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This publication is one of two prepared for a South Asian colloquium on issues related to teacher training in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This volume includes four papers presented at the conference. The papers present an analytical view of both policy and practical measures on teacher education. The first paper, "The Professional Development and Training of Teacher Educators" (Elwyn Thomas) examines recruitment, training, and career development in teacher education. The second paper, "Teacher Education: The Quest for Quality" (Motilal Sharma), looks at issues in teacher education in Asia, including World Bank involvement and regional cooperation. The third paper, "A Critique of Policy and Practice in India and Bangladesh" (Adarsh Khanna), analyzes preservice and inservice teacher education in India and Bangladesh, the chief strengths of the Indian and Bangladesh systems, and the importance of aid agency projects. The fourth paper, "Initial Teacher Training in Pakistan" (Haroona Jatoi), explores preservice and inservice teacher training in Pakistan. (Individual papers contains references.) (ND)

This publication is one of two prepared for a South Asian Colloquium on issues related to teacher training in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The papers in this volume focus on innovations and alternative strategies designed to improve quality in teacher education at preservice phase. The publication is in five sections. The first four sections were prepared by the respective national Ministries of Education. Section 1 is on Bangladesh and includes an overview of literacy and primary education and a discussion of provisions for initial training of teachers, the funding of education, and problems and remedies. Section 2, on India, includes a brief history of India's educational system, a review of key issues in the National Policy of Education, a discussion of issues facing Indian educators in the nineties, and several data tables. Pakistan is the focus of section 3 which looks at historical perspectives on teacher training, training of elementary and secondary teachers, qualifications for teacher educators, innovations in teacher training, analysis of teacher training programs, financing of teacher education, and recommendations for future development. The fourth section is on Sri Lanka and covers inservice and preservice teacher education, successful innovations in teacher training, problems and issues, and statistical information. The final section is an overview by Beatrice Avalos which summarizes the educational context and the characteristics, issues, and alternatives of teacher education in general and in each of the four countries. (Individual sections contain references.) (ND)

This paper reviews research and evaluates information gathered on disabilities and service development in South Asia, especially India and Pakistan. The concept of "community-based rehabilitation" (CBR), which stresses the need for rehabilitation efforts rooted in the context of local cultural concepts, is discussed. The paper emphasizes the necessity of integrating philosophical and anthropological perspectives into disability information development and community-based rehabilitation programs. The paper recommends rehabilitation efforts that incorporate indigenous disability-related practices, such as casual educational integration, and that integrate local concepts of the child, personhood, ability, disability, and relationships. A review of South Asian information resources, especially those concerning mental retardation, suggests the difficulty of developing indigenous knowledge production when Western material is easily accessible. The historical development of some Asian and European community responses to disability is outlined as background for a description of the rise of CBR programs in India and Pakistan during the 1980s. Among issues discussed are CBR training, information technology, program evaluation, and the roles of foreign rehabilitation professionals and aid and development organizations. (Contains 247 references.) (DB)

This paper discusses issues related to developments in computer and communication technologies in south Asia. The first section considers the Internet and its impact. Paradigm shifts and globalization are addressed in the second section, including the shifts away from stand alone libraries to library and information networks, ownership to access, just-in-case to just-in-time, print-based publications to digital documents, stand alone libraries to networked systems, intermediary model to end-user model, command-based systems to menu-based systems, linear to non-linear mode of access, hierarchical to non-hierarchical systems, one-way dissemination of information to interactive communication, bundling of scholarly journal to unbundling, stability to instability, physical format to formless data, and top-down to bottom-up systems. The third section examines the existing gaps and inequality between and within developed and developing countries. South Asia and its problems are described in the fourth section, including geographical, socioeconomic, and political factors, as well as steps in the direction of regional cooperation and socioeconomic development such as SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and SAPTA (SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement). The conclusion points out the need to coordinate and consolidate the resources and services of different types of libraries in South Asia and describes some resource sharing programs in the region. Contains 32 references. (MES)

A discussion of the Sindhi language diaspora, the biradari, across India and Pakistan looks at the implications of this geographic dispersal for the cohesion of the Sindhi-speaking community and culture. Three sociocultural characteristics of the scattered population are identified: urbanization; near-universal literacy; and bilingualism. Patterns of ethnic/linguistic identity and language choice in various cultural circumstances are also examined. Rapidly changing patterns of ethnic mix in previously Sindh areas are identified. It is concluded that information technology offers a means for continued connection and networking within the now geographically dispersed Sindh community. Contains 17 references. (MSE)

In many Asian countries the ratio of male to female population is higher than in the West: as high as 1.07 in China and India, and even higher in Pakistan. A number of authors (most notably Amartya Sen) have suggested that this imbalance reflects excess female mortality and have argued that as many as 100 million women are "missing." This paper proposes an explanation for some of the observed overrepresentation of men: the hepatitis B virus. I present new evidence, consistent with an existing scientific literature, that carriers of the hepatitis B virus have offspring sex ratios around 1.50 boys for each girl. This evidence includes both cross-country analyses and a natural experiment based on recent vaccination campaigns. Hepatitis B is common in many Asian countries, especially China, where some 10-15 percent of the population is infected. Using data on prevalence of the virus by country and estimates of the effect of hepatitis on the sex ratio, I argue that hepatitis B can account for about 45 percent of the "missing women": around 75 percent in China, between 20 and 50 percent in Egypt and western Asia, and under 20 percent in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. (Contains 29 notes, 12 tables, and 3 appendixes.)

Pennsylvania high school seniors who were tested on their knowledge of South Asian geography, history, political science, and culture knew little about this politically important region. The sample included 684 urban and rural students from high and low income families who answered 43 multiple choice questions on knowledge, interests, and attitudes about South Asia. Some of the weak areas included confusion about American relationships with Pakistan and India; incorrectly identifying India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh on maps; not recognizing India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as former British colonies; and demonstrating uncertainty about religious and ethnic divisions within the area. Student attitudes toward South Asia were neutral to negative, but their attitudes toward South Asians personally were receptive. They were also somewhat interested in learning more about the culture of the region. Appendices include information about participating high schools and the breakdown for answers to 12 of the 43 questions used on the multiple choice test. (IS)