Late entry into primary school is a widespread phenomenon in developing countries. Students who enter school late are more likely to repeat grades, drop out and perform more poorly. Yet the phenomenon has received little scholarly attention, and there is a dearth of cross-national data. In this paper, we draw on data from the Multiple Indicator…

Budgetary capacity that would allow for the public funding of the provision of universal access to primary education is lacking in many sub-Saharan economies. National revenues significantly lag behind the overall economic productivity measure of GDP. Analysis of data derived from UNESCO and UNDP for 2004 shows that governments in the region spend…

Since 1948, various UN conventions have recognised basic education as a human right. Yet this right continues to be denied to many child labourers across the world. This articles draws on the results of a study examining how children in domestic labour in Kenya access and participate in education. Three issues were explored: (1) the correlates of…

In this study the authors employed a multilevel analysis procedure in order to examine the pupil and school levels factors that contributed to variation in reading achievement among Grade 6 primary school pupils in 14 southern African school systems (Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,…

While the English language boasts a century of research into its most frequently-used words, no such attempt has ever formally been made in the Arab world. This pioneering study presents a list of 500 commonly-used words in the Arabic language based on compilations of words gathered from a number of popular reading series in Lebanon, spanning…

This paper reports on findings from the Learning for Understanding through Culturally-Inclusive Imaginative Development project (LUCID). LUCID has been a 5-year (2004-2009) research and implementation endeavour and a partnership between Simon Fraser University (SFU) and three districts in British Columbia, Canada. Via emotionally engaging…

The aim of this article is to outline and assess an educational intervention programme targeted at improving the skills of families and the personal and social development of children living in situations of grave social vulnerability. The sample comprised 10 families during the first phase of the intervention and six during the second. The…

The purpose of this survey was to acquire descriptive information regarding corporal punishment in Tanzania's O-level secondary schools. 448 individuals participated in the study: 254 teachers and 194 students, all from government or private secondary schools in the Iringa Region of Tanzania. In addition, 14 students and 14 teachers were…

In response to the vast amounts of data associated with the accountability movement and the rhetoric of data-informed decision-making, we interviewed 16 principals to find out what streams of data they used and what decisions they made by using the data. We found that: (a) student achievement data are predominantly used to the extent of neglecting…

Some of the most dramatic growth in the provision of primary and secondary education over the last decade has occurred across countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Yet student achievement across MENA is lagging compared to many other parts of the world. Low quality of education is a primary concern and one of the greatest…

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…

This article analyses student achievement and school quality in large samples of schools in Cambodia. Descriptive summaries of student proficiency levels in language and mathematics reveal large gaps between average performance in grades three and six. Given the near universal completion rates for grade three--and lower access to grade six--these…

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…

An evaluation of a workplace course in England for English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) learners who were caregivers to the elderly found that while the curriculum emphasised sex differences, the participants voiced ideas and negotiated identities that sidestepped gendered conventions. Their refusal to adopt the workplace communique in…

This article presents results from a qualitative study on how the Honduran secondary education programme, "Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial" (SAT), attempts to "undo gender" (Deutsch 2007: 122) by encouraging students to rethink gender relations in their everyday lives in a way that reflects their increased consciousness of gender equality. My…