Profiles
Related Innocenti Project(s):
Mathieu Brossard
Chief, Education
Matt has been appointed as Chief of Education of the UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti in July 2019. He joined UNICEF in 2012 as Senior Education Advisor at UNICEF Headquarters where he was leading the Education Systems, Innovations, Data and Evidence for Results (SIDER) team, responsible for leading on strategy development (including the UNICEF Global Education Strategy 2019-2030: Every Child learns); innovations; evidence and analytical tools for policy dialogue at country level. Before joining UNICEF, Matt served at the World Bank as Senior Education Economist (2006-2012), at UNESCO/IIEP/Pole de Dakar as Education Policy Analyst (2001-2006) and at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics as Education Statistician (1998-2001). Matt is a graduate of the French National School of Statistics and Economics and also holds a “Diplôme d’Études Approfondies” in Sociology from Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po).
Publications
Publication
Augmenter la Représentation des Femmes Dans la Direction des Écoles: Une voie prometteuse pour améliorer l’apprentissage
De nouvelles études montrent une association positive entre les femmes dirigeantes d'école et les résultats des élèves. Certaines études suggèrent que les femmes dirigeantes scolaires sont plus susceptibles que leurs homologues masculins d'adopter des pratiques de gestion efficaces pouvant contribuer à l'amélioration des résultats. Cependant, les femmes restent largement sous-représentées aux postes de direction des écoles, en particulier dans les pays à revenu faible ou intermédiaire.
Cette publication présente de nouvelles connaissances sur l'association entre les femmes dirigeantes d'école et les résultats scolaires, et attire l'attention sur la sous-représentation des femmes dans les postes de direction d'école. Elle souligne la nécessité de poursuivre les recherches sur le genre et la direction des écoles afin d'identifier les politiques et les pratiques qui peuvent être mises en œuvre pour augmenter la représentation des femmes et étendre les pratiques de gestion de haute qualité adoptées par les femmes dirigeantes à un plus grand nombre d'écoles afin d'améliorer les résultats scolaires de tous les enfants.
Publication
Increasing Women’s Representation in School Leadership: A promising path towards improving learning
Emerging evidence shows a positive association between women school leaders and student performance. Some studies suggest women school leaders are more likely than their male counterparts to adopt effective management practices that may contribute to improved outcomes. However, women remain largely underrepresented in school leadership positions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
This brief presents emerging insights on the association between women school leaders and education outcomes and draws attention to women’s underrepresentation in school leadership roles. It highlights the need for further research on gender and school leadership to identify policies and practices that can be implemented to increase women’s representation and scale high-quality management practices adopted by women leaders to more schools to improve education outcomes for all children.
Publication
Are Children Really Learning? Exploring foundational skills in the midst of a learning crisis
Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were serious questions about whether children were actually learning. With widespread school closures and other disruptions to the education system brought about by the pandemic, the learning crisis has escalated to new heights. As the pandemic enters its third year, 23 countries – home to around 405 million schoolchildren – are yet to fully open schools, with many schoolchildren at risk of dropping out. Over the past two years nearly 147 million children missed more than half of their in-person schooling, amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning. Children have to get back to the classroom, but changes are needed to ensure that they really learn, starting with the foundational basics of reading and numeracy.
This report offers unique insight into the extent of the learning crisis by providing an in-depth picture of which children are most at risk of not acquiring foundational learning skills. The analysis of 32 low- and middle-income countries and territories uses newly released data to examine the equity perspectives of the crisis, exploring learning outcomes among different subgroups of children, with a focus on the most vulnerable.
Publication
Where are we on Education Recovery? Taking the Global Pulse of a RAPID Response
Two years into the COVID-19 global pandemic, education has been seriously disrupted. In response to this crisis, the global priority remains to ensure every child is supported so they can return to school and catch up on lost learning.
Recognizing the need to accelerate education recovery with urgent, at-scale action, this joint report by UNICEF in partnership with UNESCO and the World Bank highlights staggering levels of learning loss globally and takes stock of the measures being taken by countries to mitigate learning losses as schools reopen. Based on a survey of 122 UNICEF country and fundraising offices administered in early March 2022, the report presents the importance of and progress made in five key actions for education recovery, the RAPID:
Reach every child and retain them in school;
Assess learning levels;
Prioritize teaching the fundamentals;
Increase catch-up learning and progress beyond what was lost; and
Develop psychosocial health and well-being so every child is ready to learn.
Blogs
Blog
Can more women in school leadership improve learning outcomes?
The global education community has long focused on girls’ education and finding pathways to increasing girls’ access and retention in school, improving learning, and supporting girls’ holistic wellbeing. While the positive effects of female teachers on girls’ education have been well-researched, one piece often missing from gender discussions in education is school leadership – and the noticeable absence of women school leaders around the world.
Blog
Can we count on parents to help their children learn at home?
This blog shows the disparities across and within countries in children’s reading skills and looks at the associations between parental engagement and learning, using the data from the MICS 6 new modules on foundational learning skills and on parental engagement.
Blog
Lessons from COVID-19: Getting remote learning right
The massive scale of school closures has laid bare the uneven distribution of technology to facilitate remote learning and the lack of preparedness of systems to support teachers, and caregivers in the successful and safe use of technology for learning.
Blog
How involved are parents in their children’s learning? MICS6 data reveal critical insights
With school closures due to the global COVID-19 pandemic affecting an estimated 1.58 billion children in more than 180 countries, the importance of parental involvement in education has suddenly and dramatically increased.
Journal articles
Journal Article
Education response to COVID 19 pandemic, a special issue proposed by UNICEF: Editorial review
Events
Event
Pathways toward an education that leaves no one behind
Ahead of the G20 Education Ministers meeting and informed by ODI’s upcoming publication, ‘Pathways towards quality primary education: improving completion and learning outcomes’, we bring together a group of experts to examine successful reforms that have brought vulnerable children to the forefront of policy implementation and consider what is needed to push the agenda forward. Speakers:Susan NicolaiChair – Senior Research Fellow, Equity and Social Policy, ODI and Director of Research, EdTech HubRukmini BanerjiPanellist – CEO, Pratham Education FoundationMatt BrossardPanellist – Chief, READ (Research on Education And Development) Unit, UNICEF InnocentiShem BodoPanellist – Senior Programs Officer, Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)José Manuel RochePanellist – Policy Advisor, Senior Analyst and Evaluator in International Development, ConsultantMoizza Binat SarwarPanellist – Research Fellow, Equity and Social Policy, ODI
