Feb. 07 2024
Source Page: Scotland's International Education StrategyFound: Scotland's International Education Strategy
Feb. 07 2024
Source Page: Scotland's International Education StrategyFound: Scotland's International Education Strategy
Found: Higher education around the world: Comparing international approaches and performance with the UK
Jan. 31 2024
Source Page: The Scottish Government International Development Fund: designing a new International Development inclusive education programmeFound: Scottish Government International Development Fund: designing a new International Development inclusive education
Written Evidence Jan. 30 2024
Inquiry: Financial EducationFound: FE0070 - Financial Education Core Partner Group Written Evidence
Mar. 07 2024
Source Page: International Women’s Day 2024: UK Statement to the OSCEFound: This focuses on the challenges caused by the alarming lack of global financing for gender equality measures
Nov. 04 2008
Source Page: Health is global: proposals for a UK government-wide strategy. 64 p.Found: Health is global: proposals for a UK government-wide strategy. 64 p.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to help ensure more of the global population have access to education in their native language.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK prioritises foundational learning (literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills) for all children across our education programmes. This recognises that foundational learning is crucial to achieving higher order skills and reaping the full benefits of education. We are focused on delivering evidence-based interventions. A key part of the evidence on what works in literacy is ensuring that children learn in their mother tongue. We therefore advocate for the teaching of basic early education in children's native language. We encourage countries to delay the transition to another language of instruction to later in children's education once they have secured foundational learning.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the effectiveness of UK aid programmes in (a) reducing poverty, (b) increasing literacy rates and (c) increasing life expectancies.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The International Development White Paper sets out the UK's agenda to re-energise progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, including the central aim of eliminating extreme poverty. To this end, the UK aims to spend at least 50 per cent of our bilateral ODA in the Least Developed Countries.
The FCDO has developed two new programmes that will measure and assess literacy rates, among other objectives. The Scaling Access and Learning in Education programme will help transform the effectiveness of education spending in low- and lower middle-income countries and improve learning outcomes, including on literacy. The Data for Foundational Learning Programme will help track children's learning outcomes globally; generate more learning data nationally; and ensure these data are used.
We are making good progress against the Global Health Framework, which outlines the UK's work on Global Health to support a positive impact on health and wellbeing and thus life expectancy. For example, we announced £5 million of additional funding to TB Alliance to support more effective drug resistant treatment with fewer side effects and £370 million to strengthen global health security at United Nations General Assembly September 2023.
Furthermore, the FCDO is committed to improving the effectiveness of all UK aid. FCDO's Programme Operating Framework maximises the impact of aid through consideration of economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity. Programmes undergo an annual review of effectiveness, using a results framework. These are published to the Development Tracker website (https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk), which further supports aid effectiveness by providing information to inform other donors spending decisions.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what discussions he has had with international counterparts on the content of education funded through multilateral organisations; and whether that funding includes provisions for teaching maths and science to girls.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is committed to supporting foundational learning (literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional skills) for all. Foundational learning is critical for achieving higher order skills and effective understanding of STEM subjects from an early age. The UK is a leading donor to the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait and uses its influence on their governing boards to ensure foundational learning and education for marginalised girls are priorities. It is not possible to directly track the use of UK core funding to multilateral organisations, such as UNICEF and the World Bank.