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Education

Many OGP governments work to make education information more transparent, to directly engage citizens in improving quality, and to ensure appropriate accountability.

Overview | Recommendations | Partners | Data | Documents | Commitments | Recent Posts

Overview

Globally, 387 million children of primary school age (56 percent) and 230 million adolescents of lower secondary school age (61 percent), do not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and math. This learning gap not only limits these children’s opportunities, but also the growth and prosperity of whole countries. 

Education is one of the most popular policy areas within OGP. Since 2011, 63 OGP members have made over 200 commitments on education ranging from transparency in the delivery of school lunches to ensuring the allocation of funds for school repairs. The most popular commitments focus on open education resources, and include IT tools and platforms that make teaching materials publicly available.

OGP members have also strengthened parent-teacher-administrator oversight at the local level to improve school performance and value for money. 

While this progress is encouraging, more inclusive and sustained outcomes require investments that deliver on transparency, accessibility and accountability that ensures responsive systems.  

According to OGP’s 2019 Global Report, two areas where OGP countries can invest more are greater community engagement opportunities and improved local level data systems.


Recommendations

  • Codify rules and regulations on education to ensure standardization and good service delivery.  Honduras translated its newly overhauled education law into rules and regulations over the course of two action plans. In Spain, the procomun platform now offers open access to all educational materials developed with public funds.
  • Empower students and parents to audit and report on school performance, supplies, and management.  The Kigoma Ujiji Municipal Council regularly publishes data on school funding and expenditures, student and staff numbers, school labor needs, school building infrastructure and test results to help identify and target unequipped and underperforming schools. 
  • Transparently fund schools and apply open contracting and procurement principles to school funding. A civil society organization leveraged the Nigerian government’s international pledges on open contracting to gain access to information and improve procurement processes across primary education services. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, an online platform allows citizens to access information and monitor the development of ongoing education infrastructure projects.
  • Start a dialogue with local leaders, governments, and teachers and administrators. In Mongolia, the government invited parents, teachers, and students to express their concerns and work with local government to improve conditions in school dormitories and classrooms.

Resources

  1. Open Government in Education - UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning

    How can open government enable countries to plan education in a more reactive, efficient, and innovative way? Explore IIPE-UNESCO’s research…

    2022, Outbound Link, Web Page

  2. Open Budgeting: Learning from the Open School Platform in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine

    This case study from UNESCO's ETICO program looks at how open budgeting is used in Ukraine, focusing on the Open…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  3. Open government in education case studies

    Read through seven case studies on open government in education conducted across the world by UNESCO's IIEP program.

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  4. Policy Brief: From Open Policy-Making to Crowd-Sourcing

    Read this policy brief on open policy-making and crowd-sourcing from UNESCO IIEP's research project on open government in education.

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  5. Policy Brief: Open Contracting

    Read this policy brief on open contracting from UNESCO IIEP's research project on open government in education.

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  6. Global Report – Education

    Much progress has been made on opening up school data, but achieving sustainable and equitable outcomes require going beyond transparency…

    2019, Document, PDF

  7. Education Fact Sheet

    Snapshot of global progress and member-level examples of education reform in OGP

    2019, Document, PDF

  8. 2017 Global Education Monitoring Report: Accountability in Education

    The thirteenth annual Global Education Monitoring Report came out recently, and it synthesizes the state of the art of accountability…

    2017, Perspective, Web Page

  9. CheckMySchool (CMS) Initiative: Open Governance through Stories of Change

    This blog is part of a series on how open government can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The…

    2016, , Web Page


Commitments


OGP Global Report Data

The data below is drawn from the 2019 OGP Global Report. You can view and learn more about the report here.

These are members making OGP commitments to improve their performance in the respective policy area. As members that have demonstrated political commitment through OGP, the next step is ensuring that implemented commitments have maximal impact.

Key
Indicates that member has a starred commitment in this policy area.


Recent Content

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Faces of Open Government: Muriel Poisson

Meet Muriel Poisson from UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). Muriel has been at the forefront of research and initiatives that explore the vital links between open government practices and transparency within the educational system and on this International Day of Education, she shares her insights into the intersection between education and open government. 

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OGP Fact Sheets

Explore global progress and member-level examples of open government work in each of the selected policy areas and various regions.

Show More
Open Government Partnership