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This article reports on a small case study of the impact of instructional materials on students, and the impact of high-stakes testing in Kenya on those who fail; who, because there is very limited employment, are potentially open to radicalisation. The setting is secondary schools in Kenya which, after the 1998 attacks by al-Quaeda and later inter- and intra-community conflicts during the 2008 election, has seen a resurgence in externally sponsored terrorism, this time from Al-Shabaab, with reports that Kenya youth were involved. The case study involved examinations of texts on government, history, politics and religion; interviews with directors, teachers and students at four secondary schools, based partly on scripts extracted from those texts. On the advice of the teachers, we included discussion of the literature the students were exposed to which addressed more directly issues of corruption, democracy, etc. We also had discussions with the Kenyan Institute for Curriculum Development. All groups of interviewees were concerned with growing radicalisation, and saw the examination system, which encouraged rote teaching and learning as against critical thinking and led to large numbers of failed students without any job skills in a precarious employment market, prone to inducements from Al-Shabaab.

It has often been lamented that girls are more likely not to attend or to drop-out (for example, because of gender preference by the parents, insecurity, pregnancy, amongst many other postulated factors) or that their achievement even if they stay in school is worse than boys. For the former, UNESCO introduced the Gender Parity Index (GPI), which measures the relative participation of boys and girls at each schooling level, reflecting the enthusiasm and motivation both of girls relative to boys and of their parents' priorities for their daughters and sons. The purpose of this research note is to explain how the analysis of girls' educational performance would also benefit from the comparison of the achievement of girls and boys, with GPI-A measuring the ratio of girls' achievement to boys' achievement.

The devolution of decision-making authority to schools has been widely adopted as the preferred model by many international agencies, including the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), as it is assumed that locating decision-making authority within schools will increase accountability, efficiency and responsiveness to local needs. Often described as 'school-based' or 'community based' management, the devolution of decision-making authority to schools includes a wide variety of models and mechanisms. For the purposes of this review, 'school-based decision-making' includes any model in which at least some of the responsibility for making decisions about planning, management and/or the raising or allocation of resources is located within schools and their proximal institutions (e.g. community organisations), as opposed to government authorities at the central, regional or district level. This review aims to answer the following overarching review question: "What is the evidence around how decentralising decision-making to the school level affects educational outcomes in low and middle income contexts (LMICs)"? This broad question has been broken down into two discrete sub-questions: (1) What is the impact of school-based decision-making on educational outcomes in LMICs? and (2) What are the barriers to (and enablers of) effective models of school-based decision-making?

In developing countries, population estimates and assessments of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals are based increasingly on household surveys. It is not recognised that they are inappropriate for obtaining information about the poorest of the poor. Typically, they omit "by design:" those not in households because they are homeless; those who are in institutions; and mobile, nomadic or pastoralist populations. In addition, "in practice," because they are difficult to reach, household surveys will typically under-represent: those in fragile, disjointed or multiple occupancy households; those in urban slums; and may omit certain areas of a country because of security considerations. This article reviews estimates of the numbers of children in each sub-group, focussing on countries endorsed by the Fast Track Initiative, and estimates that 21 million rather than 14 million children are out-of-school in those countries; and that worldwide 115 million rather than 67.5 million are out-of-school. Methods of improving population counts are briefly discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 4 notes.)

In 2003, donors combined together in Vietnam to support the provision of quality primary schooling for 226 disadvantaged districts (about a third of the country). US $160 million was invested in infrastructure, materials and training across the 226 districts. The programme has been commended by donors and received good press inside Vietnam. Comparison of achievement surveys in 2001 and 2007 showed, however, that there had been a decline in performance in the targeted districts. This article explores various hypotheses as to how this could have happened; and in particular the increasing amounts spent by better-off households on their children's education.

Background: This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations. Objectives: This study aims to increase the evidence base available on costs by examining adult literacy programme costs in the context of operational details and budgeting processes. It was intended to add to the limited amount of data currently available, and to provide broad recommendations regarding the calculation of costs. Methodology: In addition to estimates relating to costing currently available in the published literature, details of nine successful adult literacy programmes were obtained through a combination of web-searches, documentation received from organisers in response to an open-ended e-mail questionnaire and telephone calls. These are described, together with a presentation of their cost structure and our calculation of their unit costs. Particular attention was paid to "hidden" costs in terms of central or provincial government costs, to contributions by NGOs and other partners and to in-kind contributions in examining the new empirical data. Findings: Information from this study suggests that a realistic estimate of the costs of making an adult literate would be a minimum of US$100, the maximum estimate currently stated in LIFE documents. Despite an up to fivefold variation in unit costs with little obvious reason for this, the large diversity in modalities, objectives and target audience of the programmes explains much of the wide range in unit costs remarked upon by other authors. Conclusions: We believe that it would be premature for any country to pre-define the appropriate costing structures, and what is an allowable range of unit costs, based on this information. Recommendations are made for what factors should be taken into account when calculating unit costs. Each country should consider making an inventory of the large scale programmes that exist or are being developed as a preliminary step to deciding whether or not it is appropriate to impose a costing framework or proposing a specific range of unit costs. However, there is a demonstrable need for more general agreement about the components that should be considered in any costing of an adult literacy programme. Significance: This study contributes to the evidence base for developing a framework for analysing and allocating the costs of non-formal adult education projects in a manner to facilitate future planning. (Contains 8 tables.)