Changing labour markets, increased calls for selection and excellence, and increased diversity and individualisation have repercussions on how educational systems can prepare youth for work, optimise knowledge production, achieve equality of opportunity, and socialise students into active civic engagement. This paper discusses four central tasks…

While the share of the tertiary education age cohort (19-25) which is being given the opportunity to study has increased worldwide over the past two decades, this does not in fact translate into reduced inequality. For many young people, especially in the developing world, major obstacles such as disparities in terms of gender, minority population…

This paper revisits and revisions Education for All (EFA) in the age of global migration with the aim of developing more inclusive approaches towards social justice and equity in education. Drawing on cases of internal and international migration in China and Canada, this paper compares and contrasts policies and practices in the education of…

This paper begins by reviewing the progress which has been made over the past decade in the aim to reach targets such as Education for All and other Millennium Development Goals, especially as far as adult education and gender equality are concerned. While there have been achievements in some countries, universal primary education is not even…

Many girls are not sent to school in Yemen, despite basic education being free as well as compulsory for all children aged 6-15. Aiming to improve girls' enrollment by increasing parental and community involvement, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) offered a technical cooperation project in June 2005 called Broadening Regional…

Public universities in Ghana are highly subsidised by the central government and account for about 80 per cent of university students in the country. Yet issues of fairness in terms of entry into the public university system have so far hardly been addressed. To find out whether participation in public university education is equitable, the…

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), an initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was carried out in the early to mid-1990s across more than 20 countries. It was followed in the early years of the 21st century by the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey and the Programme for the International…

Multicultural education respects cultural differences and affirms pluralism which students, their communities and teachers bring to the learning process. It is founded on the belief that a school curriculum which promotes the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity and human dignity is most likely to result in high academic achievement and…

Advocating mother tongue education implies recognising the centrality of linguistic and cultural diversity in quality and accessible education planning and delivery. In minority linguistic settings, this need becomes particularly urgent. Decades of exclusive promotion of foreign languages have rendered the educational system incapable of…

One aspect of the call for democracy in the recent Arab region uprisings is the issue of women's rights and gender equality. Three cultural and ideological forces have continued to shape the gender discourse in Arab Muslim-majority societies. They are: "Islamic" teaching and local traditions concerning women's roles in a given society; Western,…

This article gives an overview of the development of gender equality and women's participation in adult learning and education in the history of the International Conferences on Adult Education (CONFINTEA). Though the equality of rights was highlighted throughout the various conferences, the first Global Report on Adult Learning and Education…

The end of the Cold War ushered in a paradigmatic shift in international development discourse whereby a human rights-based approach to development was generated. This shift has stimulated the pegging of international development policy to the objectives of the human rights regime. However, in attempting to unify development and human rights…

This article compares public and community schools in Salvador, the state capital of Bahia, Brazil. Based on quantitative data analysis and qualitative research conducted on-site during three research trips in 2001, 2003 and 2005, the author finds that Brazil's extreme inequality and the associated concentration of state power in a few hands stand…

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, female higher education has been characterised by a paradoxical combination of discrimination and exclusion, on the one hand, and increasing equality and empowerment, on the other. This study focuses on the triangle of education, equality and empowerment, using Sara Longwe's women's empowerment…

Although Hong Kong's education system has long been criticized as lacking in creativity and over-emphasising rote learning, on the whole it has served Hong Kong well in the past years, breeding outstanding business, academic and political leaders who continue to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge. The traditional elite schools have played a…