For example, Papua New Guinea designed a new inclusive curriculum, with the support of Australian Aid. Yet, it was widely criticized for not being grounded on school, local and national needs. As a result, stakeholders did not adopt many of its precepts (Le Fanu, 2013, cited by Howgego, Miles and Myers, 2014).

Ensure stakeholders’ views are integrated while reviewing or developing a new curriculum (teachers, school leaders, and SMC, parents, community, Disability People’s Organizations DPOs, children with disabilities, among others).

Provide training to teachers and school leaders

Inclusive curricula requires greater demands on teachers and school leaders (IBE-UNESCO, 2016). Planning must take into consideration the time and resources needed to review teacher training and education curricula, as well as train or retrain teachers, so they can implement inclusive curricula effectively. For instance, in Uzbekistan, multiple initiatives to train inclusive education professionals have been implemented (UNICEF, 2014a); the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Services have started a reform process to ensure pre-service teacher education curriculum and in-service modules prepare teachers for inclusive education (IIEP-UNESCO, 2018).)

School leaders must also be formed on inclusive education to ensure that their schools are inclusive and equitable and that inclusive curricula are being applied in practice  (hidden curricula is as important as the formal one).

*Consult Annex 1 for a checklist that can facilitate the process of developing inclusive curricula (or reviewing existent curricula).

Annex 1

Checklist for inclusive curricula

Source: UNESCO. 2009c. Policy guidelines on inclusion in education. p. 19-20. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001778/177849e.pdf.

Policies for displaced populations and host communities

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Policies for minority populations

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