Education systems are paying more attention to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Yet, its integration into Education Sector Plans (ESP) has not kept pace.
One challenge has been the lack of analytical tools to assess how systematically SEL is integrated across education levels and policy cycles. A new publication from the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) offers a practical methodology to fill that gap.
SEL supports learners in developing competencies to manage emotions, build relationships, make responsible decisions, and even improve learning outcomes and labour market outcomes. At the policy and planning level, however, national plans use a range of terms, “life skills”, “soft skills”, and “twenty-first-century skills”, which do not always refer to the same competencies and lack precise definitions.
A framework for assessing SEL in Education Sector Plans
At the system level, the ESP is the most natural starting point. This is the highest-level expression of a government’s education priorities. It provides a framework for strategic and cross-cutting priorities that should guide system-wide action.
When SEL is addressed consistently across education levels and throughout the policy cycle, it can create the conditions for more coherent implementation across areas such as curriculum, teacher education, and assessment. However, systematic approaches for examining SEL at this planning level have been limited. The same terminology can carry different meanings across countries and even within the same document, making it challenging to assess SEL in ESPs systematically across different contexts.
To address these challenges, the new methodology provides a structured way to assess how SEL is integrated into an ESP, generating evidence that can reveal patterns, gaps, and inconsistencies that may not be visible through a light reading of a policy document
