Among 11,442 Thai third graders, those who had attended preprimary schools had significantly higher achievement scores than children of similar SES, age, and sex without preprimary experience. In rural provinces, the effect of preprimary experience on language achievement was greater for high-SES than low-SES students. (SV)

Modeled on Hampton Institute (Virginia) and Tuskegee Institute (Alabama), Achimota College in colonial Gold Coast (later Ghana) provided Black students with "adapted education" in agriculture and industrial arts, suitable for a life of manual labor. This case of international educational transfer is analyzed from the perspective of the…

Through a case study of China (Guangdong Province) the author examines the problem of "diploma disease" in developing nations. "Diploma disease" is the students' desire for the paper credentials of academic education that insure employability. This desire can frustrate government efforts to promote alternate vocational…

Against a backdrop of educational decentralization and market transition, China demonstrates how local community resources condition educational inequality. Analysis of 1992 national survey data on 7,550 villages and nearly 78,000 rural children aged 12-14 revealed that household income, village income, and village provision of junior high schools…

Among 2,357 elementary and secondary teachers in rural ethnic-minority regions of China, teacher's use of classroom instructional time and overall professional time was strongly influenced by grade level taught and somewhat influenced at the elementary level by teacher's preservice training. Results suggest that Chinese investments in preservice…

Describes the dialogue between an American researcher and others as she planned and carried out a study of women's literacy programs in rural Mali. Discusses the researcher's status in relation to the organization administering the programs, cultural differences in terms of researcher versus practitioner and Westerner versus African, and reasons…

Examination of Nigerian political behavior surrounding expansion of secondary education in a northern state and emergence of national universal primary education reveals that calculations of political advantage dominated policy choices and that professional planning issues were ignored. As part of a wider pattern, such political behavior…

Points out weaknesses in Salvadoran government policies, which seek to reform public education and build human capital in the interests of long-term economic development but fail to address extreme poverty and social inequality. Suggests that support for existing grass-roots economic and educational projects would help the poor and thereby…

Examines trends in urban and rural China, 1949-90, for elementary- and secondary-school enrollments, number of teachers, and educational attainment of males and females. Demonstrates that shifts in the political context of educational policy between a socialist egalitarian agenda and a liberal competitive model have carried real consequences for…

Analyzes data from Karachi's four largest teacher training schools in order to answer questions about teacher shortages for rural areas in Pakistan, costs of teacher training, and employment status of newly trained teachers. Finds heavy state subsidy of teacher training and a large pool of unemployed urban teachers. (JHZ)

The most important educational process takes place outside of formal schooling. A development process which demands participation of the masses increases participation in acquisition of knowledge, particularly in the possibility of acquiring knowledge. Radical transformation in the relationship between production and power is required for mass…

Examines two policy interventions meant to improve educational opportunity to less privileged Kenyans: the so-called abolition of school fees in primary schools and institution of primary boarding schools in arid and semiarid areas. Finds that these and related government policies were in fact both cause and effect of educational failure. (BRR)

The current economic development orientation of rural adult literacy education policy in China and Tanzania represents a break with earlier socialist commitments to social equity. These parallel policy shifts in China and Tanzania have been influenced by diverse political and economic factors, both internal and external. Contains 36 references.…

Reflects on education in China in light of the changing Communist world. Focuses on the tension among four competing educational goals--economic modernization, education as a universal right, recruitment of elites, and dissemination of ideology--while addressing problems in rural education, literacy education, teacher training, educational…

Describes how social and economic conditions in Papua New Guinea in 1995 led to an emerging ambivalent attitude toward education among villagers. Illustrates how local conceptions of schooling changed when promised links between education and modernization went unfulfilled, leading villagers to valorize "traditional" identity and…