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The aim of this research was to assess how the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted overseas school partnerships in 2020, through to January 2021. It was undertaken with teachers involved in the British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme to provide insight into how and why partnerships have been impacted. It also looks at what these teachers perceive to be the challenges that make it difficult for schools to maintain partnerships in a time of global crisis and provides examples of how schools have overcome these challenges. Online questionnaires were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data and were distributed to teachers in UK using a network of British Council Local Advisors. 52 questionnaire responses were collected and analysed to explore the impact of the global pandemic on overseas school partnerships.

The number of countries that regularly participate in international large-scale assessments has increased sharply over the past 15 years, with the share of countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment growing from one-fifth of countries in 2000 to over one-third of countries in 2015. What accounts for this increase? This paper explores the evidence for three broad explanations: globalization of assessments, increasing technical capacity for conducting assessments, and increased demand for the microeconomic and macroeconomic data from these assessments. Data were compiled from more than 200 countries for this analysis, for six time periods between 2000 and 2015, yielding more than 1,200 observations. The data cover each country's participation in each of six cycles of PISA as it relates to the country's level of economic development, region, prior experience with assessment, and OECD membership. The results indicate that the odds of participation in PISA are markedly higher for OECD member countries, countries in the Europe and Central Asia region, high- and upper-middle-income countries, and countries with previous national and international assessment experience; the paper also finds that regional assessment experience is unrelated to PISA participation.

This paper discusses routes by which HIV/AIDS money is dispersed and received. It notes that capturing accurate data on actual spending patterns of large donors can be difficult, as there is no uniform tracking or reporting system and much HIV/AIDS money is spent under the broader category of sexual and reproductive health. Most of the information contained in the first two sections is based on main reports that assess the general manner in which HIV/AIDS money as a whole is being distributed. Moving on from who is providing funds for HIV/AIDS initiatives at global level, it tracks sources and flows from governments, through bilateral and multilateral channels. It does not include estimates of household spending on care and treatment, which cannot be realistically quantified. Information follows on top US and European donors, the international business community and pharmaceutical companies. Later sections look into ways HIV/AIDS funding is being spent, with the proviso, as before, that detailed breakdowns of actual spending are rare. The broadest categories are prevention, care and treatment, orphan support and research. Within the field of ECD vis-a-vis HIV/AIDS, funds are being directed through two main areas of concern--prevention of mother-to-child transmission and the care of orphans and vulnerable children. This paper describes major players in these arenas, showing that efforts are being made by a few agencies through the amount of funding directed along these channels is minimal in contrast to other target areas. Fundamental questions are raised about current donor priorities and there follows some discussion touching areas where new or reallocated HIV/AIDS funding could be directed. Obvious gaps in the provision of money for ECD and HIV/AIDS support are then identified along with opportunities to carry out work fill such gaps. The final section examines what it would take to direct more money to support young children living in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Including very young children in HIV/AIDS response strategies will ultimately depend on individual communities devising their own solutions. A further section highlights the critical importance of sharing knowledge through networks that communicate and disseminate evidence-based research findings and project evaluations. In conclusion, this paper calls for advocacy to urge that more funding should go to ECD-HIV/AIDS needs and that current funding approaches to dealing with the crisis need, in addition, to be tracked and evaluated, with a view to promoting more and better ways of meeting the unfulfilled needs of very young children affected by HIV/AIDS. (Contains 2 figures.)

In 2005, an estimated 48 million children aged 0-18 years--12 percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa--were orphans, and that number is expected to rise to 53 million by 2010. One quarter of all orphans are orphaned because of AIDS, and about 2.6 million children are currently infected with HIV. Untreated, most children born with HIV will die before their fourth birthday, most likely in the first two years of life. UNICEF concludes that, although they represent a smaller percentage of all orphans, the youngest orphans are the least resilient and have the greatest need for physical care and emotional nurturing. Although it is recognised that the focus of support must be on all children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, including those living with sick parents or in extreme poverty, the youngest are often invisible to programme planners, despite their vulnerability. In response to the general awareness of the increasing number of these children, a global initiative to develop national plans of action (NPAs) for these orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), or children affected by HIV and AIDS, has been launched. Between 2003 and 2007, a number of countries did a rapid assessment of the living conditions of children affected by HIV/AIDS and developed plans and costing estimates for appropriate interventions. The plans of 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa were reviewed, comprising all of the high prevalence countries whose NPAs were finalised. The review found that there is a wide range in the developmental appropriateness of the plans within the 17 countries. The evidence suggests that there is a clear and significant trend over time for increased incorporation of developmentally informed perspectives into plans, with the more recent plans having many more components. This change has been influenced by a series of advocacy efforts by the early childhood development (ECD) community and the HIV/AIDS community. However, these plans remain vague and not well defined. More efforts are needed to ensure that they will in fact be implemented, and that there will be sufficient quality in the responses. A number of assumptions were noted in the plans, such as the belief that funds allocated to a family in general will go equally to all members of the family. As a result, the author makes the following recommendations: (1) Evaluate assumptions; (2) Provide adequate funding for the NPAs to include ECD measures; (3) Build the case with evidence; (4) Develop capacity in ECD at the country level; (5) Strengthen the role of the health sector for young children's development and develop new platforms for care; (6) Strengthen structures at local, regional, and national levels for an integrated approach; (7) Support women's rights; and (8) Link the NPAs with other plans in order to effectively implement them. (Contains 4 tables, 5 figures and 6 footnotes.)

A multinational, multidisciplinary team examined the impact of globalization on education, training, and small and medium sized enterprise development in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The study focused on the following issues: developing a learner-led competitiveness approach; building learning enterprises; education for microenterprises and macroeconomic growth; and training for self-employment and competitiveness. The study documented the importance of learning-led competitiveness and identified obstacles to development of learning enterprises in all three countries. The following are among the 12 recommendations offered to national governments and international agencies with development concerns: (1) insert learning-led competitiveness into development debates; (2) understand the implications of globalization better; (3) address the range of barriers to development of learning enterprises; (4) consider interenterprise linkages and the role of learning therein; (5) place learning-led competitiveness at the heart of small enterprise development policy; (6) broaden the universal primary education vision; (7) construct a curriculum for competitiveness; (8) improve public training's ability to support competitive self-employment; (9) empower training providers to be more market responsive; and (10) emphasize skills transfer from large to small firms. (The bibliography lists 139 references. Brief profiles and addresses of the research team members and a list of project papers are appended.) (MN)

The first part of this paper describes some of the basic issues facing education policymakers in Africa, including the introduction of school fees and private provision of schools. Insufficient attention has been paid to how policy advice is implemented, especially to the relation between planning and budgeting. Most African public-sector budgeting procedures and formats have not changed significantly since colonial times, and they cannot cope with translating short- and medium-term adjustment policies into practice. The second part of this paper is concerned with approaches to strengthening and/or reforming the planning and budgeting for education in African countries. With the improvements described, better use can be made of external assistance. The objectives of the suggested changes are to enable countries to use their limited resources better and to avoid stop-go educational policies so that the capability of providing a sustainable and affordable education service can be achieved. In this respect, governments have a crucial role to play in the process of change, even if in some aspects the "market" will succeed where government planning has failed. (Contains 78 references.) (RT)

One of the fundamental requirements of all educational systems is the adequate provision of relevant and appropriate reading and other instructional and learning materials for use by teachers and their pupils. A study examined some of the modalities through which the school population in Africa gains access to supplementary reading materials and to reach some conclusions on which are the most effective. Without access to reading materials, what is taught in the classroom is not reinforced and the quality and permanence of the benefits of education are endangered. Such access develops the ability to read and extends the vocabulary; develops a teaching force that is capable of moving beyond the confines of set books and textbooks; supplements and enriches work done by pupils in the classroom; encourages independent access to information and arouses the interest of pupils in matters outside the curriculum; and provides training in the use and retrieval of information, an essential skill for higher education and lifelong learning. The case studies, in Ghana and Tanzania, South Africa, Mali, Mozambique, and Kenya, showed that, of primary importance, whatever the modality, is that teachers themselves have had some training in teaching with books and are committed to the provision of supplementary reading materials. Also crucial to effectiveness is the support received at Ministry, school, and modality level. And necessary for books to be integrated with learning is proximity and constant access to books. Modalities vary from country to country with the classroom library the most common. Each separate case study contains references. An appendix outlines data collection instruments. (BT)

This paper reviews a number of educational policy statements in East African countries, on issues ranging from combining education with production at the primary level to the financing of higher education. An assessment is made as to how successful the policies have been in achieving their original intention. The paper's conclusion is that policy outcomes fall far short of matching expectations, mainly because of insufficient, or the absence of, implementation. The reason most educational policies are not implemented is that they are vaguely stated and the financing implications are not always worked out. Another reason for failure is that the content of a policy is based on an empirically unsustained theoretical relationship between instruments and outcomes. The paper makes a plea for the formulation of more concrete, feasible and implementable policies based on documented cause-effect relationships. (Author/DB)

This paper reviews the scholarly literature concerned, directly or indirectly, with the implementation of educational policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first part considers the reasons both for the past neglect of implementation issues and for the current interest in the subject. It also introduces some conceptual issues relevant to the analysis of implementation questions, drawing heavily on the literature that focuses on policy processes in Western countries. The second part offers general observations concerning the literature on the implementation of educational policies in Africa, and characterizes this literature with respect to the policies considered, the countries studied, and other variables. The third part outlines the major conceptual frameworks that have been developed for the analysis of implementation issues. It then considers the matter of causation as this is addressed, explicitly or implicitly, in the literature on educational policy implementation in Africa. Six major sets of variables are identified, and the arguments that have been advanced with respect to the explanatory significance of each set are summarized. The paper concludes with some comments on the deficiencies of literature reviewed and with a call for research that is better informed by the often more sophisticated work of those who have studied implementation issues in other policy domains and in other parts of the world. The appendices follow the text. The first lists the journals surveyed systematically for purposes of this paper, and the second is a bibliography. (Author)

This publication contains a set of five case studies and two analytical overview chapters that lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the process of educational policy formation in Africa. Reflecting developments until late 1992, the cases include Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, and Senegal. The articles describe and analyze current approaches to educational policy formation. Specifically, the case studies examine the policy-making process, the policy product, and the policy environment. Each of the cases contains a summary table of key policy events and a detailed bibliography of the major educational policy documents. Most cases provide a more detailed description of policy making in recent years, including an analysis of the role of major donors, the influences of political and economic events at the national level, and the extent that external factors have driven internal policy making. The contents are: (1) "Introduction and Overview" (David R. Evans); (2) "Case Summaries" (Jeanne Moulton); (3) "Education Policy Formation in Anglophone Africa: The Work of Education Commissions" (Ash Hartwell); (4) "Education Policy Formation in Botswana: The Transformation of Traditional Politics" (Jakes Swartland and Ash Hartwell); (5) "Education Policy in Tanzania: Self-Reliance and Dependence" (Joel Samoff); (6) "Education Policy Formation in Uganda: Continuity Amid Change" (David R. Evans and W. Senteza Kajubi); (7) "Education Policy Formation in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa" (Francois Orivel and Christopher Shaw); (8) "Education Policy Formation in Mali: As a Response to Political Crisis" (Mamadou Bagayoko and Jeff Hittenberger); and (9) "Education Policy Formation in Senegal: Evolutionary Not Revolutionary" (William M. Rideout, Jr. and Mamadou Bagayoko). References accompany each chapter. (LMI)

In 1988, the Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA) in collaboration with the International Labour Organization established a pilot project to address the issue of underrepresentation of women in technical education and training. The Women in Technical Education and Training Project (WITED) was based on six key strategic elements necessary to increase and maintain women's participation. The elements were as follows: (1) contact and cooperation with an international and regional network of institutions; (2) institutional involvement in project design and implementation; (3) pilot action research phase; (4) training and awareness raising for the project staff; (5) policy seminar; and (6) information dissemination. Research explored women's participation in technical training and employment and the main obstacles. Findings indicated that the number of women enrolling in polytechnics had increased gradually, but women were only 24 percent of the students. The average participation rate in technical programs was 12 percent. Fifteen percent of polytechnic teachers were women. Women represented 4 percent of all technical workers. Barriers were grouped under three main headings: those found in education and training systems and policies, in employment, and in society. Changes were recommended in four main target areas: national level, primary and secondary school systems, technical and vocational training systems, and formal sector employment. (Appendixes include a 16-item bibliography and 6 tables.) (YLB)

A detailed description is presented of the types, functions, performance levels, governance, administration, and funding of public examinations in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries with different educational traditions, based on English, French, or other backgrounds. The countries are: (1) Kenya; (2) Lesotho; (3) Mauritius; (4) Swaziland; (5) Uganda; (6) Zambia; (7) Chad; (8) Guinea; (9) Madagascar; (10) Mauritania; (11) Rwanda; (12) Togo; (13) Cape Verde; and (14) Ethiopia. In virtually all of these countries, public examinations are offered at the end of primary (elementary) school, lower-secondary school, and upper-secondary school. Procedures for funding, constructing, administering, and scoring the examinations are discussed. Issues discussed include passing rates, the effects of examinations on teaching and grade repetition, the roles of assessment, implications of national policies, and other current international issues in education. Guidelines are offered for improving the quality of examinations and their uses. This synthesis report draws on a series of studies supported by the World Bank. Findings from the 14 studies confirm that public examinations may help raise academic standards, but can also cause many problems in an educational system. Nine tables present data from the studies. A 105-item list of references and three appendices with supplemental information are included. (SLD)

Country profiles compiled through a survey of distance education in Africa form the contents of this document. International organizations and 35 countries were surveyed: Algeria; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo (Brazzaville); Djibouti; Ethiopia; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Ivory Coast; Kenya; Lesotho; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mauritius; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; Rwanda; Somalia; Sudan; Swaziland; Tanzania; Togo; Tunisia; Uganda; Zaire; Zambia; and Zimbabwe. Some or all of the following information is presented for each country: population, area, languages, and per capita income; overview; and institutions involved in distance teaching. For each institution the following is included: address, contacts, aims and objectives, staff size, annual budget, course details, research, and special features. (NLA)

Recent survey data from Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is used to investigate gender differences in education and labor market participation. Previous researchers believed that women in Cote d'Ivoire were less likely than men to work for wages because of child-related obligations and low wage rates. This report contradicts this commonly held view by finding that women's limited participation is attributed, at least in part, to their having less education. A model based on the simultaneous determination of wages and choice of participation in the labor market is presented and is claimed to be more accurate than the common practice of treating these variables separately. The study also focuses on the differences between males and females in access to schooling. Numerous figures and tables of statistical data appear throughout the report. (DB)

Scaling up good corporate social investment practices in developing countries is crucial to realizing the "Education for All" and "Millennium Development Goals". Yet very few corporate social investments have the right mix of vision, financing, cross-sector engagement and leadership to come to scale. Globally, 67 million children are not enrolled in primary school, over 200 million are in school but not mastering basic skills such as reading, and many millions more complete post-primary education without the skills needed to participate in society or the local economy. Overcoming these challenges will require swift and bold action by many actors, including governments, multilateral organizations, donors and civil society. Corporations can use their core assets to generate shared value for business and society by helping get children into school, setting a strong learning agenda and scaling up what works in education. This policy paper looks at what works and what is not working in corporate efforts to further education in developing countries. (Contains 54 endnotes.)

Linking between schools in the United Kingdom and schools in sub-Saharan Africa has been a feature of the educational landscape for more than twenty years, but became a government priority between 2000 and 2010. Whilst the interest in Ireland was less, both countries resourced linking programmes primarily as a means of raising awareness of development issues. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also became involved in school linking during the first decade of the twenty-first century with Plan UK and Link Community Development (Link) being the leading organisations in this field. However, due to funding constraints and change in United Kingdom government policy post 2010, both of these NGOs ended their linking programmes in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Link's involvement in school linking came from a development perspective; links were primarily seen as a mechanism for improving schools in sub-Saharan Africa. Development education only became a main feature of their linking programme with their European Union funded project, Partners in Development (PiD), which ran from 2010 to 2012. This project was funded from a development awareness budget line, but the NGO's proposal included development goals within the project. This became a major source of tension that was unresolved throughout the life of the project. This report is an evaluation of the "Partners in Development" project that was based on linking schools in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, with schools in Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, and South Africa. The evidence gathered was based on a combination of quantitative-based questionnaires, interviews with key staff within Link, and in-depth data gathered from a number of schools in Scotland. The main findings of the evaluation are as follows: (1) The Link Schools Programme (LSP) was clearly valued, but its impact was different in the United Kingdom and Ireland from that in South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda; (2) The breadth of schools involved, particularly in the United Kingdom, suggests that the programme reached different schools from those which have been involved in other linking programmes; (3) The project suffered from funding criteria that continually focused on a target-driven approach; (4) Link staff became too heavily involved in administration and support; (5) As a consequence, many of the issues that often emerge in linking activities were not fully addressed; (6) The website was popular and the Solar Connect component that provided internet access to some of the schools in Africa was highly valued; and (7) Supported links developed by the Link model clearly have value. The following appendices are included: (1) Breakdown of schools participating in the Teacher Survey; (2) Rating of the Link Programme services. UK & Ireland schools; (3) Rating of the Link Programme services. African schools; (4) Profile of activities by school characteristics; (5) Evaluation Questionnaire; and (6) Focus Group Questions for Teachers in Scottish Link Schools--June 2012.

A large empirical literature has shown that user fees significantly deter public service utilization in developing countries. While most of these results reflect partial equilibrium analysis, we find that the nationwide abolition of public school fees in Kenya in 2003 led to no increase in net public enrollment rates, but rather a dramatic shift toward private schooling. Results suggest this divergence between partial- and general-equilibrium effects is partially explained by social interactions: The entry of poorer pupils into free education contributed to the exit of their more affluent peers. (Contains 2 figures, 4 tables, and 7 endnotes.)

The international community is becoming increasingly concerned with the impact of high adult mortality from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome on the welfare of children, particularly on the welfare of orphans. Very little is known about the consequences of being an orphan in developing countries. This paper analyzes the relationship between orphan status, household wealth, and child school enrollment using data collected in the 1990s from 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and one country in Southeast Asia. The findings point to considerable diversity--so much so that generalizations are not possible. While there are some examples of large differentials in enrollment by orphan status, in the majority of cases, the orphan enrollment gap is dwarfed by the gap between children from richer and poorer households. In some cases, even children from the top of the wealth distribution have low enrollments, pointing to fundamental issues in the supply or demand for schooling that are a constraint to higher enrollments of all children. The gap in enrollment between female and male orphans is not much different than the gap between girls and boys living with parents, suggesting that female orphans are not disproportionately affected in terms of their enrollment status in most countries. These diverse findings demonstrate that the extent to which orphans are under-enrolled relative to other children is country-specific, at least in part because the correlation between orphan status and poverty is not consistent across countries. Social protection and schooling policies need to assess the specific country situation before considering mitigation measures. Country data sets and sample sizes, orphan rates, enrollment rates, and other statistics are appended. (Contains 21 references.) (SM)

This study presents a summary of the major research findings on the factors that constrain girls' schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa. The factors are discussed under three categories: (1) sociocultural and socioeconomic factors; (2) factors related to the school environment; and (3) political and institutional factors. The study provides an outline of an approach on how existing knowledge on analyses on the problems of female education in the region may be used to design interventions targeted at reducing the gender gap in education access, attainment, and achievement in the region. It also offers an overview of some of the promising strategies, programs, and projects being tried to promote girls' educational participation in various parts of the developing world. The book is divided into five parts: (1) Introduction; (2) "Factors Affecting Female Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review"; (3) "Promising Interventions for Promoting Female Education"; (4) "An Approach to Identifying and Planning Effective Interventions"; and (5) "Conclusion." Six appendices or annexes accompany the text. (EH)

One of a series of papers on comparative education, this report considers curriculum and student life under colonialism through an examination of school knowledge in French West Africa in the first decades of the twentieth century. The monograph is divided into three parts. Part one describes the educational system of interwar West Africa. It emphasizes school organization, admissions and matriculation policies, the composition of the teaching staff, curriculum, and student enrollment. Part two contains translations from interwar elementary and primary textbooks. Part three is composed of translations from students' class notebooks. Focus is on students' French compositions and, in some cases, teacher corrections. What the notebooks reveal about how students perceive themselves, their school, and their aspirations for themselves once they graduate is evaluated. (LP)

Despite considerable progress by Middle Eastern and North African countries in improving opportunities for women to access and attain education at all levels, much remains to be done. This report focuses on three sets of highly inter-related determinants of access, achievement, and outcome--macro-level societal determinants, school characteristics, and family background characteristics--in seven representative Middle Eastern and North African countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The research shows that the level of economic development of a country and the distribution of income have a much stronger impact than do Islamic and cultural values, while the size and growth rate of the population can place a major strain on school facility and resources. Sex-role stereotypes and the division of labor in the home and marketplace mean that expected returns from female education do not appear to justify the costs. Free, compulsory education and open admissions have led to major improvements in female education but have no guaranteed equity. Socio-economic background, parental education, family size, and family socialization exert a strong influence on educational attainment. Other key factors are a family's ability to cover the costs of education and forego the labor of the daughters. The availability and accessibility of schools and the quality of their programs and human resources have significant effects on female educational enrollment, continuation, quality, and outcome. All-girls schools have played a positive role under certain conditions. Because of the importance of female teachers and administrators as potential role models, their high rate of attrition and absenteeism calls for careful solutions. Contains 104 references. (Author)

Issues surrounding costs and financing of education in developing countries are examined. The focus is primarily on Sub-Saharan Africa and within Francophone West Africa. International comparative data are used to evaluate educational cost issues, including total expenditures, expenditures per pupil, cost of teachers, student aid, other current expenditures, and capital expenditures. Particular attention is given to the special situation of African countries, most of which experience severe financial constraints in the effort to achieve educational goals. The potential for increased enrollments through a reduction in unit costs and enhanced efforts to tap private resources for educational financing are explored. The problem of cost recovery in terms of the role and limits of economic analysis and the particulars of educational finance in developing countries are presented. The overall conclusion is that although the financial prospects are bleak in the poorest countries, existing budgets can be used much more efficiently than they are currently. Unit costs can be significantly reduced, and some changes in the pattern of subsides to education may allow for a sizable expansion of education within existing budgets. (Author/RSL)

Data and issues on costs of primary, secondary, and higher education in Eastern Africa are presented. Practical recommendations for controlling or reducing costs while paying attention to effects on quality and equity are made. For each level of education the report reviews student-teacher ratios, teacher salaries, non-teaching costs, and cost-recovery. Effects of population growth on costs as well as needs for improved educational management are assessed. Estimates of possible cost savings by country in Eastern Africa are included. Eight major tables and twenty supporting tables present data and information on costs of education in Eastern Africa. Primary enrollment, teachers, and cost projections by country based on different fertility assumptions are provided. The report concludes with a bibliography. (RSL)

COVID-19 has caused considerable disruption to education around the world. Disadvantaged and marginalised learners are being particularly hard hit. Naturally, throughout the pandemic, the focus of much attention has been on how to open schools safely with a preoccupation with the hygiene and social distancing considerations. A shift is noticeable and welcome. With schools in many jurisdictions reopening partially or fully there is a growing interest in the immensely important area of recovering the lost learning that has occurred while learners have been away from face-to-face education. This report documents an analysis of policy and grey literature. It is one output from the first phase of our collaboration and links are made to two other outputs: (1) A rapid evidence assessment (REA) of the academic literature; and (2) An overarching summary paper drawing out key messages and introducing the next phase of the collaboration. [This report is written with assistance from Anna Riggall, Ella Page, Elnaz Kashefpakdel and Sonia Guerriero. For the companion report, "Learning Loss, Learning Gains and Wellbeing: A Rapid Evidence Assessment," see ED615066.]

As the 20th century closes, the general consensus is that education in Africa is in crisis. The challenge is to revitalize education in Africa and to do so in ways that enable African countries not only to close the development gap but also to leap ahead. Pointing out the rich diversity and considering carefully the bounding conditions for each general comment, this paper explores major issues and themes in education in contemporary Africa. The paper states that, as the general crisis has unfolded, external aid agencies increasingly have come to provide development advice as well as finance, and that, consequently, their influence may be far greater than the absolute value of their aid suggests. It reviews the trajectory, from education as social transformation, broad development engine, and foundation for self-reliance to aid dependence and education as targeted skills formation. The paper finds that: (1) in Africa, although education for all remains a distant goal, the commitment is still to expanded access; (2) another commitment of Africa's post-colonial leadership was to desegregate the schools and the curriculum; and (3) a third commitment of the leadership was to use the education system to address inequality. It discusses in detail the difficulties of fulfilling those commitments. The paper concludes that notwithstanding the rhetoric of liberation and empowerment, the commonly held view is that education must enable Africa to run faster as it tries to catch up with those who are ahead rather than to forge new paths or to transform the international economy and Africa's role in it. Contains 10 tables of data, 35 notes, and 59 references. (BT)

Perhaps because educational achievement often has been associated with elite status, the organization and focus of education nearly everywhere in the modern era reflects international influences, some more forceful than others. In this era, with few exceptions, the direction of influence is from European core to southern periphery. Institutional arrangements, disciplinary definitions and hierarchies, legitimizing publications, and instructional authority reside in that core, which periodically incorporates students and professors from the periphery, many of whom may never return home. Noting that education convergence in the current era has been marked by both imaginative innovations and the even more striking commonalities across diverse settings, this paper considers the general theme of international influence in education reform and explores the context for education reform in Africa, particularly South Africa. The paper discusses 20th-century education reform and the commonalities across national settings that have most intrigued scholars of comparative education. It describes the context for education reform, and socialist disarray and United States triumphalism, along with the resuscitation of modernization theory. The paper also considers the changing roles in the United Nations system, aid dependence, international education currents, education as investment, education as production, and education as delivery system. It discusses different aspects of education in contemporary Africa, the role(s) of research, and South African "uniqueness." The paper concludes by outlining the challenges for those involved in reforming education in South Africa, in particular teacher education. Contains 49 notes and 86 references. (BT)

Educational curricula have often been shaped more by worldwide standards and modern values than by national or regional influences and may, in some cases, be irrelevant to student and local community needs. This paper explores ways in which curricula can be adapted to a region's specific, social, political, and regional conditions. It begins with a review of the literature on the philosophical context and process of adapting curricula, and then examines several case studies illustrating local community input into curriculum development. These include the introduction of western education into societies in Africa; the Balochistan Instructional Materials Development and Training Cells (BIMDTC) project to produce primary-level curriculum materials in Pakistan; and the Gonoshahajjo Sangstha, a non-governmental organization in Bangladesh, established to facilitate the social mobilization of the poor through literacy and education. The paper concludes with a discussion of strategic approaches to school reform, including local input regarding education reform and school clusters. (Contains 31 references.) (ND)

This paper analyzed the evolution of formal education in Africa with emphasis on the weaknesses and strengths of the system identified. Although the roots of modern education can be found in the early institutions of learning and libraries of Alexandria and Timbuktu in Africa, the continent today lags behind in all the fields of formal education. The teaching of science in most African educational institutions, at all levels, has been reduced to theoretical description of scientific facts. Several factors have contributed to the present situation of education in Africa. This paper describes some of the factors responsible for the state of science education and education in general, prevailing in most African countries. The most prominent factors affecting education in Africa include policy framework of individual countries, access into educational institutions and population pressure, quality and affordability of education, and undue emphasis on employability of graduates, among others. Reliance on the Western educational system without resources to back it up is discussed. Innovative ways of financing education and development of syllabi based on analysis of culture and environment have promise for the future. Educational institutions with appropriate syllabi and attitude could greatly enhance technological development. Enhancement of the role model of teachers and their motivation underscores the success of future education and science in Africa. (DK)

Focusing on the education situation in Sub Saharan Africa, this paper states that while education systems in the region are faced with tremendous problems, over-generalization should be avoided, because all the problems referred to are not equally serious, and they are more acute in some countries than in others. The analyses and comments in the paper relate to 47 countries in Sub Saharan Africa, covering almost all of the area concerned with the exception of South Africa. The paper is divided into 9 sections: (1) the evolution of overall enrollment figures over the past two decades; (2) enrollments at different levels; (3) the enrollment of girls; (4) teachers: number, training, and status; (5) higher education: costs, types of graduates, the brain drain, research; (6) the efficiency and evaluation of education systems; (7) the financing of education systems; (8) education and employment; and (9) external aid to education. When the overall data relating to the number of pupils enrolled in the region was examined, researchers noted the very rapid increase in pupil intake; in the 20 years from 1970 to 1990 the figure rose from 23.5 million pupils to 70.7 million. No other education system in the world has had to cope with such a growth. Education systems in the region vary considerably in size. Enrollment indicators vary from one country to another. If trends in some countries are not reversed, the majority of the populations of working age of the least educationally developed countries will be illiterate in a hundred years. (DK)

This publication reports on an African regional workshop in Nigeria on training science, technology, and mathematics teachers (STME). The workshop focused specifically on trends in recruitment and evaluation of academic and professional STME teaching staff in colleges of education and on initial training and inservice training for STME teaching staff in colleges of education. After a background summary and introduction to the workshop, the report includes outlines of texts of nine papers: (1) "Trainers of Trainers in STM: Framework for Discussion" (S. T. Bajah); (2) "Training Needs for STM Tutors" (Bryan Wilson); (3) "Do We Practice What We Preach? or Should We Change Our Practice or Our Sermon?" (Mike Savage); (4) "Interactive Teaching in Primary Science" (R. A. Hodzi); (5)"Science and Technology Education and Society: Bridging the Gap" (J. A. Anamuah-Mensah); (6) "Video and Teacher Education: Primary School Science Video Teacher Education in Malawi" (Harold F. Gonthi); (7) "Participating in Science Education Research" (Gilbert O. M. Onwu); (8) "Science Camps for Children: A Model for Curriculum Renewal and Change" (Shaaban S. Mohammed); and (9) "Project 2000+: Declaration." Appendices include a workshop program, the chairman's opening address, a goodwill message, a list of participants, and workshop evaluation results. (Some papers contain references.) (ND)

Education systems in under-resourced environments face several challenges, some of them exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A possible way to address some of the challenges is to apply information and communication technologies. However, effectively integrating technology into education systems is a complex task. In this paper, factors contributing to successful integration of technology in education are explored, with a focus on under-resourced contexts. Case studies of successful technology implementation in education systems are discussed and analyzed to identify the factors that drive success. The analysis is framed using the reform strategy offered by The World Development Report 2018 ("Learning to Realize Education's Promise"). This is expected to provide policymakers and practitioners a way to align their education technology initiatives and strategies with the larger education reform agenda. Key lessons identified from the analysis are as follows. First, it is necessary to articulate "what" precisely does the technology intervention change/enable. Second, it is important to better understand the context to develop technologies and implementation strategies that fit the operating context. Third, it is essential to regularly monitor and evaluate programs and to feed that information into continuously improving design and implementation. Fourth, through the entire cycle of technology implementation, stakeholders must be consulted, understood, and empowered. However small the intervention, realizing the potential of technology tools in education requires keeping in mind the big picture offered by these lessons. [For "Learning to Realize Education's Promise. World Development Report, 2018," see ED604389.]