Countries across the world have seen a growing gap in mathematics performance between low-SES children and those from wealthier backgrounds. The issue of inequality not only relates to student performance, but also to schooling--as defined by the mathematics curriculum and its distribution of the related opportunities to learn. Whether…

Women who attain more education tend to have children with more educational opportunities, a transmission of educational advantages across generations that is embedded in the larger structures of families' societies. Investigating such country-level variation with a life-course model, this study estimated associations of mothers' educational…

Due to their perceived scope and openness to socially underprivileged groups, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been presented as tools to enhance social mobility. However, there has also been evidence to suggest that MOOCs are mainly beneficial for privileged groups and could even contribute to an increasing gap in educational…

Analysis in mid-April 2020--in the early throes of the pandemic--found that less than 25 percent of low-income countries were providing any type of remote learning, while close to 90 percent of high-income countries were. On top of cross-country differences in access to remote learning, within-country differences are also staggering. For example,…

This paper articulates lessons learned about without-prejudice teaching and learning from a researcher-practitioner who has experience in both developing and developed contexts. Developing countries often look to Western countries for education standards, but Western countries rarely look to developing contexts where theory is being generated…

Measuring the distance between countries and the goal of equality of opportunity in education has been the focus of recent contributions in the economic literature, which have concentrated either on intergroup gaps in access to a given level of studies or on intergroup gaps in educational achievement. We argue that both aspects are important and…

This article examines cross-country variations in adult skills inequality and asks why skills in Anglophone countries are so unequal. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's recent Survey of Adult Skills and other surveys, it investigates the differences across countries and country groups in inequality in both…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Arab World are still in their infancy. Many Arab countries are now starting to launch their MOOC platforms; however, there are only a few who have actually implemented such systems. This paper will explore online learning, in particular the rise of MOOCs around the world and their impact on the Arab…

In the context of aging populations, governments in Australia and in other Western nations fear that slower growth in the numbers of people of working age (15-64 years) will have a dampening effect on economic growth. They are thus considering how to encourage older workers to remain in the workforce beyond the point at which many currently…

Based on four standards of measurement, it appears that the educational systems of Western Europe fail to provide a significant equalizing influence. The four criteria are: (1) equality of educational access, (2) equality of educational participation, (3) equality of educational results, (4) and equality of educational effects on life chances.…

Presented is a list of social indicators which OECD has adopted as an international inventory to measure individual well-being. Variables included are health, education, employment, time and leisure, goods and services, physical environment, social environment, and personal safety. (DC)

In the context of increasing school enrollment, the functioning of the school system and, in particular, the teaching structures of second-cycle secondary education play an essential part in determining the educational, vocational, and social choices of young people. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to define this role and to examine the nature…

A highly competitive environment has spawned an unsanctioned system of private preparatory schools that attracts 60 percent of Japan's junior high students. (Author/IRT)

The changes in income inequality during the post-war period in Japan are investigated quantitatively and extensively in order to shed some light on the relationship between income inequality and the rapid economic development experienced in Japan. Following a presentation of some summary pictures on income inequality in the Japanese society the…

Both Kerala and Finland have made notable achievements in the realm of literacy: Kerala has one of the highest rates in the developing world and Finland ranks first in literacy among developed countries. Both also share a cultural history of granting women a high status in their respective societies. Using Kerala and Finland as examples, this…