Discusses author's observations of poverty-related problems within rural Sri Lankan schools. Juxtaposes literature on Third World education problems at national, district, school, and individual levels. Concludes high educational expectations in developing world are tightly constrained by poverty, negative attitudes, and weaknesses of systems.…

Misjudging the ease of educational-policy implementation is a common planning mistake. A "backward mapping" model, in which policy is informed by specific needs at the lowest level of implementation, was applied to primary school change in India and generated insights about social context, teacher attitudes, training needs, and…