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Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning points in children's lives--such as "graduating" from kindergarten to primary school or going through a culturally specific rite of passage--provide challenges and opportunities for learning and growth on multiple levels. This paper provides a review of the major perspectives in research on early childhood transitions and reveals the predominant areas of focus in both academic and professional studies, as well as important neglected viewpoints and study populations. Beginning with a broad and inclusive definition of the topic, the authors provide an overview of early childhood transitions research, highlighting the underlying assumptions that informed the studies. They assess concepts in the developmental theory that preceded transitions research as well as in the logic that determines how transitions are structured. More recent approaches are examined, including systems theories and the role of children as active participants in transitions. Several examples in this review show how multidisciplinary collaboration and culturally sensitive interventions can result in better participation of both parents and children in crucial early childhood transitions. Citing the need to harmonise early childhood education and care programmes with local education practices, the authors stress the value of greater transparency in the creation of policy and programming for children, in order to identify potentially limiting assumptions. Broadening and diversifying perspectives on transitions can lead to more integrated and culturally relevant rights-based early childhood programmes worldwide. A glossary and a bibliography are included. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

One of the salient concerns in contemporary higher education internationally is access, which is rapidly expanding. Another salient trend is the rapid expansion of private higher education. These two salient tendencies have not been treated in scholarship as heavily intertwined. Much of the reason is that many people associate "private" with "elite," in part because of the U.S. reality of leading private universities clearly associated with elite functioning. In much of the rest of the world, suspicion of privates runs deep and there is little disposition to couple the negative connotations of private with the positive connotations of access. Yet as enrolment has been rising rapidly and keeps increasing, there are strong limitations on what can be accommodated through public higher education. Practically, either access is spurned, widely considered politically, socially, and even economically untenable or there must be explosive growth of private higher education. This is largely a matter of demand for higher education greatly outdistancing at least the public supply of higher education. Thus, much of the link between access and private higher education concerns "demand-absorbing" institutions, which is not to overlook more specialized avenues of access to other types of private institutions. At any rate private higher education has grown powerfully in recent decades and seems destined to grow further. India is a marked case of still very low cohort enrolment in higher education but with great demand and rapid private growth. (Contains 10 endnotes.) [This working paper is slightly revised from a presentation at the PROPHE Panel on Access and Private Higher Education at the 52nd CIES Annual Conference, March 20, 2008.]

The object of this paper is to analyze the concepts of "entrepreneurship" and "entrepreneurial university" in the broader context of globalization, technological innovations and the emergence of knowledge-based and technology-driven economies. Instead of epistemological and organizational forms of knowledge production and dissemination, the universities today are required to play a protagonist role by training productive intellectual resource and generation of new knowledge that could be converted into wealth or social gains. They are no longer confined to teaching "about" entrepreneurship but are actively engaged in teaching "for" entrepreneurship. Instead of preparing their students for seamless path to work, the universities are required to prepare them for uncertainties, complexities and vulnerabilities in future. Besides highlighting some of the issues at stake, an attempt is made to understand the economics, philosophy and legality behind the whole idea of entrepreneurial universities in general and in India, in particular. The idea of social entrepreneurship is also introduced in the context of India. The methodology adopted is analytical, descriptive and empirical. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The 21st century has brought new challenges and opportunities for higher education. In the wake of the transition from elitist to mass education, universities worldwide are under pressure to enhance access and equity, on the one hand, and to maintain high standards of quality and excellence, on the other. Today the notion of equity not only implies greater access to higher education, but also opportunities for progress. In recent debates on higher education, the notions of equity and access go beyond minority to diversity. Affirmative action, too, has become race-exclusive and gender-neutral. The following paper makes an attempt to understand the nuances of a caste-based reservation policy in higher education in light of recent controversies, court verdicts, a subsequent amendment to the constitution in India; and affirmative action policies, court verdicts, and alternatives to affirmative action in certain universities in the US. The objective is to bring out commonalities and contrasts between the two countries in terms of legal, political, socio-cultural, economic, and psychological perspectives.

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)

The United States has long enjoyed being on the cutting edge in its devotion to building a vibrant higher education sector. After a century of leading the world in participation rates in higher education, however, there are strong indications that America's advantage is waning. The academic research enterprise remains relatively vibrant. However, participation and degree attainment rates have leveled off and are showing signs of actual decline in a number of major states with large populations--and this seems to be more than just a bump or short-term market correction. Other competitive nations, and in particular key members of the European Union, along with China, India and other developing economies, are aggressively nurturing their higher education systems, expanding access, and better positioning themselves in the global economy. They have been trying harder, while in the US public funding for higher education has declined. The nation's international and domestic concerns lie elsewhere. In addition to outlining these reasons that America's higher education advantage is waning, this article also discusses the possible consequences. (Contains 53 notes.)

Decentralization and an increased emphasis on community and parent participation represent significant education reform trends over the past decade. These reforms take place in the context of increased emphasis within Education for All (EFA) on improving education quality and outcomes and on strengthening accountability for results. They require that substantial information be available to local and regional stakeholders, school officials, and communities in order to increase transparency, establish a basis for accountability, and provide tools for effective management at the local level. Parents, teachers, school officials, and other stakeholders must be able to assess school performance and status. A number of countries are experimenting with school-level information systems known as "school report cards" to increase accountability and transparency. These systems have different formats and purposes, ranging from strict accountability systems that measure student performance to participatory diagnostic and management tools that support school managers. Efforts are relatively novel, and substantial evaluation information is not yet available. The purpose of this report is to present the various types of school report cards and information systems currently being used and establish a typology for understanding the range of audiences and purposes for such systems, as well as the continuum of cost and sophistication involved.

"Can You Hear Me? The Right of Young Children to Participate in Decisions Affecting Them" emphasises that participation enhances children's self-esteem and confidence, promotes their overall capacities, produces better outcomes, strengthens understanding of and commitment to democratic processes and protects children more effectively. Participation provides the opportunity for developing a sense of autonomy, independence, heightened social competence and resilience. The benefits are therefore significant, and adults with both direct and indirect responsibility for children need to acquire a greater humility in recognising that they have a great deal to learn from children. But the case for listening to young children goes beyond the beneficial outcomes. It is also a matter of social injustice and human rights. All people, however young, are entitled to be participants in their own lives, to influence what happens to them, to be involved in creating their own environments, to exercise choices and to have their views respected and valued. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

There is hardly any estimate of returns to schooling in India based on national level representative data for the recent period. This paper provides estimates of the economic returns to education in India by gender, age cohort, and location (by rural-urban) for the most recent period 1993-94, and also evaluates the changes in returns over a period of time from 1983-94 using national level representative household survey data. These are the only national surveys in India that provide information on the wages and some of the labor market characteristics of individuals. The data show that the returns to education increases up to the secondary level and declines thereafter. There is evidence of substantial gender and rural-urban differences in the returns to schooling. The returns to women's education for the primary and middle levels have declined while those for secondary and college levels have increased during 1983-94. Also discussed briefly are the structure of education and the labor market in India. Includes 6 notes. (Contains 21 references and 13 tables.) (BT)

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)

India took a decisive step towards universal basic education by proclaiming a constitutionally-guaranteed Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2009 that called for full access of children aged 6-14 to free schooling. This paper considers the offsetting effects to RTE from induced expansion of private tutoring in the educationally competitive districts of India. We develop a unique database of registrations of new private educational institutions offering tutorial services by local district between 2001-2015. We estimate the causal impact of RTE on private supplemental education by comparing the growth of these private tutorial institutions in districts identified a priori as having very competitive educational markets to those that had less competitive educational markets. We find a strong impact of RTE on the private tutoring market and show that this holds across alternative definitions of highly competitive districts and a variety of robustness checks, sensitivity analyses, and controls. Finally, we provide descriptive evidence that these private tutoring schools do increase the achievement (and competitiveness) of students able to afford them.

A collection of essays on European language policy, each by one or both of the authors, are: "Lessons for Europe from Language Policy in Australia"; "English Only Worldwide, or Language Ecology"; "Minority Workers or Minority Human Beings? A European Dilemma"; "Educational Language Choice--Multilingual Diversity or Monolingual Reductionism?"; "Linguicide and Linguicism"; "A Historical Outline of British Policy for the Spread of English"; "Is India Throwing Away Its Language Resources?"; reviews of two publications on language policy; reviews of Normand Labrie's "La construction linguistique de la Communaute europeenne" and Christina Bratt Paulston's "Linguistic Minorities in Multilingual Settings"; and "Language Policy," a proposed 5-year policy plan for Denmark, written in Danish. Each of the papers was written as part of a project on language policy in contemporary Europe, supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. Some are papers presented at conferences worldwide, and others were written for publication. (MSE)

Immigration and domestic industrial policies have been powerful instruments in the creation of immigrant "niches" in labor markets. While Indians have clustered in the information technology industry, Mexicans have formed niches in low-skilled industries such as agriculture. A review of the relationship between immigration policy and the requirements of the information technology industry reveals two important conclusions. First, immigration policy changes of the mid-1960s facilitated the immigration of Indians with high levels of education. Asians and Africans could not use family reunification to enter the United States, so the only path open to them was the use of occupational skills. This explains why these immigrants are so highly educated and why they concentrate in high-tech industries. On the other hand, Mexican immigrants constitute the largest group of unskilled workers because economic and social costs of immigration are lessened by geographical propinquity. In addition, specific U.S. immigration policies, direct recruitment, and the development of social networks have encouraged the immigration of unskilled workers. The departure of IBM from India in 1978, and the failure of the country to develop a domestic viable computer industry forced most Indian users to rely on imports. Thus, during the 1970s and 1980s Indian programmers learned how to work on a variety of platforms. In contrast, Mexico has solidified its role as the preferred location for the electronics manufacturing industry. (Contains 33 references.) (TD)

A study investigated the impact of training on women's micro-enterprise development in four programs in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Sudan. Research design was a series of case studies of projects and programs providing training in technical or business skills. Impact of training was measured against these four indicators: income, access to and control of resources, status, and quality of life. The study examined the training process to find out in what specific ways training helped women to improve and expand their micro-enterprises. The sample in each country consisted of two groups: women about to undergo training (focus of the study) and women who had already received training; 74 women participated. The study showed poor women needed training to develop skills and self-confidence to allow them to operate and survive in the informal sector; access to credit is important but not sufficient for the poorest women; the impact of training and increased income varied in strength but could be negative as well as positive; well-designed and well-delivered training could lead to increased income that could lead to improved self-esteem and status in the household and community; effectively delivered training developed enhanced survival strategies in women; training provided to groups in a participatory model was an empowering and liberating experience for women; and training in generic business skills was more effective than training in technical skills. (Appendixes include 61 references.) (YLB)

During 1997-98, a research team from the University of Leeds investigated the effectiveness of teacher resource centers (TRCs) as a strategy for teacher development in developing nations. The study included a literature review and fieldwork in four countries (India, Kenya, Nepal, and Zambia). The study examined the extent to which TRCs helped improve the environment for learning in schools and the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. It also examined issues surrounding TRCs and how TRCs were affected by those issues. Data collection involved literature reviews and observations and interviews at TRCs and in schools in the four countries. Results indicated that it was very difficult for TRCs to achieve their goal of improving teachers' classroom performance and thus positively impacting teaching and learning, because they were detached from work at schools. Overall, the TRCs and their inservice courses were used very little in all four countries and made little significant contribution to improved teaching and learning in schools. Teachers had to leave their classes to go to TRC activities, so the TRCs actually contributed to teacher absenteeism. Sustainability depended on outside resources, particularly international donors. (Contains 227 references.) (SM)

This project is the result of a three year study of a sample of secondary schools in Botswana, India, Northern Ireland, and Zimbabwe. The study is backed up by longer interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, an audit of the curriculum, a review of educational materials, and an examination of the teacher education available. A questionnaire was administered to 915 students aged 14 and 16 in 23 schools. The study was designated as a key Commonwealth contribution to the United Nations Decade of Human Rights Education. It looked at how the education systems are currently providing an infrastructure for human rights in these member states. The project concentrated on: (1) how national commitments to human rights instruments are reflected in the school curriculum; (2) whether young people are acquiring basic concepts in selected dimensions of human rights; (3) what the difference two years of study makes to the understanding of young people; (4) whether there are any significant variations between countries (by gender or between different types of school within the same country); (5) what are the key priorities identified for strengthening this area of the curriculum; and (6) what scope there is for Commonwealth cooperation in the future. (Contains 45 references.) (BT)

This paper offers a broad look at accreditation and quality assurance in higher education and how these issues are addressed around the world. Section 1 is an overview of accreditation and addresses the aims and objectives of accreditation, standards, accreditation bodies, stages of the accreditation process, the quality of that process, the role of government in the accreditation process, some critical points of view concerning the process, and present accreditation trends. Section 2 looks at accreditation and quality assurance through brief national case studies. The nations represented are France, Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, China, India, Hong Kong, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Australia. This section closes with a section comparing accreditation and quality assurance in various regions. Section 3 takes a closer and more detailed look at the accreditation process in Romania, particularly in light of the recent political and educational changes in this nation and the fairly recent decision to introduce accreditation of institutions of higher education. This examination covers accreditation principles and objectives, standards for initial and subsequent accreditation, application rules, structure of the accreditation committee and its functions, and provisions for financing accreditation. Appendixes contain institutional evaluation standards and a glossary. (Contains 27 references.) (JB)

A group of 100 randomly selected women living in the resettlement colony of Ambedkernager in South Delhi, India, who had participated in colony's Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) were interviewed regarding their participation in the TLC. Of the 100 women, 34 had attended school earlier. Four of the 34 women were still attending school. Most respondents were motivated to join the TLC by young literacy volunteers living in their neighborhoods. Although most women joined the TLC on their own initiative, most had husbands, parents, or children who supported their participation in the campaign. Most respondents had positive opinions about the literacy volunteers; however, not all of them liked attending literacy classes. Although all the respondents had completed the three TLC primers, only 16% were able to reach the National Literacy Mission norm when tested. By and large, the respondents did not use their newly acquired reading, writing, and numeracy skills in their everyday lives. When asked whether literacy had changed their personal and family lives, many respondents did not initially answer positively. When probed, however, they acknowledged some changes in their lives after acquiring literacy skills. (Contains 28 references.) (MN)

This publication is a companion volume to a research report that examined local, national, and international interventions and initiatives aimed at promoting education and training for the informal sector. It provides four case studies on types of initiatives being taken by a wide range of actors in the area of education and training. "Ghana" (Osei Boeh-Ocansey) addresses how the government realizes that employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy will continue to be limited; therefore, educational reforms are now emphasizing the acquisition of skills that promote self-employment and entrepreneurship. "Kenya" (Henry Oketch) reviews strategies that individuals, the government, and nonprofit organizations are using to improve skills in the informal sector. It identifies nine different types of agencies or processes providing skills for self-employment. "India" (Keith D'Souza, Liza Thomas) focuses on the activities of four nongovernmental organizations working in the field of nonformal education in the state of Gujarat. Their emphasis is on capacity building rather than on employment generation or job skill development. "Chile" (Graciela Messina) compares two training programs for unemployed youth to develop a series of reflections on the role that training for the informal sector ought to play. It concludes that the government is more concerned with employment policies than with training policies. (YLB)