There has been a worldwide growth of interest among governments and international agencies in cross-national studies of the quality of education. However, such studies require careful planning, and have far-reaching implications for all concerned. Ministries of education should only become involved if they are prepared to actively engage in…

Discusses quality assurance and evaluation at institutions of higher education in Africa. Notes driving forces behind this trend, including declining financial resources; accountability to stakeholders; and massification, internationalization, and globalization of education. Notes establishment by many institutions of internal and external quality…

Private supplementary tutoring has long been a major phenomenon in parts of East Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In recent times it has grown dramatically in other parts of Asia and in Africa, Europe and North America. The factors underlying the growth of private tutoring vary, but in all settings it has major…

The role of the political class in the debate on how to improve education in the Sahelian countries is examined in this monograph. Although cultural backwardness and faulty inquiry impede educational quality, the major problem is the absence of political forms through which all people can participate in educational reform. A review of the…

This study is concerned with the organization of education in rural areas and the advantages of a strategy based on multigrade classes, i.e. classes having a single teacher but pupils of several grade levels studying different curricula. This strategy made a substantial contribution to the achievement of universal primary education at reasonable…

Arguing that the politicisation of decentralisation appreciably reduces educational quality and efficient resource allocation and negatively affects matters of equity in and delivery of education, the present study provides a critique of decentralisation and privatisation in education in Africa with special reference to Nigeria. On the basis of…

Educational theorists and researchers have long considered time a key component of individual learning. Caroll, in his classic model of school-based learning, conceptualized achievement as an outcome of two time variables: first, the amount of time a learner is engaged in learning; and second, an individual's learning rate. Caroll's ideas…

This third publication on the theme of quality in the Commonwealth of Learning Perspectives on Distance Education series widens the discussion beyond external quality assurance processes to a more generic focus on a "culture of quality." It is an extension of the earlier two publications, which came out in 1994 and 1997 and drew…

This publication focuses on strategies for meeting international targets and national goals for universalizing girls' access to, retention in and completion of quality education. This will be done through "scaling up" successful interventions, or components of interventions that can be replicated. UNESCO published this book within the…

The Education Working Paper Series is produced by the Education Unit at the World Bank (HDNED). It provides an avenue for World Bank staff to publish and disseminate preliminary education findings to encourage discussion and exchange ideas within the World Bank and among the broader development community. This Guide seeks to help those who design…

Academic research and publishing, particularly at the higher education level, are activities that do not only complement effective teaching but are also sine-qua-non for the achievement of academic excellence. However, due to myriad of factors, many academics in Tertiary Institutions have a myopic belief that universities are meant, essentially…

Less than 1 percent of children in sub-Sahara Africa currently attend formal care and education programmes, but the number is expected to increase substantially following large investments in the sector. To date, however, little attention has been given to the contents of these programmes. This article seeks to begin addressing this lacuna,…

Lifelong learning has come to be internationally recognized as a framework in the development of sustainable education. However, in spite of rhetoric and its endorsement in some nations' policy documents, lifelong learning is not operationalized and Africa continues to be plagued by social maladies such as HIV/AIDS, capacity poverty, low quality…

A model for enhancing the educational effectiveness of an African university was developed through the West Virginia University-Bayero University, Kano (Nigeria) linkage activities carried out from 1984-1988. The three goals of the model were to: further develop abilities of African university faculty to carry out research, curriculum development,…

Most African countries have devoted considerable attention to educating the generations of people born since the independence era. Despite their efforts, however, African governments continue to face rising illiteracy, grade-repetition, and drop-out rates, as well as growing numbers of expulsions. This report presents a synthesis of the main…