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This book on education in South-East Asia is the very first of its kind to comprehensively cover and discuss the education systems and issues in all the countries in the region--the ten member nations of the Association of South-East Asian nations (ASEAN) plus Timor Leste. The eleven chapters on country case studies are written by education country experts and give the readers an overview of each country's education system, while also highlighting issues currently significant to each system. There are also thematic chapters on selected issues reckoned to be significant in the region such as: gender, education and development; higher education; language policy; quality assurance; and sustainable development. This book is a significant contribution to academic literature in this field in that the South-East Asian region is, in general, one of the leading zones of the developing world, containing within it advancing economies, such as Brunei and Malaysia, and a key global hub, Singapore. Even the poorer countries are showing signs of significant advance. The region also contains the most populous Islamic country in the world, Indonesia, and examples of the educational legacies of a variety of forms of European and American colonialism. The book is therefore a source of reference to better understand education in a region where diverse religious, political and cultural aspects are found and interrelate in a form of serious co-operation. Contents of this book include: (1) Introduction (Colin Brock & Lorraine Pe Symaco); (2) The Education System of Brunei Darussalam (Omar Haji Khalid); (3) The Education System in Cambodia: Making Progress under Difficult Circumstances (Martin Hayden & Richard Martin); (4) Education Reforms in Indonesia (Assad L. Baunto); (5) Education in the Lao People's Democratic Republic: Confluence of History and Vision (Richard Noonan); (6) Education in Malaysia: Development and Transformations (Siow Heng Loke & Chang Lee Hoon); (7) Education in Myanmar: Opportunity for Limited Engagement (Richard Martin); (8) Philippines: Education for Development? (Lorraine Pe Symaco); (9) Singapore: Schools for the Future? (Jason Tan); (10) Timor-Leste: Building a Post-Conflict Education (Bob Boughton); (11) Thailand: Educational Equality and Quality (Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai); (12) Vietnam as an Outlier: Tradition and Change in Education (Pham Lan Huong & Gerald W. Fry); (13) Aspects of Gender and Education in South-East Asia (Colin Brock & Pei-Tseng Jenny Hsieh); (14) Higher Education in South-East Asia: Achievement and Aspiration (Anthony Welch); (15) Education and Language Policies in South-East Asian Countries (Keith Watson); (16) Quality Assurance in South-East Asian Higher Education (Somwung Pitiyanuwat); and (17) For Bulls and Bears Alike: Education as Investment in Sustainable Development (Mikko Cantell & Derek Elias).

The chapters in this volume do not represent the whole of the Middle East and North Africa, as such a collection would have been too large for one volume. Rather, the selection here is intended to present different perspectives on a range of educational issues, relevant to a particular focus or country, or common to a number of countries in the area. There is no overarching theme beyond that which is common to most of the countries in this area; such as modernity versus tradition; the spread of education effecting sociological changes--most pronounced in the rural and tribal areas; the changing fortunes and roles of women; the aspiration and expectation of youth; and the state having become the major player in providing education. These are all shared by most of the countries represented here. Contents include: (1) Introduction (Colin Brock & Lila Zia Levers); (2) The Qur'an and Women's Education: patriarchal interpretations of Sura 4:34 and their unreading by educated Muslim women (Barbara Freyer Stowasser); (3) The Impact of Educational Empowerment on Women in the Arab World (Serra Kirdar); (4) Women, Higher Education and Social Transformation in the Arab Gulf (Sally Findlow); (5) Besieging the King's Tower? En/Gendering Academic Opportunities in the Gulf Arab States (Andre Elias Mazawi); (6) Religious Education of Muslim and Non-Muslim Schoolchildren in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Golnar Mehran); (7) Aspects of Bilingualism in Iranian Kurdish Schoolchildren (Iran Mohammadi-Heuboeck); (8) Israel's Education System: equality of opportunity--from nation building to neoliberalism (Yossi Dahan & Yossi Yonah); (9) The Moment of Education: the politics of education among the Negev Bedouin, Israel (Richard Ratcliffe); (10) The Struggle for Palestinian National Education Past and Present (Bilal Fouad Barakat); (11) Formal Schooling in Morocco: the hopes and challenges of the current educational reform (Abdelkader Ezzaki); and (12) Computerising Turkey's Schools (Ayse Kok). Background information on contributing authors is also provided.

Expectations for teachers tend to be high throughout the world, and often teachers are blamed for the ills of society. This volume highlights the predicament of teachers and the state of teacher education in widely differing locations and situations. After an Introduction (Colin Brock), papers include: (1) "The Significance of Teacher Education for International Educational Development" (Roger Iredale); (2) "Is There a Crisis in Teacher Education?" (Witold Tulasiewicz); (3) "The James Report and What Might Have Been in English Teacher Education" (James Porter); (4) "Teacher Education, Gender and Development" (Lynn Davies); (5) "The Implication of Theory for a New Masters Programme for Teacher Educators in Pakistan" (Barbara Jaworski); (6) "Teacher Education in Pakistan: Problems and Initiatives" (Humala Khalid); (7) "Changing Patterns of Teacher Education in Sierra Leone" (Colin Brock); (8) "Teacher Education in South East Asia: Prospects for a North-South Dialogue with a Difference" (Elwyn Thomas). Each chapter contains references. (ND)

The patchy implementation of the 1944 Education Act because of the poor post-war economy meant that there was a diverse education system divided along lines that corresponded to social class and religion. Nevertheless, the political agenda of the period was one of achieving ‘meritocracy' (hence the introduction of ‘ability tests' that would replace parental ability to pay as a criterion of receiving secondary education). The principle of ‘equality of educational opportunity' was shared by both political parties at the time. The 1945 general education returned the Labour Party to power under the leadership of Clement Atlee. Although not its first taste of government, it was Labour's first real opportunity to push its social agenda. However, in the immediate post-war context of economic reconstruction, the first social sector priority had to be the creation of the National Health Service. After all, the 1944 Education Act had just been passed and had to be implemented, a process which took the remainder of the 1940s. Tawney's ideal of the common, non-selective school, which had become known as ‘the comprehensive school', had to wait for another day. Such a unified secondary school had already had its supporters, and was first introduced in 1953 in Anglesey, North Wales, where the predominantly rural population did not, in its distribution, lend itself to the logistics of the selective system. Local politics was also conducive, as with LEAs still having sufficient power in the 1950s, some Labour authorities in London and other major cities moved to the construction of comprehensive schools, although the fact that some were still single-sex seemed to belie such a title! In most localities, however, the tripartite system of grammar, secondary modern, and technical schools prevailed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, supported by the Conservative government from 1951 to 1964. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]