Recent statistics on the use of mobile technology proclaim that the world is becoming mobile. People use their phones to socialize, to conduct business, to search for information, and more. For the first time in history, people around the world have the potential to learn from any location at their own convenience. But first, education systems…

In 2009, a reform in teachers' pay, linking remuneration to performance, was implemented in China. The intention was to improve the quality of education by making teachers more diligent and creative and removing the inequality in pay between teachers in different schools. A review of this reform reveals that it has resolved the problem of…

Starting in the 1970s, Brazil developed a very complex system of quantitative assessments of education at all levels, making extensive use of statistical information and tests, in an effort to improve and maintain the quality of its education. However, with some exceptions, particularly at the graduate level, Brazilian education standards remain…

With the advent of school-based management, citizen committees in low-income countries or areas are often expected to oversee the functioning of schools, health centres, and other community resources. However, studies of their effectiveness show mixed results. Though members of such committees may be able to repair buildings, they often cannot…

In recent years, Save the Children, a non-governmental organization, prioritized education for children affected by conflict through its Rewrite the Future Campaign. By significantly scaling up the resources allocated to programmes in conflict-affected countries, the organization has grown its education programmes in these contexts. Thus it has…

This paper assesses the adequacy, efficiency, and equity of higher education in Lebanon in both the public and private sectors, while highlighting challenges that are specific to Lebanon. It concludes by discussing various approaches and strategies to remedy the challenges facing higher education in Lebanon.

Despite recent progress in meeting the goals of the Education for All agenda, certain groups of young people are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and underachievement, including children with HIV/AIDS, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities. HIV/AIDS has reduced many young people's rights to access education, to live a full…

This article traces how the concept of educational inspection has evolved in Pakistan, especially in the province of Sindh, and discusses whether the existing inspection system helps to improve quality and establish accountability. The inspection system that originated in colonial days has evolved to incorporate the notion of using supervision to…

Results from PISA show that strong educational performance, and indeed significant improvement over short periods of time, is possible. Whether in Asia (e.g., Japan and Korea), in Europe (e.g., Finland) or in North America (Canada), many countries display strong overall learning outcomes; equally important, they show that poor performance in…

This article introduces the special issue of "Prospects" on "Aid effectiveness in education". It brings together case studies of attempts in several very different contexts to improve the effectiveness of the use of aid in the education sector. By drawing on the historical evolution of the new paradigm over the last 20 years, the authors make the…

Since 2001 the government of Cambodia has striven to advance policy-led education reform based on a sector-wide approach. This paper critically reviews the status and progress of Cambodia's education reform from the perspective of the aid's effectiveness. The paper looks at the performance of the sector reform in the three priority areas…

"Absorptive capacity" is a frequently used term amongst development practitioners in education. It is adopted by some as a reason for caution over scaling up aid. Others are of the view that absorptive capacity is an excuse by some donors for not delivering on their Education for All financing commitments. Drawing on interviews with…

China and India together account for almost 25% of the world's postsecondary student population. Most of the enrolment growth in the coming several decades will be in developing countries, and China and India will contribute a significant proportion of that expansion, since China currently educates only about 20% and India 10% of the age cohort.…

Active participation of Brazilian civil society, coupled with the 2007 education development plan launched by the Brazilian government, provides an interesting example of the influences of the Dakar Goals. The two domestic initiatives share the same name, spirit and direction proposed in Dakar 2000. Here we analyze changes in the Brazilian…

About 60 years ago India established a policy of providing free and compulsory education to all children and began transforming the elite education system inherited from its colonial past into a mass education program. The task became a race against a rapidly growing population, which outstripped the pace at which children could be enrolled and…