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Prospects (2013) 43:85105 DOI 10.1007/s11125-012-9260-8
TRENDS/CASES
Patrick Montjourides
Published online: 24 January 2013 UNESCO IBE 2013
Abstract Poor-quality, or completely absent, data deny millions of children the right to an education. This is often the case in conict-ridden areas. The 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2011b) identied four failures that are holding back progress in education and damaging millions of childrens lives: failures of protection, provision, reconstruction, and peace-building. Thus, the critical lack, and the varying quality, of data on education and on human rights violations against children during and after armed conicts amount to what can be termed the fth failure of the international community. This article examines how currently available data, and monitoring and evaluation systems, can be used and improved to better estimate the situation of children in conict-affected countries, in particular with respect to education. In the light of international standards for data dissemination and data quality, it highlights the need for governments and the international community to expand our current capacity to provide general information on the impact that conict has on education, children, parents, and schools, to ensure the right to education for millions of children living in conict-affected countries. Such an effort would include specic steps to ensure higher data quality in terms of completeness and accuracy, timeliness, serviceability, and methodological soundness.
Keywords Education for All Conict-affected countries Data quality
International monitoring Human rights violation Right to education
The lack of high-quality data denies millions of children the right to an education. Strange as this statement may sound, it is often proven true in conict-ridden areas. The 2011 Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) identied four failures of the international community that are holding back progress in education and damaging the lives of millions of children (UNESCO 2011b). These are failures of protection, provision, reconstruction, and peace-building. The critical lack of data on education and on human rights violations against children during and after armed conicts, together with the low
P. Montjourides (&)
UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 5255 avenue Decelles, 7th oor, Montreal, QC H3T2B1, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
Education data in conict-affected countries: The fth failure?
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quality of what is available, amounts to a fth failure which, in...