In 1999 Thailand passed an ambitious national educational law that paved the way for major reforms in teaching, learning and school management. Despite the ambitious vision of reform embedded in this law, recent studies suggest that implementation progress has been slow, uneven, and lacking deep penetration onto classrooms. Carried out ten years…

The paper explores the effects of rapid increases in gender parity in primary schooling in Bangladesh and Malawi on gender inequities in schools and communities. Based on an analysis of comparative case studies of marginalized communities, we argue that educational initiatives focused on achieving gender parity provide limited evidence that girls'…

A randomized evaluation of a 9-month comprehensive math program for preprimary Bangladeshi school children addressed skills such as numbers, measurement, shapes, patterns, and space. Nine schools were randomly selected for the Intervention group and nine for the Control group, with 12 children randomly selected from each to participate in testing.…

This article discusses the theoretical relationships between inclusion in education and social justice. It draws on Martha Nussbaum's use of the capability approach is given as one of the few philosophical and political theories that places disability/impairment in the social justice debate. The article goes on to present findings from the initial…

Headteachers working under conditions of severe hardship in Africa face tremendous challenges, often exacerbated by a sense of hopelessness and lack of agency to effect improvements within their school. This paper focuses on notions of leadership agency and "social justice" within an African educational context, with a specific focus on the school…

In 2003, donors combined together in Vietnam to support the provision of quality primary schooling for 226 disadvantaged districts (about a third of the country). US $160 million was invested in infrastructure, materials and training across the 226 districts. The programme has been commended by donors and received good press inside Vietnam.…

Access to higher education is a key challenge of the 21st century state. The link between higher education and personal and socio-economic development has intensified the need for ensuring that greater numbers of citizens have expanded access to and have been provided with quality higher education. The article seeks to explore how initiatives for…

A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from 1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were…

Using the experience of the Educational Quality Inputs (EQI) Scheme in Sri Lanka the paper examines the distributional aspects of formula-based funding and efficiency of decentralized management of education funds in a developing country setting. The study finds that the EQI fund distribution is largely pro-poor. However, results show that to…

The current dominant account of aid to education focuses on schooling and official development assistance and talks in terms of policy work, donor harmonisation and, increasingly, budgetary support. However, this approach is limited in a number of ways. The return of international policy interest in vocational education provides an opportunity to…

Much progress has been made in improving access to basic education in recent years, but international support has been less than promised and the "funding gap" to achieve universal primary education remains stubbornly present. This article identifies six interrelated factors that constrain such donor financing. Prioritization of basic education,…

The reduction of transaction costs is a commonly mentioned yet rarely elaborated goal for aid effectiveness in educational development. The casual use of the concept of transaction costs conceals which costs may be reduced, which costs are required and, indeed, what transaction costs actually are. Examining issues related to harmonizing the…

The study examined variations in district performance in KCPE national examination in Kenya between 2001 and 2007. The individual change model revealed that district poverty rate was not a significant predictor of either the initial district performance (2001) or the rate of change over the seven-year period. The regional context of North Eastern…

Since 1995 I have been engaged in consultancies and since 2001 in research dealing with the language of instruction policies in Africa. To what extent are the policies being implemented? What is the role of research and consultancy when it comes to language policy? What happens when researchers or consultants come up with recommendations which do…

This article extends understanding of the connections between education, social capital, and development through a mixed-methods case study of the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, or SAT, an innovative secondary-level education system. The quantitative dimension of the research used survey measures of social responsibility to compare 93 SAT…