Background/Context: The main goal for vocational education at the secondary level has historically been the preparation of youth for the world of work. As a result, research, policy, and practice in this area have mostly focused on how to smooth this transition, address high costs, and ensure that there are positive economic returns to the…

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…

This monograph summarizes the results of a World Bank research project that compared private and public secondary school costs and achievement in five developing countries--Columbia, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand. All the case studies address the question: Would a high school student, selected at random from the…

A study evaluated diversified secondary school systems in Colombia and Tanzania. It compared advantages that might have accrued to diversified school students and graduates relative to more conventional types of formal training. A random sample of approximately 14,000 school students following diversified and conventional secondary curricula was…

This book, written from the policymaker's perspective, examines key issues facing education ministries trying to find the optimal size of and curricular emphasis for their secondary-education systems. It sets out the principle choices to be made and the dilemmas encountered regarding the scale and thrust of the sector. The work first looks at key…

In this volume are surveyed some problems which arise in Latin American countries in the belief that even though solutions to them may differ somewhat from one country to another the conditions in which they arise are sufficiently similar to make comparisons possible and useful. After describing the uneven provision of schools for different…

This bulletin is divided into two parts: (1) South America; and (2) Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. The countries included under the term "Latin America" are so extensive and important, and the effects of the World War, direct and indirect, on all systems of education have been so disturbing, that one is at a loss to know how best to…

This memorandum derives estimates of the private rate of return to schooling for men and women based on a 1965 labor force survey, past cross-sectional data, and the long-term educational public policy of Bogota, Colombia. Here resources may be viewed as an investment in the future productive capacity of people. Depending on the costs and benefits…