Democratisation as set out in the constitution of South Africa is based on the ideal of devolving power and authority to community level. Running parallel with the ideal of democratisation and devolution of powers are the imperatives of redress, educational transformation and restructuring, to be managed by central government and provincial…

This paper analyses community participation in Cambodian schools, looking at the spaces for participation and the cluster school system strategy adopted by the royal government to decentralise education. While institutionalised spaces of participation are relatively new, Cambodian communities have traditionally supported schools despite 25 years…

This paper explores progress in designing and implementing privatisation and decentralisation reforms in the education sector, which have become increasingly advocated by international agencies over the past two decades. Privatisation can be considered one of the organisational forms of decentralisation--indicating a transfer of authority and…

This paper critically reviews the ways in which the policy of education decentralisation in post-apartheid South Africa results in both forms of inclusion and new forms of exclusion. Drawing on a two-year research project carried out in three provinces in South Africa, it shows how in the governance of schools, new forms of exclusion are being…

This paper explores private educational provision in the context of the decentralisation of education management in Indonesia. It provides an overview of the extent and nature of private provision and explores the nature of the interrelationship between private and government schools. The predominance of private provision at secondary level,…

Decentralisation is often expected to improve democratic participation and empowerment, and improve government responsiveness to local needs. International experience demonstrates that striking the right balance between centralisation and decentralisation remains highly challenging, and that developing appropriate institutional capacity to…

Based mainly on a study of newspaper adverts for qualifications and tuition courses in Sri Lanka over a period from 1965 to 2000, this paper describes a decentralisation of control over the supply of qualifications. It is argued that this has occurred not through a deliberate policy mechanism to decentralise qualifications, but rather by default,…

At the time of the development of the new curriculum in Slovenia, international comparative data providing information on the performance of Slovene students as compared to other relevant countries were available from a limited number of assessments. For this reason, it was even more important that additional international comparisons were…

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to introduce the theme: "Responding to the educational needs of the young to bring about globalization with a human face," which formed part of the discussions at the 47th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, Switzerland, 8-11 September 2004. The second is to provide a…

The purpose of this article is to look at the experience of Bhutan in using examinations as a tool for assessing and systematically monitoring the health of the education system. The strategy in both school-based and nationwide examinations is three-fold: (1) monitoring of standards for the formally prescribed national curriculum across the…

This is the first in a series of articles that address the use of educational indicators to inform policy. The aim of the series is to provide an in-depth discussion of a single indicator or set of educational indicators from a data-user perspective. Each article will present the most recent cross-national comparisons and provide practical…

The Tunisian education system, like that of many other Southern nations of intermediate wealth, finds itself pulled in opposing directions. While quantitative advances at different levels of instruction have been easily achieved, a reorientation towards qualitative matters is nowadays more than ever necessary. This article analyses developments…

While education is a key to any development strategy, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the master key that can transform the world of work and the economy, alleviate poverty, save the environment and improve the quality of life. As students are being prepared to become efficient, skillful and competent workers, they can at…

The aim of this study is to describe and to explore the main factors affecting the performance of South African pupils in the mathematics test of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R). The first objective was to describe the performance of the pupils in the mathematics test, the pupils' proficiency in English, as…

In October 2004, UNESCO hosted an International Experts Meeting on "Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability" as a 5-year review of progress since the second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999. Discussions led to the conclusion that a new paradigm of both…