This article highlights some of the key issues in current discussions around curriculum, such as values education, inclusive education, competency-based approaches, soft and hard skills, and scientific and digital culture. It starts with the assumption that quality education for all is necessary to achieve social justice, and it looks at curricula…

This article considers lessons learnt through involvement in several assessment projects. Early experience, in university work and in school examinations, led to an opportunity to help establish a novel system of assessment for an innovative school curriculum. Different lessons were then learnt from work on a national survey of school…

It is often assumed that the advent of digital technologies requires fundamental change to the curriculum and to the teaching and learning approaches used in schools around the world to educate this generation of "digital natives" or the "net generation". This article analyses the concepts of 21st-century skills and critical…

This is a critical reflection on the results of a study that the French International Center for Pedagogical Studies (CIEP) piloted in 2008-2009 in five sub-Saharan African countries which were implementing curriculum reforms adopting the "competency-based approach". The article refers to a seminar on this process and the ideas expressed…

This article looks at the role that teacher training can play in implementing curriculum reform, specifically in studies conducted in French-speaking Africa by researchers at the UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development. After reviewing the effects that reform has on the school as an organization, it establishes a link between the concept of change…

In the context of the curriculum reform in Niger, the authors describe the process of developing a situations bank which focusses on everyday life situations in Niger. The bank plays a central role in the formulation of new study programmes guided by the so-called "situated" approach. The authors also describe various issues that arose…

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the academic aims of curriculum reforms and the teaching roles related to them are similar, but non-teaching roles are likely to vary across countries. Taking an organization studies perspective, this article compares teachers' roles in reform along the Botswana-South Africa border. Though these teachers share language and…

This exploratory analysis of inclusive education issues in Latin America and the Caribbean is based on a series of documents produced in the framework of the organization of the 48th session of the International Conference on Education, in particular the National Reports presented at the Conference as well as country reports presented at…

The AIDS epidemic presents a complex of issues that require global answers, involving entire societies. The only sustainable solution is to include all sectors of society in a multidisciplinary collaboration, within which the formal education system plays a key role in delivering a comprehensive response to the disease at the national level.…

Despite significant global efforts to mitigate HIV and AIDS, the epidemic continues to be a serious problem to the human race. It has claimed many productive individuals, including teachers, administrators, and parents, and has left millions of traumatized and orphaned children. Unfortunately, few teachers are prepared to take on the extra tasks…

The UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE), through the Community of Practice (COP) in Curriculum Development, organized eight Regional Preparatory Workshops on Inclusive Education in 2007. These workshops had the overall goal of initiating a participatory, consultative process in order to highlight key issues and challenges regarding…

Although it seems obsolete to analyse and criticise a curriculum from the point-of-view of "subject-centredness", this is the situation we face during the Chinese basic education curriculum reform. This article gives a brief introduction to the ideas behind the development and practice of the Chinese curriculum reform and the progress of the…

The intention of this article is to present the way in which a proposal was put forward for a national basic curriculum for the lower level of secondary education in Guatemala, within a general curricular reform of the education system. In this process, the International Bureau of Education and UNESCO's national office in the country provided…

The article begins by drawing a distinction between the concepts of "curriculum" and "programme of study", and goes on to show that curriculum reform involves much more than simply rewriting programmes of study. The reforms that are presently sweeping across education systems throughout the world qualify, in many cases, as true paradigm…

The article addresses the issue of possible curriculum models in post-conflict countries, taking as an example the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1996 and 2004. Following the Dayton agreement, the education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided between 13 ministries administering different Bosnian, Serb and Croat cantons. Despite…