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The paper presents a first global investigation of the longer-term inequality implications of COVID-19 by examining the effect of school closures on the ability of children from different countries and backgrounds to engage in continued learning throughout the pandemic, and their implications for intergenerational mobility in education. The analysis builds on the data from the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility, country-specific results of the learning loss simulation model using weekly school closure information from February 2020 to February 2022, and high-frequency phone survey data collected by the World Bank during the pandemic to assess the incidence and quality of continued learning during periods of school closures across children from different backgrounds. Based on this information, the paper simulates counterfactual levels of educational attainment and corresponding absolute and relative intergenerational educational mobility measures with and without COVID-19 impacts, to arrive at estimates of COVID-19 impacts. The simulations suggest that the extensive school closures and associated learning losses are likely to have a significant impact on both absolute and relative intergenerational educational mobility in the absence of remedial measures. In upper-middle-income countries, the share of children with more years of education than their parents (absolute mobility) could decline by 8 percentage points, with the largest impacts observed in the Latin America region. Furthermore, unequal access to continued learning during school closures across children from households of different socioeconomic backgrounds (proxied by parental education levels) leads to a significant decline in relative educational mobility. [This report was prepared by the World Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice & Education Global Practice.]

This paper presents credible and comparable evidence on intergenerational educational mobility in 53 developing countries using sibling correlation as a measure, and data from 230 waves of Demographic and Health Surveys. It is the first paper to provide estimates of sibling correlation in schooling for a large number of developing countries using high quality standardized data. Sibling correlation is an omnibus measure of mobility as it captures observed and unobserved family and neighborhood factors shared by siblings when growing up together. The estimates suggest that sibling correlation in schooling in developing countries is much higher (average 0.59) than that in developed countries (average 0.41). There is substantial spatial heterogeneity across regions, with Latin America and Caribbean having the highest (0.65) and Europe and Central Asia the lowest (0.48) estimates. Country level heterogeneity within a region is more pronounced. The evolution of sibling correlation suggests a variety of mobility experiences, with some regions registering a monotonically declining trend from the 1970s birth cohort to the 1990s birth cohort (Latin America and the Caribbean and East Asia and Pacific), while others remained trapped in stagnancy (South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa). The only region that experienced monotonically increasing sibling correlation is the Middle East and North Africa. The recent approach of Bingley and Cappellari (2019) is used to estimate the share of sibling correlation due to intergenerational transmission. The estimates show that when the homogeneity and independence assumptions implicit in the standard model of intergenerational transmission are relaxed, the estimated share is much larger. In the sample of countries, on average 74 percent of sibling correlation can be attributed to intergenerational transmission, while there are some countries where the share is more than 80 percent (most in Sub-Saharan Africa). This suggests a dominant role for parents in determining the educational opportunities of their children. Evidence on the evolution of the intergenerational share, however, suggests a declining importance of the intergenerational transmission component in many countries, but the pattern is diverse. In some cases, the trend in the intergenerational share is opposite to the trend in sibling correlation. [This report was prepared by the World Bank Group's Development Research Group, Development Economics.]

The World Bank's focus on foundational skills requires that issues of language and Language of Instruction be brought to the forefront of education policy discussions. Poor Language of Instruction policies harm learning, access, equity, cost-effectiveness, and inclusion. Yet nearly 37% of students in low- and middle-income countries are taught in a language they do not understand. Massive learning improvements are feasible by teaching in a small number of additional languages. The World Bank's first Policy Approach Paper on Language of Instruction offers an indication of the work that will be undertaken to support countries in introducing reforms that will result in more resilient, equitable, and effective systems by promoting teaching in the languages that students and teachers speak and understand best. [The report was edited by John Steinhardt.]

In 2019, 135 million people in 55 countries were in food crises or worse, and 2 billion people did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. COVID-19 has exacerbated these hardships and may result in an additional 121 million people facing acute food insecurity by the end of 2020. Further, since the beginning of the pandemic, an estimated 1.6 billion learners in 199 countries worldwide were affected by school closures, with nearly 370 million children not receiving a school meal in 150 countries. The paper presents the evidence on the potential negative short-term and long-term effects of school meal scheme disruption during COVID-19 globally. It shows how vulnerable the children participating in these schemes are, how coping and mitigation measures are often only short-term solutions, and how prioritizing school re-opening is critical. For instance, it highlights how girls are at greater risk of not being in school or of being taken out of school early, which may lead to poor nutrition and health for themselves and their children. However, well-designed school feeding programmes have been shown to enable catch-up from early growth failure and other negative shocks. As such, once schools re-open, school meal schemes can help address the deprivation that children have experienced during the closures and provide an incentive for parents to send and keep their children, especially girls, in school.

As education systems around the world begin to emerge from COVID-19-related lockdown, governments are facing the difficult decision of when and how to reopen schools, balancing the risks of widespread learning loss -- and the impact this will have on a generation of learners -- with the risks of virus transmission, which are more significant in low-income settings. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Education Development Trust has sought to be highly responsive to the changing needs of educators, system leaders and partners around the world. In doing so, Education Development Trust has developed an evidence base from which new thinking has been developed, called 'Learning Renewed', which reimagines what more effective, equitable and resilient education systems might look like, and how they might better withstand future shocks. This programme of work will be continuing in the coming months, but this report is the first major think piece in this series. In it, a vision for 'flexible reopening' of schools is outlined, supplemented by community-based learning. A 'middle way' is proposed between full closure and full reopening, featuring smaller, tutorial-style classes attending school on a part-time basis, supplemented by community-based learning. The flexible opening model is not without challenges, but it offers the real potential to ensure higher quality education provision for some of the world's most vulnerable children. [For "Maintaining Learning Continuity during School Closure: Community Health Volunteer Support for Marginalised Girls in Kenya. Paper 2 of the Learning Renewed Series," see ED614319.]

Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or somewhere else on the gender/sexuality spectrum (LGBTQI+) are among the diverse student groups in need of extra support and protection in order to succeed in education and reach their full potential. Because they belong to a minority that is often excluded by heteronormative/cisgender people, they are often the targets of physical and psychological harassment. Such discrimination can place them at risk for isolation, reduced academic achievement, and physical and mental harm. This paper provides a brief history of how the LGBTQI+ population has often been misunderstood and labelled in order to understand challenges faced by students who identify as a part of this population. It continues by considering supportive educational policies and programmes implemented from national to local levels across OECD countries. Finally, the paper considers policy gaps and discusses policy implications to strengthen equity and inclusion for LGBTQI+ students.

This paper looks at how countries have mobilized additional resources for education and assesses their impact on access and learning outcomes, using the World Bank's new Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling measure. The paper shows that global spending on education has risen significantly over the past two decades, although spending as a share of gross domestic product has remained relatively unchanged, at about 4.5 percent. However, global trends mask large differences across regions and country income groups. For example, low-income countries recorded the largest increases in terms of the share of GDP spent on education, but the absolute amount they devoted to education remained low compared to other countries. Economic growth has been the main driver of increases in public education spending. Yet, countries that achieved the largest and most rapid spending increases did this through a combination of increases in overall government revenues, a greater prioritization of education in the government budget as well as healthy economic growth. Increases in public education spending did not generally result in major improvements in average education outcomes. Using the available data, the paper shows that a doubling of government spending per child led to an increase in learning-adjusted years of schooling of only half a year. Preliminary findings also show that countries with lower efficiency and spending are expected to get the most from increases in spending in improved education outcomes. The paper concludes by outlining an approach that allows countries to assess their potential for increasing education funding and the expected effects on their education outcomes, based on benchmarks drawing from the data of comparable countries. It also underscores the urgent need to improve data on public education spending and education outcomes, to extend this analysis to cover a wider set of countries and increase the robustness of country-level benchmarks. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

The gender gap reversal in educational attainment is ubiquitous in high-income countries, as well as in a growing share of low- and middle-income countries. To account for the reversal, this paper proposes a theoretical framework in which the interplay between the distributions of academic aptitudes and changes in the net benefits of schooling over time affect the gender composition of those getting more schooling. The framework is used to formulate and test alternative hypotheses to explain the reversal. The paper introduces the tail dynamics hypothesis, which builds on the lower dispersion of academic achievement among females observed empirically. It also studies the mean dynamics hypothesis, which is based on previous literature. Both hypotheses can explain the reversal in this framework. However, the assumption behind the tail hypothesis is better supported by the data. Its predictions are also consistent with gender differences in Scholastic Achievement Test score dynamics and in international test score distributions that cannot be explained by previous theories.

The aim of this research was to assess how the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted overseas school partnerships in 2020, through to January 2021. It was undertaken with teachers involved in the British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme to provide insight into how and why partnerships have been impacted. It also looks at what these teachers perceive to be the challenges that make it difficult for schools to maintain partnerships in a time of global crisis and provides examples of how schools have overcome these challenges. Online questionnaires were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data and were distributed to teachers in UK using a network of British Council Local Advisors. 52 questionnaire responses were collected and analysed to explore the impact of the global pandemic on overseas school partnerships.

This paper illustrates similarities and differences between two international surveys that assess adults' skills: the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity (STEP) survey. In particular, the paper highlights the issues that can arise for researchers interested to jointly analyse the data from the two surveys and to compare their results. The paper finds that, in spite of the many similarities, important differences exist between PIAAC and STEP, both in the way the data are collected, and in the way the proficiency of respondents is estimated. These issues can indeed affect the cross-country comparability of results from the two surveys. There is instead little evidence that the literacy assessment used in the two surveys is not adequate to form a basis for a valid assessment of adults' proficiency on a global scale.

The impacts and cost-effectiveness of adult basic education (ABE) in Sub-Saharan Africa were examined in a review of the new generation of ABE programs in the region. African experts and other international resource persons examined documentation from recent adult literacy, numeracy, and other educational programs targeted toward individuals over the age of 15 years. The study revealed evidence of the following impacts of new-generation ABE programs: (1) after developing literacy skills, women were better able to support their children; (2) participants were empowered to move from being passive subjects to active citizens; (3) participants developed more effective oral and written communication skills; (4) participants with new literacy skills were healthier and raised healthier children; and (5) many participants found more productive livelihoods. The study confirmed the validity of the proposition that many of the region's new-generation ABE programs have been able to successfully address the following criticisms of ABE: (1) weak internal efficiency; (2) poor retention of literacy skills; (3) costs that are too high in relation to outcomes; and (4) adults being too old to learn. The study yielded evidence validating the proposition that ABE programs in Sub-Saharan Africa deserve strong support from the international community. (68 references) (MN)

The number of countries that regularly participate in international large-scale assessments has increased sharply over the past 15 years, with the share of countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment growing from one-fifth of countries in 2000 to over one-third of countries in 2015. What accounts for this increase? This paper explores the evidence for three broad explanations: globalization of assessments, increasing technical capacity for conducting assessments, and increased demand for the microeconomic and macroeconomic data from these assessments. Data were compiled from more than 200 countries for this analysis, for six time periods between 2000 and 2015, yielding more than 1,200 observations. The data cover each country's participation in each of six cycles of PISA as it relates to the country's level of economic development, region, prior experience with assessment, and OECD membership. The results indicate that the odds of participation in PISA are markedly higher for OECD member countries, countries in the Europe and Central Asia region, high- and upper-middle-income countries, and countries with previous national and international assessment experience; the paper also finds that regional assessment experience is unrelated to PISA participation.

Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits higher fertility and lower education than other world regions. Economic and demographic theory posit that these phenomena are linked, with slow fertility decline connected to slow education growth among both adults and children. Using microdata from 33 African countries, this paper documents the co-evolution of adult education, fertility, and child education in female birth cohorts surrounding the onset of the region's fertility transition. Fertility change displays a robust negative relationship with the educational outcomes of adult women but a more nuanced relationship with the educational outcomes of children. As fertility declines, children's grade attainment rises, but their school enrollment does not. The divergence is partly explained by a split in how women's education relates to fertility and child education. Rising women's education predicts declining fertility and rising children's grade attainment, but it is less systematically linked to enrollment change.

Despite the fact that access to education has dramatically increased over the past decade, 57 million children do not currently have access to education, and many of those who do receive limited, low-quality services. Recent estimates have shown that the stagnation of aid and inflation has meant that the funding gap needed to provide basic education for all children and adults has increased from $16 billion to $26 billion. In this context, impacting investing, which uses the tools of commercial capital deployment for social good, has emerged as a potential tool to support education access, equity, and quality. This study maps the emerging landscape of education impact investing, with a view to identify potential areas for intervention by investors. It describes the characteristics of impact investment, including sources of capital, investor profiles and preferences, and areas of investment. Its focus is on investments that broaden access to quality education, especially for the most vulnerable populations. This study, conducted by D. Capital Partners, is part of the Open Society Education Support Program's efforts to identify innovative financing mechanisms and approaches that can increase the availability and allocation of resources for education systems. [The working paper was written by D. Capital Partners.]

This paper examines how higher education can contribute to Africa's transformation, reviews the challenges and priorities for higher education institution building, and introduces a proposed partnership program among African and U.S. higher education institutions to strengthen African higher education. In July of 2007 the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in partnership with Higher Education for Development (HED), and the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) came together to form an initiative to strengthen African higher education capacity in science end technology for development in partnership with U.S. institutions of higher education. At this stage, the Initiative has identified several broad goals and capacity building priorities based on initial research and stakeholder consultations with leaders in Africa and the United States. The primary goals of the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Collaboration Initiative are to enhance and empower higher education institutions in Africa and the U.S. to contribute more effectively to African development and transformation and to increase the competency of U.S. higher education institutions in global affairs related to Africa. (Contains 2 tables and 11 footnotes.)

Secondary education continues to expand rapidly worldwide. Equally important is its diversification. The present paper contends that the diversification of secondary education, while acknowledged, is not well studied. Despite the widespread expansion of secondary education in different world regions, the information available to researchers--and policy makers--for informed comparisons of secondary education systems has been, and remains, rather superficial and limited. The present paper compares the programmatic foci and contents of secondary education systems. It seeks to move beyond existing characterizations of secondary education, by reporting initial results from an International Bureau of Education-sponsored, cross-national study of secondary level programs, tracks and curricula. This study, while mainly limited to academic-oriented tracks, provides an empirical basis for comparing the diversification of secondary education systems. (Contains 12 tables and 14 footnotes.) [Additional funding for this report was provided by: the EFA Global Monitoring Report. An earlier version of this paper was prepared with the collaboration of Massimo Amadio for the publication: "Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies for Young People: A New Agenda for Secondary Education." (Washington DC: World Bank, 2005). This is a slightly revised version of "La diversificacion en la educacion secundaria: Curriculos escolares desde la perspectiva comparada," "Profesorado: Revista de curriculum y formacion del profesorado" 10(1): 1-29, 2006; published by the University of Granada, Spain.]

Studies point to the existence of a global HIV/AIDS emergency among young people. An estimated 6,000 youths a day become infected, an average of one new infection every 14 seconds. The most socially and economically disadvantaged young people appear to be especially at risk of infection, and young women in developing contexts are at the greatest risk. The rate of HIV infection among girls is rapidly outstripping the rate among boys. Girls already account for nearly 60 percent of the infections in sub-Saharan Africa, where the pandemic is most virulent. This paper adopts the hypothesis that this pandemic can be confronted already in early childhood. During the first eight years of life the foundations are set for the capacities, beliefs and attitudes that support individuals later in life. In early childhood, people can therefore more easily learn and integrate appropriate risk avoidance behaviours that may prove useful in the global war on HIV/AIDS. The earliest years may represent a window of opportunity for the successful implementation of HIV/AIDS reduction and prevention programmes. (Contains 190 endnotes.) [This paper was written with Glenda Mac Naughton and Robert Zimmermann.]

This paper discusses routes by which HIV/AIDS money is dispersed and received. It notes that capturing accurate data on actual spending patterns of large donors can be difficult, as there is no uniform tracking or reporting system and much HIV/AIDS money is spent under the broader category of sexual and reproductive health. Most of the information contained in the first two sections is based on main reports that assess the general manner in which HIV/AIDS money as a whole is being distributed. Moving on from who is providing funds for HIV/AIDS initiatives at global level, it tracks sources and flows from governments, through bilateral and multilateral channels. It does not include estimates of household spending on care and treatment, which cannot be realistically quantified. Information follows on top US and European donors, the international business community and pharmaceutical companies. Later sections look into ways HIV/AIDS funding is being spent, with the proviso, as before, that detailed breakdowns of actual spending are rare. The broadest categories are prevention, care and treatment, orphan support and research. Within the field of ECD vis-a-vis HIV/AIDS, funds are being directed through two main areas of concern--prevention of mother-to-child transmission and the care of orphans and vulnerable children. This paper describes major players in these arenas, showing that efforts are being made by a few agencies through the amount of funding directed along these channels is minimal in contrast to other target areas. Fundamental questions are raised about current donor priorities and there follows some discussion touching areas where new or reallocated HIV/AIDS funding could be directed. Obvious gaps in the provision of money for ECD and HIV/AIDS support are then identified along with opportunities to carry out work fill such gaps. The final section examines what it would take to direct more money to support young children living in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Including very young children in HIV/AIDS response strategies will ultimately depend on individual communities devising their own solutions. A further section highlights the critical importance of sharing knowledge through networks that communicate and disseminate evidence-based research findings and project evaluations. In conclusion, this paper calls for advocacy to urge that more funding should go to ECD-HIV/AIDS needs and that current funding approaches to dealing with the crisis need, in addition, to be tracked and evaluated, with a view to promoting more and better ways of meeting the unfulfilled needs of very young children affected by HIV/AIDS. (Contains 2 figures.)

Issues connected with children's welfare and child development are appearing on national and international agendas with greater prominence and frequency. However, the international image of children is becoming increasingly homogeneous and Western-derived, with an associated erosion of the diversity of child contexts. This essay explores the reasons behind such a reduction in diversity, factors that are often considered to be a necessary part of progress. The authors conduct an overview of relevant critiques in the literature of early childhood development (ECD). The paper focuses on international ECD since the UN adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and presents a review of key ECD developments in Africa since the early 1970s. Culture, context, and diversity are central concerns that have led to the development of several different critical streams of work within early childhood care and education during the 1990s. The authors describe some of these "reconceptualising" efforts and identify various areas of promise for future cooperative work. The second part of the essay represents an effort to move beyond the singular image of the "global child." The authors address the need to support and promote local perspectives, questions and issues, and trace the "triple heritage" of ECD in Africa. It is hoped that this section, and the essay in its totality, will contribute to a much-needed expansion of thoughts and ideas about early childhood, both in Africa and the rest of the world, and to an appreciation that diversity is a strength to work with, rather than an obstacle to overcome. The authors conclude that their role is to introduce a "stutter" into a powerful international narrative, thereby creating a space for other ideas and perspectives, in this case from Africa, to be heard and considered. They reiterate the need for the Minority World to help the Majority World in its quest for child well-being, by supporting Africa's efforts to hear its own voices and seek its own way forward. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

The research reviewed and the current responses identified in this paper show that at local, national and international levels there are gaps in programming and policy to engage ideas and mobilise resources to address the needs and experiences of very young children infected/affected by HIV and AIDS. Chapter one identifies some key areas where the lives of very young children are affected by the pandemic. Chapter two reveals that HIV and AIDS and early childhood development (ECD) programming has shown a limited response so far. Finally, in Chapter three, conclusions are drawn that indicate that services are required urgently to support very young children both directly and through the families and communities in which they live. (Lists 9 resources and 11 online resources.)

This is one of a series of Education Papers issued periodically by the Education Department of the Department for International Development. Each paper represents a study or piece of commissioned research on some aspect of education and training in developing countries. This study was commissioned by the Overseas Development Administration (subsequently re-named Department for International Development) in January 1996, as a follow-up to the 1994 pilot project of the African Journals Distribution Program. Each year for a period of 3 years (1996 to 1998), data were collected on the use made of African-published journals in 2 universities in Africa, the University of Ghana (UGL) and the University of Zambia (UNZA). The aims of the survey were to: discover what use is made of African-published journals; evaluate their impact on research; and compare the use made of African-published journals with those published elsewhere. Data were collected by interview/questionnaire with the academic staff in two faculties/schools in each university; an analysis of journals cited in projects, theses and academic staff publications from the same faculties/schools; and a count of journals used in the university libraries. The findings presented in tables in this report are the mean average of the findings of each of the 3 years. In some cases, data were only collected for 1 or 2 of the years and, where appropriate, this is indicated. Findings for UGL and UNZA are given separately. In general, there was no significant difference between the yearly results. The study reveals that, although useful and wanted, African-published journals will not attain their full impact on teaching and research in African universities unless they become more easily accessible and more readily available. Recommendations are given, all in the context of maximizing journal use in African universities and, in particular, the use of journals published in Africa. Data collection instruments are appended. (Contains 13 references.) (AEF)

In 2005, an estimated 48 million children aged 0-18 years--12 percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa--were orphans, and that number is expected to rise to 53 million by 2010. One quarter of all orphans are orphaned because of AIDS, and about 2.6 million children are currently infected with HIV. Untreated, most children born with HIV will die before their fourth birthday, most likely in the first two years of life. UNICEF concludes that, although they represent a smaller percentage of all orphans, the youngest orphans are the least resilient and have the greatest need for physical care and emotional nurturing. Although it is recognised that the focus of support must be on all children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, including those living with sick parents or in extreme poverty, the youngest are often invisible to programme planners, despite their vulnerability. In response to the general awareness of the increasing number of these children, a global initiative to develop national plans of action (NPAs) for these orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), or children affected by HIV and AIDS, has been launched. Between 2003 and 2007, a number of countries did a rapid assessment of the living conditions of children affected by HIV/AIDS and developed plans and costing estimates for appropriate interventions. The plans of 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa were reviewed, comprising all of the high prevalence countries whose NPAs were finalised. The review found that there is a wide range in the developmental appropriateness of the plans within the 17 countries. The evidence suggests that there is a clear and significant trend over time for increased incorporation of developmentally informed perspectives into plans, with the more recent plans having many more components. This change has been influenced by a series of advocacy efforts by the early childhood development (ECD) community and the HIV/AIDS community. However, these plans remain vague and not well defined. More efforts are needed to ensure that they will in fact be implemented, and that there will be sufficient quality in the responses. A number of assumptions were noted in the plans, such as the belief that funds allocated to a family in general will go equally to all members of the family. As a result, the author makes the following recommendations: (1) Evaluate assumptions; (2) Provide adequate funding for the NPAs to include ECD measures; (3) Build the case with evidence; (4) Develop capacity in ECD at the country level; (5) Strengthen the role of the health sector for young children's development and develop new platforms for care; (6) Strengthen structures at local, regional, and national levels for an integrated approach; (7) Support women's rights; and (8) Link the NPAs with other plans in order to effectively implement them. (Contains 4 tables, 5 figures and 6 footnotes.)

The Kuru Development Trust is a development support program that is owned and controlled by the communities in which the organization operates, the majority being San, or Bushmen, communities in the Kalahari region of Africa. Following a holistic approach to development, Kuru is involved in a wide range of activities, including income-generating projects, a savings and loan plan, cultural activities, a training program, and a preschool program. After almost a decade of experience in community development work, the Board members of the Kuru Development Trust wanted to enable their organization to serve a larger geographic area. Recognizing the tremendous problems that are encountered in grassroots community development programs in general, a clear and simple strategy was needed, one that would specifically make space for the cultural aspects of the San people. This working paper describes the efforts that were undertaken to define this strategy. The paper reviews lessons learned by Kuru over the years about community development, and describes the organization's study of different community development programs, particularly the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gilgit, Pakistan. The paper then describes in detail what Kuru decided are crucial aspects of a community development strategy, which it adopted and called "community-owned development" in its move toward becoming a regional support organization. (EV)

The first part of this paper describes some of the basic issues facing education policymakers in Africa, including the introduction of school fees and private provision of schools. Insufficient attention has been paid to how policy advice is implemented, especially to the relation between planning and budgeting. Most African public-sector budgeting procedures and formats have not changed significantly since colonial times, and they cannot cope with translating short- and medium-term adjustment policies into practice. The second part of this paper is concerned with approaches to strengthening and/or reforming the planning and budgeting for education in African countries. With the improvements described, better use can be made of external assistance. The objectives of the suggested changes are to enable countries to use their limited resources better and to avoid stop-go educational policies so that the capability of providing a sustainable and affordable education service can be achieved. In this respect, governments have a crucial role to play in the process of change, even if in some aspects the "market" will succeed where government planning has failed. (Contains 78 references.) (RT)

Within and beyond Africa, it is the public sector much more than the private sector that is the scene of strikes and other forms of disorder, conflict and difficulty. Yet the private sector can be much affected by the public problems. Effects may be simultaneously positive for the private sector and deleterious for the public sector. Although a few higher education works have considered the private sector impacts of general public sector disorder, our Kenyan case study goes much further in uncovering and detailing inter-sectoral dynamics. Compared to the (sparse) literature on higher education inter-sectoral dynamics, it extends consideration from Latin America to Africa, from elite to other private higher education, and from challenges facing public universities to ensuing challenges facing private universities. It also extends consideration of strikes to the faculty side. Faculty strikes have been less common than student strikes in higher education, but Africa stands out for experiencing both strike forms. We treat faculty strikes as a prominent case of the wider phenomenon of disorder, conflict, or difficulty. The ramifications of public disorder do not stop at one-shot impacts on private higher education. On the contrary, the Kenyan case reveals dynamic and multiple, sometimes sequential, public-private interactions. The public sector does not haplessly suffer and the private sector does not inevitably gain. Both face challenges as the other sector shifts strategies and as macro political and economic contexts change. The case of Kenyan faculty strikes tells us much about unfolding realities in African higher education and much about private-public dynamics more widely. Whether in regard to particular private gains or generally in regard to multiple public-private shifts, the case provides insights into significant conceptual and empirical questions about inter-sectoral impacts--whether in higher education or beyond. Public and Private University Enrolment, 1994, 2004 is appended. (Contains 2 tables and 23 notes.)

A multinational, multidisciplinary team examined the impact of globalization on education, training, and small and medium sized enterprise development in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The study focused on the following issues: developing a learner-led competitiveness approach; building learning enterprises; education for microenterprises and macroeconomic growth; and training for self-employment and competitiveness. The study documented the importance of learning-led competitiveness and identified obstacles to development of learning enterprises in all three countries. The following are among the 12 recommendations offered to national governments and international agencies with development concerns: (1) insert learning-led competitiveness into development debates; (2) understand the implications of globalization better; (3) address the range of barriers to development of learning enterprises; (4) consider interenterprise linkages and the role of learning therein; (5) place learning-led competitiveness at the heart of small enterprise development policy; (6) broaden the universal primary education vision; (7) construct a curriculum for competitiveness; (8) improve public training's ability to support competitive self-employment; (9) empower training providers to be more market responsive; and (10) emphasize skills transfer from large to small firms. (The bibliography lists 139 references. Brief profiles and addresses of the research team members and a list of project papers are appended.) (MN)

Children in Africa starve to death or fail to thrive and achieve their full potential as a result of social problems that have their roots in both national and international issues. In many African countries, parents are unable to feed their children because farmers no longer grow enough food and prefer to cultivate cash crops that are exported to foreign countries to service debts to rich industrial nations. This paper recommends a multilevel and integrated approach to defining and solving the problem of child survival and child development in Africa. The following issues are explored: (1) the development of an agenda for dealing with the fundamental issue of Africa's underdevelopment that is in the best interest of Africans and their children; (2) the promotion of child welfare through the empowerment of families and communities; (3) the use of the African concepts of childhood and socialization, and the strong emotions and expectations that Africans have for their children, as the bases for any campaigns or programs for promoting child welfare and development; (4) the empowerment of Africans by means of technical information; and (5) the creation of public awareness in Africa, as a result of which the general public, communities that are at risk, and various other national and international groups will become informed about the issues and problems of child survival and child development in Africa. (SM)

This paper describes the accounting profession, and the education and training of accountants and accounting technicians in Sub-Saharan Anglophone Africa. The report reviews professional accounting examinations and degrees, education, practical training, and continuing professional education. The paper highlights the weaknesses in accounting education and training, and recommends measures to strengthen these areas, including the development of national and regional accounting bodies, the establishment of national accounting qualifications at both fully qualified and technician levels, and the strengthening of teaching institutions. Contains 11 references, 8 annexes, 25 boxes, and 12 tables. (Author)

This study found that the abuse of girls in the coeducational schools where the research took place was widespread and took the form of aggressive sexual behavior, intimidation and physical assault by older boys, sexual advances by male teachers, and corporal punishment and verbal abuse by both female and male teachers (on boys as well as girls). Younger girls in particular were fearful of male sexual advances or intimidation. An unsettling and sometimes violent environment is neither conducive to girls' learning nor to their forming mature relations with boys (with implications for the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents). Girls in the single-sex school were not protected from sexual advances outside the school. Male sexual aggression in schools appears to be institutionalized and considered as normal. Girls respond on the whole with resignation and passivity. Schools are themselves complicit in the abuse in that they fail to discipline perpetrators (whether pupils or teachers), deny that abuse exists, and foster an authoritarian culture where the behavior of teachers cannot be questioned. School-based abuse is a reflection of abuse found elsewhere--in the home and community. "Sugar daddies" in particular seek to lure girls into sexual relations with gifts and money. This widespread abuse goes unchecked because of the low status accorded women by society, where men invade women's private space with impunity and girls are socialized to expect subordination to men in adult life. Lack of will to address the issue by government bodies helps to perpetuate and condone it. Eliminating abuse will require a significant change in school culture, and in the attitudes and behavior of teachers, school heads, officials, parents, and pupils, both boys and girls. Appended are: Numbers Interviewed; Tables (6); Extracts from the Interviews from Boys and Girls; Teachers' Definition of Abuse; Pupils' Workshops and Teachers' Workshops. (Author/RT)

This paper reviews a number of educational policy statements in East African countries, on issues ranging from combining education with production at the primary level to the financing of higher education. An assessment is made as to how successful the policies have been in achieving their original intention. The paper's conclusion is that policy outcomes fall far short of matching expectations, mainly because of insufficient, or the absence of, implementation. The reason most educational policies are not implemented is that they are vaguely stated and the financing implications are not always worked out. Another reason for failure is that the content of a policy is based on an empirically unsustained theoretical relationship between instruments and outcomes. The paper makes a plea for the formulation of more concrete, feasible and implementable policies based on documented cause-effect relationships. (Author/DB)