The Education Support Program (ESP) and its network partners support education reform in countries in transition. Support is focused on Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, South Asia and Southern Africa.

Mission

The way a society organizes its resources to provide a quality education, particularly for vulnerable children, is a fundamental marker for democracy and open society. In 2006, the Open Society Institute refocused its education mission to advocate against global disparities in provision and to promote access for children who are denied their right to quality education.

The mission of OSI's Education Support Program is to promote justice and human rights in education, aiming to strengthen advocacy, innovation, and activism in three interconnected areas:

· Combating social exclusion: equal access to quality education for low income families; desegregation of children from minority groups; inclusion and adequate care for children with special needs.

· Openness and accountability in education systems and education reforms: equitable and efficient state expenditures on education; anticorruption and transparency; accountable governance and management.

· Open society values in education: social justice and social action; diversity and pluralism; critical and creative thinking.

The three main elements of ESP's program strategy are:

· To build on the momentum of the mainstream education reform process (especially Education for All, Fast Track Initiatives, and Millennium Development Goals) particularly in order to develop in-country capacity.

· To critique education systems and reforms in terms of how they discriminate against the most vulnerable sections of society, presenting threats both to education justice and to democracy.

· To demonstrate good practice, build networks, local ownership and civil society through programs and advocacy in regionally-focused strategies.

ESP priorities respond to different regional priorities, for example, the mitigation of the effects of HIV/AIDS on education in Africa; deteriorating systems and infrastructure particularly for rural children in Central Asia; access to quality education for minorities and migrant communities in Europe, and building social campaigns to promote education quality in South Asia. Common education reform concerns emerge in all of these regions; including dropouts, affordability, increased hidden and open costs for education, gender issues, and the need for curriculum change, teacher development, and the transformation of education systems.
The Education Support Program works with a close international network of partner organizations and individual experts to further OSI's mission in education.

Summary of 2006 activities

During 2006, ESP with its partners furthered policies and programs that promote access, extend quality, and improve accountability in education. These activities included the following:

· The report Education in a Hidden Marketplace: Monitoring of Private Tutoring was published, which presents the results of a study that examines how education has been affected by private tutoring in nine former socialist countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

· ESP supported 7 projects through RE:FINE in 2006 in the total amount of USD 645901 that focused on raising awareness on anti-corruption issues in education, improving governance, accountability and management, improve skills of parents and journalistic skills on reporting on education issues.

· The network of education policy centers, which ESP initiated in 2004, emerged as an international community of practice, promoting independent and information-based research analysis, advocacy for equity, and effective, sustainable solutions in education in Europe and Asia.

· A coalition of local partners completed What Works and Why in Education in Pakistan, an innovative, qualitative study in eight districts across Pakistan, which serves as the basis for public debate about education reform.

· Standards for teaching social sciences in Grades 8 and 9 in Armenia were developed by OSI and ESP, later adopted by the Ministry of Education.

· The Georgian Foundation and ESP developed a higher education module on Education for Democratic Citizenship that was piloted at the Faculty of Education, Ilia Chavchavadze State University.

· The Fund for an Open Society-Serbia established an Inclusive Education Network that includes over 150 teachers and expert consultants in 15 towns within Serbia to improve access for students who are disadvantaged or disabled.

· A series of seminars initiated by ESP, the Center for Innovations in Education, and IIEP UNESCO raised awareness on corrupt practice in education in Azerbaijan, which helped prompt the Ministry of Education to develop an educational code of ethics.

· ESP initiated a study on parental informal payments to education systems (PIPES) in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Moldova.

· OSI Tajikistan and ESP have developed criteria for establishing national textbook evaluation standards in Tajikistan.

· As a result of the testing project of the International Renaissance Foundation, the government introduced national examination reform, which links Matura exams with higher education entrance exams, and which leads to the standardization of examinations, and contributes to combating bribery and malfunctioning more efficiently.

· ESP produced Monitoring Education for Roma: A Statistical Baseline for Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, which presents education data on Roma education from 19 countries across for a wide range of indicators including enrollment and completion levels for primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

· ESP also published a Report on the Preliminary Assessment of RE:FINE Program Results and the Survey of the Education Civil Society Organizations.

Plans for 2007

In 2007 ESP focuses primarily on equity issues in education; education justice. ESP has been developing regional strategies to further its mission with a range of partners:

In Central Asia, ESP is launching a joint program with OECD based on a survey on policies affecting children with special education needs viz. children with physical disability, learning difficulty, and social disadvantage.

In Pakistan local partners are launching a Campaign for Quality Education (CQE), a civil coalition to campaign for education quality and greater accountability in education reforms in Pakistan.

In South East Europe, ESP is developing a region-wide advocacy initiative on equity issues in education with its partners. An initial collaborative study targeting youth across SEE will identify advocacy priorities.

In Southern Africa, ESP with OSISA is developing a pilot program in the Lubombo region of Swaziland to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS.

In West Africa, ESP, together with OSIWA, the World Bank and UNICEF is working on the renewal of the education system in Liberia.

ESP and OSISA are planning to strengthen education initiatives in Angola through the Angola Opportunity Fund. The Education Watch Project, which will form the basis for an advocacy campaign for education justice.

ESP is exploring the potential for a Pan-Caucasian Initiative. ESP is also exploring the strategic benefits of monitoring education for migrants, minorities and marginalized populations in Europe and of a future collaboration with REF on continuing monitoring education data on Roma.

Please note that OSF London programs form part of the wider program operated by OSI. For further details please use the following link: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp