Search

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the information from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) regarding adults with low literacy and numeracy proficiency. The paper first describes the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of these populations. Although, they are more likely than the rest of the population to exhibit certain characteristics, such as lower levels of educational attainment, lower rates of unemployment or more disadvantaged backgrounds, adults with low literacy are found in among all socio-demographic groups and in all walks of life. The paper then explores the frequency with which adults with low proficiency engage in the reading, writing and numeracy practices and the relationship between these practices and a range of social and economic outcomes. For most outcomes, levels of engagement in literacy practices appear to be as strong predictors as proficiency, indicating the importance of encouraging more intense use of these skills both in and outside of work. The unique data from the Survey of Adult Skills regarding performance on the simple reading tasks (the so called "reading components") is also analysed. Adults with low proficiency are found to be able to easily recognise commonly used words in printed form but often have difficulty with processing the logic of sentences and reading extended passages for basic meaning. Adults with low proficiency are considerably less likely than their more proficient peers to participate in formal or non-formal adult education or training programmes, which is mostly due to the socio-demographic and employment characteristics of this population. However, the lower participation rates among the low proficient adults does not appear to be a consequence of their lack of motivation as much as of the presence of various obstacles to participation, such as lack of time and the cost of training. PIAAC Methodology for Measuring AET [Adult education and training] and two supplemental tables are provided in an annex. Individual chapters contain references.

Many educational institutions are developing or expanding open and distance learning (ODL) programs, and all face difficulties ensuring that teaching materials of the right quality are developed on time. This report examines solutions to the problem, focusing on training, policies, and management structures that encourage timely development of good materials. Section 1 examines the training of course development staff in ODL. The data come from: surveys of educational institutions worldwide; case studies; in-house or published training literature; a literature review; and discussions with leading professionals. Two distinctions emerge as critical in developing training policies and practices: the distinction between industrialized and developing countries and between single- and dual-mode institutions. Descriptions of staff and materials development in targeted institutions are offered, as well as an examination of what remains to be done. Section 2 examines policies and management structures designed to encourage timely development of good materials. Surveys of practice in universities and colleges in developing and industrialized countries examine how writers of ODL course materials are rewarded (focusing on payment and benefits provided), and examine some of the policies and practices developed. (SM)

A substantial amount of money is spent on technology by schools, families and policymakers with the hope of improving educational outcomes. This paper explores the theoretical and empirical literature on the impacts of technology on educational outcomes. The literature focuses on two primary contexts in which technology may be used for educational purposes: i) classroom use in schools, and ii) home use by students. Theoretically, ICT investment and CAI use by schools and the use of computers at home have ambiguous implications for educational achievement: expenditures devoted to technology necessarily offset inputs that may be more or less efficient, and time allocated to using technology may displace traditional classroom instruction and educational activities at home. However, much of the evidence in the schooling literature is based on interventions that provide supplemental funding for technology or additional class time, and thus favor finding positive effects. Nonetheless, studies of ICT and CAI in schools produce mixed evidence with a pattern of null results. Notable exceptions to this pattern occur in studies of developing countries and CAI interventions that target math rather than language. In the context of home use, early studies based on multivariate and instrumental variables approaches tend to find large positive (and in a few cases negative) effects while recent studies based on randomized control experiments tend to find small or null effects. Early research focused on developed countries while more recently several experiments have been conducted in developing countries.

With fewer than three years until the planned end-date of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), attention is rapidly turning to what will follow. The elaboration of the next global development agenda is a complex, multipronged process that is academic, political and practical, involving experts from a myriad of social and economic sectors and representing a cross-section of constituencies. While the formal U.N. process is still in the early stages, the ongoing discourse (predominantly occurring in the global north, but not exclusively) has introduced several potential frameworks for this agenda. This paper describes the leading frameworks proposed for the post-2015 global development agenda and discusses how education and learning fit within each of those frameworks. While many within the education community are working to develop a cohesive movement to advance an "access plus learning" agenda, it remains equally important to engage proactively with the broader development community to ensure that education fits within the agreed upon overarching organizing framework. The frameworks described below represent a snapshot of current thinking in 2012. On the road to 2015, the education community will need to refine and sharpen its thinking with respect to how learning is incorporated into the prevailing framework. The seven frameworks that will be addressed in this paper are: (1) Ending Absolute Poverty; (2) Equity and Inclusion; (3) Economic Growth and Jobs; (4) Getting to Zero; (5) Global Minimum Entitlements; (6) Sustainable Development; and (7) Well-Being and Quality of Life. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table, 6 footnotes, and 66 endnotes.)

This paper provides an overview of the available information concerning selected policy instruments intended to promote employer-provided training, including the stated rationale and objectives, the target groups and operational design as well as a at a summary of the evaluative evidence regarding their operation. The analysis focuses on policy instruments providing financial assistance or incentives, specifically, subsidies (including tax incentives and grants) and levy schemes that devote a least some share of their resources to continuing training. Training leave regulations are considered only to the extent that they can be treated as a form of subsidy or a levy scheme, depending on the main financing mechanism involved. Instruments that focus solely on improving the quality of training or enhancing transparency in the training market are not addressed. In addition to offering a description of different instruments, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses (or risks and opportunities, respectively) of different types of instrument or particular elements of instrument design. It also specifies principles of successful instrument design that have been put forth in the literature and concludes with some remarks regarding the choice of policies. Training funds in combination with levy schemes in OECD and non-OECD countries are appended. Individual sections contain endnotes. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

The role of education in development is discussed in this paper as one of a number of issues in education in developing countries, including recent changes in population and technology that render traditional methods of imparting instruction inadequate. The concept of distance education is presented with reference to specific applications in Asia and the Pacific, and involvement of the World Bank and of the Asian Development Bank in distance education are briefly described. Areas recommended for consideration by participants in the regional seminar on distance education at which this paper was presented are summarized as follows: (1) the future role of distance education in human resource development; (2) strategies for implementing this role in relation to overall socioeconomic goals of countries; (3) new models involving modern communication technologies for ensuring the success of strategies suggested; (4) strategies for ensuring quality of distance education programs while enlarging their scope to cover the disadvantaged groups of society; (5) appropriate methods of ensuring academic status to distance education while retaining its flexibility and relevance to techno-economic realities; (6) internal efficiency and external relevance of distance education; and (7) international cooperation and assistance in promoting distance education. (MES)

Economic and cultural globalisation has ushered in a new era in higher education. Higher education was always more internationally open than most sectors because of its immersion in knowledge, which never showed much respect for juridical boundaries. In global knowledge economies, higher education institutions are more important than ever as mediums for a wide range of cross-border relationships and continuous global flows of people, information, knowledge, technologies, products and financial capital. Even as they share in the reinvention of the world around them, higher education institutions, and the policies that produce and support them, are also being reinvented. For the first time in history every research university is part of a single world-wide network and the world leaders in the field have an unprecedented global visibility and power. Research is more internationalised than before and the mobility of doctoral students and faculty has increased. The specifically global element in academic labour markets has gained weight, especially since the advent of global university rankings. This working paper explores the issues for national policy and for individual institutions. Part I provides an overview of globalisation and higher education and the global responses of national systems and individual institutions of higher education. Part II is focused on certain areas of policy with a strong multilateral dimension: Europeanisation, institutional rankings and typologies and cross-border mobility. (Contains 53 footnotes, 1 figure and 6 tables.)

Conflict's path of devastation and chaos has dramatically slowed the ability of war-torn countries to reach the Education for All (EFA) goals adopted in Dakar (April 2000). This paper describes the situation confronting children, their families, and governments in conflict countries and describes the challenges of reaching universal primary education. The most logical starting point lies in supporting emergency education where it exists and dramatically expanding access to education where it does not exist. Yet, most primary-age children in war-affected areas are not in school and have no realistic hope of enrolling in one. Forced migrant children in refugee and Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps and settlements have a better chance of attending school. Education for and efforts to engage with youth remain limited. Youth programming, when it does exist, is usually poorly supported, and may not offer much hope in terms of opening employment and income opportunities. Periods before and immediately after conflicts require careful policy development. Preparedness planning and contingent strategies require attention. The paper also warns against top-down, material-based educational solutions. It is divided into five sections: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Background: Children and War"; (3) "Educating Children Affected by Conflict: Current Experience"; (4) "Recommendations"; and (5) "Conclusion." An annex contains results of analysis of armed conflict on EFA goals from a sample of 12 countries. (Contains 61 references.) (BT)

This document provides an overview of the gender distribution of ICT and ICT-related employment in OECD countries, and ICT employment patterns are contrasted with overall employment to highlight differences. The authors discuss participation in ICT-related education and training, and differences in ICT access and use by gender. Overall, participation rates of women in employment tend to be significantly lower than those for men, although their labour market participation is increasing in most countries. In general, there is a lower share of women in managerial positions, but a higher share than men in many professional occupations, especially in health care and education. In contrast to these general patterns, the gender distribution of ICT employment is an outlier in terms of both women's participation and shifts in the share of women in ICT-related employment. Women have low shares of ICT-specialist employment and these shares rarely show an increase. Among ICT-using occupations women tend to have higher shares of office and secretarial occupations and lower shares in scientific and professional ones. Women have increased their share in higher education, across most areas of education, particularly in the arts, education and health-related education. However the share of women remains low in engineering and even lower in computer science. Although informal assistance from colleagues and learning-by-doing are important ways of acquiring computer skills for all, for women more formal types of training courses may be relatively more important than for men in some countries. ICT access by women tends to lag that of men: although gaps are generally declining, they remain large in older age groups, and in areas of newer technologies. There are also differences in from where men and women access the Internet. Men are more likely to access from both home and work in many countries; women are more likely to access from educational establishments. Women are more likely to engage in shopping and health-related activities; men are more likely to play games and visit sports pages. These differences are present for all age groups. This analysis suggests that for both equity and efficiency reasons gender differences in ICT occupations, education, access and use need to be addressed, that further, more detailed, analytical work on the evolution of ICT occupations, education and use should be undertaken and that the effects of policy on women and ICTs should be analysed in detail. (A bibliography is included. Contains 9 footnotes, 36 figures and 3 tables.)

In Europe and Central Asia, the poor face three problems: (1) the education system as a whole does not work well, and hence fails to meet their needs; (2) the private cost of education has risen, so that "education," as a commodity, competes with other consumption goods in shrinking household budgets; and (3) the perceived benefits of education (in terms of higher wage earnings) are still low, thereby undermining long-term incentives to invest in education. This paper shows the discrepancy between Central European and former Soviet Union countries in the contribution of "education" in explaining wage earnings inequality. The discrepancy can be explained by factors such as the degree of private sector development and the flexibility of the labor market. Although there remains a"taste" for education in Europe and Central Asia, there is also a risk that low-income groups drop out of the education system and irreversibly fall into poverty. (Contains 27 notes, 7 figures, 9 tables, 4 annexes, and 82 references.) (Author/BT)

Reasons underlying the growth of interest in Asia and the Pacific region in educational computing and issues raised by such developments are examined in this paper, which begins by describing three main areas of use of microcomputers in schools--for teaching computer studies, for computer assisted learning, and for school adminstration. Reasons for microcomputer use are considered as well as internal and external influences that affect the decision to incorporate computers in school activities: (1) the need to relate education to the needs of the economy; (2) parental pressures; (3) pupils' expectations; (4) the need to facilitate data processing for reporting to external groups; (5) the need for better information for decision making; (6) demands for increased efficiency; (7) assumptions of increased learning effectiveness; (8) push from technical experts; and (9) marketing policies of manufacturers and suppliers. Also considered is the impact of the introduction of computers in schools on teaching methods, curriculum content, and the organizational structure of schools. Issues that are likely to arise with the use of microcomputers in schools are discussed, e.g., funding, suitable computer programs, teacher training, equipment requirements, cost effectiveness, responsibility for computer use and management, and contingency plans for equipment breakdowns. The importance of feasibility and cost benefit studies and consideration of the organizational, behavioral, and managerial issues involved in planning for computer based programs in schools is emphasized. Twenty references are provided. (MES)

International experience with student loans as a means of financing higher education is examined, with particular reference to developing countries. After summarizing the main purposes and kinds of student loan programs and practices in developed countries, advantages and disadvantages of loans as a means of financing higher education are identified. Specific attention is directed to Latin America and the Caribbean, including the scale of student loan programs, administration of educational credit institutions, the financing of student loans, repayment terms, the cost of administering student loans, and default on student loans. Additionally, student loan programs in Asia, the Middle East, Ghana, and other African countries are addressed. Loan programs in developing countries are also evaluated in terms of feasibility, as a means of cost recovery, flexibility, efficiency, equity, manpower, and administration. The roles of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank in funding student loan institutions are examined. Finally, the choice between student loans and other methods of financing higher education is addressed, and policy options for student loan programs are summarized. Information on educational credit institutions in Latin America and a bibliography are appended. (SW)

Recent trends in science education associated with the evolution of science curriculum development centers in the Asian region are reviewed. These trends, and factors influencing them, are discussed under the following headings: science education and curriculum development centers; adaptation phase; shifts toward indigenous programs; science education, rural development, and informal education; science equipment; decentralization and dissemination; regional cooperation; and research and development. The role in promoting the trends at three centers is also discussed. The centers include Science Education Centre of the University of the Philippines and the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology of Thailand (examples of national centers) and the regional Centre for Science and Mathematics Education, set up as a training institution for key science education personnel throughout the region. Establishment of the centers, science education research projects, curriculum and instructional material development, science equipment, and teacher training are among the topics discussed. Major accomplishments/progress in science education in southeast Asia are summarized in a concluding section, indicating among others that in-service teaching training has formed a vital and integral part of curriculum development/implementation and is a vital cornerstone in the new programs developed. (Author/JN)

Case study and documentary research techniques were used in this study to identify models of good practice in providing primary education for children with special educational needs in selected Asian countries. The report first synthesizes current trends in primary education for children with special educational needs. It identifies an international and regional shift in the definition of such children and their needs and defines seven principles for a new understanding of "inclusive" universal primary education, such as development of legal frameworks and policy, commitment to a child-centered educational philosophy, and commitment to shared responsibility within communities. Under each principle, the report identifies policy options and current practices, including ways of blending provision for children with special educational needs into regular systems. The report advances the case that without more appropriate and responsive provisions from primary schools, many children will continue not to attend or, if attending, will not succeed and will eventually drop out. The report sounds a warning note that such an education demands major changes in the way in which primary schooling is planned, implemented, and evaluated. Improvements are also called for in materials, curriculum, teaching methods, and professional training. The report concludes with a list of country contributors and consultants and a glossary. Contains approximately 175 references. (JDD)

The growth of international television distribution has resulted in easy access to news, information, and entertainment programs originating in foreign countries. At the same time it has caused some concerns about the spread of values alien to a country's culture or simply irrelevant. The research reported here attempts to quantify the actual use of television programs received from abroad and presents a methodology for use in future studies. Viewing data were collected for multilaterally distributed (satellite), bilaterally distributed (spillover), and nationally distributed television programs in the following samples: (1) 1,000 persons in Bulgaria (planned sample); (2) 1,000 adults in Hungary; (3) 2,420 households in Italy; (4) 2,100 persons in the Netherlands; (5) 2,940 viewers in Sweden; (6) 810 households in Australia; (7) 483 respondents in India; (8) 1,247 respondents in the Philippines; and (9) 845 urban residents in Korea. Although viewing situations differ widely and it is nearly impossible to generalize across countries, results tend to indicate that international programs do not actually occupy the premier place that was expected, nor are they being watched as much as was anticipated, in spite of improved availability. Three figures and 69 tables present study findings. (Contains eight references.) (SLD)