Education is an ever evolving system, taking cues from past success to help educate future generations. With so many different views and influences contributing to modern education standards, it can be easy to lose the sight of where education should go and what it should be achieving. Education is thought to benefit more than the individual, it…

The present financial crisis in the world's developing nations, as evidenced by the external debt situation in Latin America, is forcing governmental decision makers to make some very hard choices regarding the financing of education. In times of such hard choices, it is important that those responsible for funding education in developing nations…

The author reacts to the World Bank's 1980 Education Sector Policy Paper, considering such issues as definitions, strategic directions, loan policies, and monitoring. Part of a theme issue on the World Bank Paper and aid to educational development in Third World nations. (SJL)

To establish a definition of costs in education, a "concept map" is established to which inevitable questions of inclusion and exclusion can be addressed. A specific case, namely the costs of practical/vocational subjects, is then presented. It also includes a profile of benefits, since with regard to vocational education, much more than…

Beginning principals in developing countries face drastically different problems than do their counterparts in developed countries. This paper presents findings of a study that surveyed Kenyan secondary school principals about the challenges they encountered. The questionnaire was sent to 200 secondary school principals--100 beginning and 100…

This booklet summarizes the proceedings of a one-day seminar on the educational policy of the World Bank and presents six papers prepared for the seminar. The seminar was held at the University of London Institute of Education in May 1975 and focused mainly on the World Bank's policy on educational aid as stated in its 1974 "Education Sector…

Education is the key for economic growth and social development in developing countries. This paper presents findings of a study that analyzed the impact of overall educational expenditures on economic growth in developing nations. It also identifies the levels of education that should be allocated more public expenditures. The study used…

Despite renewed attention to global poverty alleviation and sustainable development, most agencies and organizations donating large amounts of funds for the social sector have been decreasing their aid to literacy and nonformal (basic) education. In most cases, donors trying to combine support for basic education with poverty alleviation focus on…

This paper presents a discussion by a group of specialists on education in the Muslim world, looking at the United Nations Development Program's Arab Human Development Report of 2002, "Creating Opportunities for Future Generations," and noting three major deficits that need to be addressed: the freedom deficit (political freedom), the…

Equity in education first meant equal access to schools; in the early 20th Century it came to mean access to schools supported by equal resources; and more recently it has come to mean access to schools providing equally effective educational processes. Assertions that student achievement is affected more strongly by external factors than by…

During the period from 1949 to 1984, industry's share in the national economy of the Peoples' Republic of China rose from 30 percent to 60 percent. Despite raising literacy over the same period from 20 percent to over 75 percent, the Chinese educational system has failed to keep pace with the economy's rapidly expanding need for trained…

Nonformal education is any organized, systematic learning activity carried on outside the formal educational system and usually focused on improving participants' social and personal living, occupational capability, or vocational competency. Because it offers opportunity and participation to all in a non-threatening atmosphere and promotes rapid…

The level and character of school investment affected the national economic output in agriculture and industry in Mexico during two periods, 1880-1910 and 1920-1925. Prior to the 1910 revolution, the Mexican government encouraged urban-centered industrial development, and schools were mostly locally- controlled, urban institutions. In…

Educational policy in three southern African countries plus the "independent" South African homelands is reviewed in this paper. First, an introduction discusses how the significance of education as a factor in national development became an issue of growing concern in the 1960's (during the move toward independence), but also how…

Noting that the formal education system in Pakistan has failed to make an impact on the nation's literacy rate, this paper reviews efforts since 1955 to improve education and adult literacy education and discusses reasons why these programs have not met most of their goals. The first portion of the paper presents an evaluation of the impact of…