The Education Support Program (ESP) and its network partners support education reform in countries in transition, combining best practice and policy to strengthen open society values. ESP works to facilitate change in education and national policy development. Support is focused in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, South Asia and Southern Africa.

ESP has offices in Budapest, London, and New York and previously had an office in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where it was known as Open Society Education Programs-South East Europe (OSEP-SEE). The Budapest office now oversees work in South Eastern Europe as well. Past work of OSEP-SEE can be accessed at www.osepsee.net.

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 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 schools 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 and school 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.

The Education Support Program's work is overseen by its General Education Sub-Board. Members include:

Thomas Alexander
Senior Research Fellow
Department of Educational Studies
University of Oxford
Oxford, England

Zuhra Halimova
Executive Director
Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation-Tajikistan
Dushanbe, Tajikistan

David Hawker
Director General for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills
Welsh Assembly Government
Cardiff, Wales
United Kingdom

Tuende Kovacs-Cerovic
State Secretary
Ministry of Education
Belgrade, Serbia

Antonio Maciel (ex officio)
Acting President
Our Pledge

Mary Metcalfe
Head of the Wits School of Education
Wits University
Johannesburg, South Africa

Penina Mlama
Executive Director
Campaign for Female Education (Camfed)
Tanzania

William Newton-Smith
Chair
Open Society Institute Higher Education Sub-Board
London, England

Nafisa Shah
Member of Parliament
National Assembly of Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan

Laura Cziszter
Secretary to the Board
Email: lcziszter@osi.hu

The Education Support Program made significant progress in advancing educational justice in 2007 by working to reduce global education disparities and promoting access to education for marginalized children. The program began to expand beyond postsocialist countries in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe, and Mongolia, and into Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Turkey.

Read more about Education Support Program 2007 activities.