The concept of development has evolved from an exclusive focus on economic growth towards an interrelated, even integrated approach involving progress across a range of disciplines such as health, education, economics and agriculture. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are rooted in this evolved conception of development. A concerted global…

This paper has two main objectives. First, it aims to analyse the connections between education and poverty established by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), a central policy tool for the articulation of the Post Washington Consensus. Second, it intends to study how the PRSPs have been consolidated and expanded through different…

This paper explores changing patterns of access to basic education in six Sub-Saharan Africa countries using data from Demographic and Health Surveys at two points in time. In general the analysis confirms that participation of children in schooling has increased over the last decade. However, access to education remains strongly associated with…

The South Africa Schools Act requires every child to "attend school from the first school day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of seven years until the last day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of 15 years or the ninth grade, whichever comes first" (Republic of South Africa, 1996). This paper addresses three…

In this paper we consider why students in poor and rural regions of China are dropping out of school in numbers that may be greater than official statistics admit. With questions about education quality among the most intractable in Education for All initiatives across the developing world, we sketch a portrait of education in a remote mountain…

Although most Guatemalan rural students currently have access to primary school, there are large differences in the levels of learning that take place among different populations and in different contexts. This paper uses multiple data and methods to examine the interrelated factors underlying achievement disparities in Guatemalan primary schools.…

The number of years a child of school-entry age can expect to remain in school is of great interest both as a measure of individual human capital and of the performance of an education system. An approximate indicator of this concept is the sum of age-specific enrolment rates. The relatively low data demands of this indicator that are feasible to…

In May 2008 nearly 90,000 people died in the most powerful earthquake in modern Chinese history. Many were students killed in substandard schools, creating a sensitive disaster zone inside a nation whose civil society organizations are beginning to flourish. This paper examines the education earthquake relief program of an international NGO, and…

This article discusses audience responses to a children's soap opera produced and broadcast in Kenya. It examines the evaluation process in relation to qualitative audience research within Cultural Studies. It challenges an Entertainment-Education model of media as vehicles for messages and links strongly with Communication for Social Change…

Despite requirements of and support for universal education up to grade 9, there are concerning reports that poor rural areas in China suffer from high and maybe even rising dropout rates. Although aggregated statistics from the Ministry of Education show almost universal compliance with the 9-year compulsory education law, there have been few…

This paper estimates the distribution of educational returns by gender for India. While previous studies focus on mean returns, the variance of educational returns has important implications for policy-making and micro-level decision making with respect to education. If the variance of educational returns is large, it can leave large sections of…

Polytechnic staff perspectives are sought on the sustainability and large-scale implementation of design teams (DT), as a means for collaborative curriculum design and teacher professional development in Ghana's polytechnics, months after implementation. Data indicates that teachers still collaborate in DTs for curriculum design and professional…

Published articles permit mapping international and comparative education research. We reviewed 605 articles published 2004-2008 in four major journals. Using title, abstract, and entire text we explored thematic focus, geographic focus, level/type of education studied, method, and funding. The economic, political, and social context of education…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how gender roles of women teachers affect their practices in the classrooms. Participants in the study were 75 female teachers working in elementary schools in Adana, Turkey. Findings indicated that gender roles of women teachers have important effects on their educational practices. Women teachers…

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'…