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The Brazilian Politics for Special Education occurs in the perspective of Inclusive Education. It assures to the students with disabilities the appropriate conditions for inclusion in the regular education system. This study aimed to characterize the profile of the students with physical disabilities attending regular school system in the Santa Catarina State, and the conditions for their inclusion. A cross-sectional, documentary study was conducted in November 2017, on data from the Santa Catarina Educational Management System and the Educational Department of this State. Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics. There was a prevalence of males (58%), age between 12 and 18 years (60.1%), 45.3% with intellectual disability, the main diagnosis was cerebral palsy (42%), 62.1% was enrolled at elementary school, and 55,2% studied in their respective grade. Regarding locomotion, most students were wheelchair users (64.2%) and only 7.6% showed no locomotion difficulty. Just over half (51.7%) of schools enrolling students with walking difficulties had spatial accessibility. Only half of the schools enrolling students with walking difficulties presented multifunctional room aimed to specialized educational intervention and 64.7% of these students were accompanied by a second teacher. When considering the needs of the students with physical disabilities, the actual scenario of most schools expound the distance between special education policies and practice. A Política Nacional de Educação Especial na Perspectiva da Educação Inclusiva prevê aos estudantes com deficiência as condições necessárias à inclusão na rede regular de ensino. Este estudo objetivou caracterizar o perfil dos estudantes com deficiência física da rede regular estadual de ensino de Santa Catarina e as condições para sua inclusão. Realizou-se um estudo transversal, documental, dos dados do Sistema de Gestão Educacional de Santa Catarina, em novembro de 2017 e das informações fornecidas pela Secretaria Estadual de Educação. Os dados foram analisados pela estatística descritiva e inferencial. Verificou-se predomínio do sexo masculino (58%), entre 12 e 18 anos (60,1%), associação com a deficiência intelectual (45,3%), diagnóstico mais comum de paralisia cerebral (42%), cursando o ensino fundamental (62,1%) e 55,2% matriculado no ano escolar equivalente à sua idade. Quanto à locomoção, 64,2% era cadeirante e apenas 7,6% não apresentava dificuldade de locomoção. Das escolas com estudantes com dificuldade de locomoção 51,7% apresentava acessibilidade espacial. Apenas metade das escolas com estudantes com deficiência física dispunha de sala de recursos multifuncionais e 64,7% dos estudantes era acompanhado por segundo professor de turma. Considerando as necessidades dos estudantes com deficiência física, a realidade da maioria das escolas evidencia a distância entre o que é preconizado nas políticas de educação especial vigentes e a prática.

Natural disasters and pandemics present as external shocks to Caribbean economies and affect provision of education and learning outcomes through multiple channels. This paper analyzes resilience in the education sector to climate, disaster and health shocks in Caribbean countries through the lenses of continuity of learning during emergency situations, infrastructure and skills.

School Physical education contributes to the enrichment of students’ experience in basic education, giving them access to a large cultural universe. Therefore, for teachers to exploit its content and students to benefit from the experience, the material conditions and infrastructure are important. We would conventionally call this the school environment for physical education. Thus, the purpose of this study consisted in developing an instrument for gathering information to monitor this school environment, for the teaching and practice of physical education. It uses the content proposed in the national curriculum parameters as a reference. The methodology for developing the instrument involved two steps: 1) theoretical procedures, from a literature review and a theoretical systematization and operationalization of items of the questionnaire; 2) submission to expert analysis for semantic and theoretical validation. La Educación Física escolar contribuye para enriquecer la experiencia de los alumnos en la educación básica, viabilizando su acceso a un vasto universo cultural. De este modo, para que sus contenidos sean explorados por los profesores y su experiencia sea aprehendida de manera positiva por los alumnos, es importante que haya condiciones materiales y de infraestructura, que decidimos llamar de ambiente escolar para la Educación Física. Así, la propuesta de este trabajo consistió en la estructuración de un instrumento de recogida de informaciones para el monitoreo del ambiente escolar destinado a la enseñanza y práctica de la Educación Física, siendo su referente los contenidos propuestos en los Parámetros Curriculares Nacionales. La metodología de construcción del instrumento contó con dos etapas:1) procedimientos teóricos vía revisión de literatura y sistematización teórica y su operacionalización en ítems del cuestionario; 2) sumisión al análisis de especialistas para su validación semántica y teórica. A Educação Física escolar contribui para o enriquecimento da experiência dos alunos na educação básica, viabilizando o seu acesso a um vasto universo cultural. Assim, para que seus conteúdos sejam explorados pelos professores e sua experiência seja apreendida de maneira positiva pelos alunos, é importante a existência de condições materiais e de infraestrutura, as quais convencionamos chamar ambiente escolar para a Educação Física. Destarte, a proposta deste trabalho consistiu na estruturação de um instrumento de coleta de informações para o monitoramento do ambiente escolar para o ensino e prática da Educação Física, tendo como referencial os conteúdos propostos nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais. A metodologia de construção do instrumento contou com duas etapas: 1) procedimentos teóricos via revisão de literatura e sistematização teórica e sua operacionalização em itens do questionário; 2) submissão à análise de especialistas para validação semântica e teórica.

Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging technology that improves visualization, understanding, and transparency in construction projects. Its use in Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&amp, C), while still scarce, is developing in combination with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, such as the choosing by advantages (CBA) method. Despite the holistic nature of MCDM methods, the inclusion of life cycle environmental metrics is lagging in construction projects in LA&amp, C. However, recent studies point toward the need to optimize the synergies between BIM and life cycle assessment (LCA), in which a method like CBA could allow improving the quality of the decisions. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to integrate LCA and CBA methods to identify the effect that the inclusion of environmental impacts can have on decision-making in public procurement, as well as comparing how this final decision differs from an exclusively LCA-oriented interpretation of the results. Once the LCA was performed, a set of additional criteria for the CBA method were fixed, including transparency, technical, and social indicators. Thereafter, a stakeholder participative workshop was held in order to gather experts to elucidate on the final decision. The methodology was applied to a relevant construction sector problem modelled with BIM in the city of Lima (Peru), which consisted of three different construction techniques needed to retrofit educational institutions. Results from the LCA-oriented assessment, which was supported by Monte Carlo simulation, revealed a situation in which the masonry-based technique showed significantly lower environmental impacts than the remaining two options. However, when a wider range of technical, social, and transparency criteria are added to the environmental indicators, this low-carbon technique only prevailed in those workshop tables in which environmental experts were present and under specific computational assumptions, whereas teams with a higher proportion of government members were inclined to foster alternatives that imply less bureaucratic barriers. Finally, the results constitute an important milestone when it comes to including environmental factors in public procurement in LA&amp, C.

The purpose of this research is to measure and track trends in education infrastructure of federal subjects of southern federal district by presenting a latent trait approach to data collected by Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation. In this paper, education infrastructure indicators are modeled as questionnaire items, and frequency and continuous integer values are recoded categorically for analysis with a Rasch model for rating scales. This research demonstrates applicability of Rasch models to frequency and continuous integer values by constructing a common dimension for both regions and infrastructure indicators. These results suggest the traditional method of comparing federal subjects with separate indicators may not be taking full advantage of information reported by Federal State Statistics Service. When infrastructure indicators were consolidated into a coherent latent trait, it is available to compare and monitor educational infrastructure at federal subjects level.

The SABER Service Delivery (SABER SD) survey instrument was developed as an initiative to uncover bottlenecks that inhibit student learning in low and middle-income countries and to better understand the quality of education service delivery in a country as well as gaps in policy implementation. SABER SD was created using knowledge and expertise from two major initiatives at the World Bank: SABER (Systems Approach for Better Education Results) and the SDI (Service Delivery Indicators) tools. The instrument collects data at the school level and asks questions related to the roles of all levels of government (including local and regional). The new instrument collects data at the school level and enables analysis on: (i) teacher effort and ability, (ii) principal leadership, (iii) school governance, management, and finances, (iv) community participation, (v) classroom observation, and (vi) student performance in math and language.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the model of public-private partnership in Varaždin County for the purpose of developing educational infrastructure and strengthening the pedagogical standard. Design. A public-private partnership stands for a joint activity of the public and private sectors in the production of public goods or the provision of public services, either at the central government level or at the local self-government unit. The need for public-private cooperation is more common at the local level because global trends such as decentralization bind the local self-government to search for effective responses on their responsibilities. Based on the theoretical background of public-private partnership and the analysis of the external environment of the public-private partnership model on the example of the Varaždin County in the field of education, key factors that influence the model of public-private partnerships have been identified. Moreover, the effects of such partnerships between the public and private sector have been identified too, as well as the weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in applying such a model at the local and regional level and in the education sector. Findings. In order to increase the efficiency of the country in the terms of publicprivate partnership, the benefits of a public-private partnership model should be recognized and the limitations should be reduced by providing the set of standards for the co-financing the model of public-private partnership for each sector separately (education sector, public transport, healthcare, environment, public order and safety, energy and etc.).

The paper dwells on the problem of identifying the most crucial factors affecting the quality of foreign language learning from the students’ perspective. Quality foreign language education is a disputable issue in 21 century due to the increased global workforce competition. Human capital has a great impact on education as an important factor in shaping a new quality of country’s economy and well-being of society. Foreign language skill is an integral component of highly qualified professionals as the global economic processes make them participate in cross-border business communication. In these conditions the aim of higher education establishments is to provide quality of language learning and teaching that allows future specialists not to distort the meaning in written and oral communication within their professional framework. The two-phase survey conducted among 67 students of the Institute of Management, Economics and Finance of the Kazan Federal University provided with quantitative data. The respondents ranked differently the factors determining the quality of language learning and teaching responses after two years of completing their foreign language education and were generally satisfied with the quality of service rendered. The obtained results give optimistic forecasts regarding the improvement of foreign language education and help reconsider the way of teaching a foreign language basing on the chosen factors.

Purpose. The aim of the paper is to analyse the model of public-private partnership in Varaždin County for the purpose of developing educational infrastructure and strengthening the pedagogical standard. Design. A public-private partnership stands for a joint activity of the public and private sectors in the production of public goods or the provision of public services, either at the central government level or at the local self-government unit. The need for public-private cooperation is more common at the local level because global trends such as decentralization bind the local self-government to search for effective responses on their responsibilities. Based on the theoretical background of public-private partnership and the analysis of the external environment of the public-private partnership model on the example of the Varaždin County in the field of education, key factors that influence the model of public-private partnerships have been identified. Moreover, the effects of such partnerships between the public and private sector have been identified too, as well as the weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in applying such a model at the local and regional level and in the education sector. Findings. In order to increase the efficiency of the country in the terms of publicprivate partnership, the benefits of a public-private partnership model should be recognized and the limitations should be reduced by providing the set of standards for the co-financing the model of public-private partnership for each sector separately (education sector, public transport, healthcare, environment, public order and safety, energy and etc.).

Na administração pública local torna-se cada vez mais premente o levantamento de cadastros temáticos e gestão das diferentes infraestruturas tanto a nível geográfico como em termos de planeamento e gestão de desenvolvimento das populações. Em relação a esta área existe uma dispersão de informação, indisponibilidade, e falta de normalização e integração, o que leva a pertinência do desenvolvimento de uma metodologia conducente à criação de arquiteturas organizacionais aplicadas a cadastros multitemáticos e cartas municipais, segundo padrões standard, baseado em sistemas de informação geográfica (SIG), que cumpra as disposições dos regulamentos nacionais e comunitários. Esta metodologia será aplicada a um demonstrador como objetivo intermédio, visando a interoperabilidade, harmonização e exploração de informação das cartas temáticas, sendo aplicado a 2 temas: Desporto e Educação. In the local administration becomes increasingly urgent the update of thematic records and management of distinct infrastructure both geographically and in terms of planning and population development management. In relation to this area there is a dispersion of information, availability, and lack of standardization and integration, which leads the relevance of developing a methodology leading to the creation of organizational architectures applied to multi-thematic records and local government’s charts, according to standard patterns, based on geographic information systems (GIS), which complies with national and EU regulations. This methodology will be applied to a demonstrator as an intermediate objective, aiming at the interoperability, harmonization and exploitation of information of the thematic charts, being applied to 2 themes: Sports and Education.

We present an ongoing project at the University of Houston- Downtown (UHD) that aims to build a grid as a laboratory environment to support undergraduate education. We intend to use this PC clusters centered grid to allow students to perform laboratory exercises through web interfaces. In order to accommodate lab packages of a growing number of courses, we design the system as a modular system using multi-agent modeling. Students are recruited to implement the units of the system as senior student project topics or research activities sponsored by the Scholar's Academy of UHD. Through these projects, we geared our research toward higher education and provided students with opportunities to participate in building a computational infrastructure for curriculum improvement. This is very important for a minority-serving institution (MSI) with limited resources such as UHD.

This paper proposes three ways in which China and the World Bank could collaborate in the area of skills development in Africa, building on the experience of both and recent efforts at collaboration. First, under the PASET initiative, China and the World Bank could undertake joint analytical work to assess the skills needs for different sectors in individual countries, continue the benchmarking of African universities piloted with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, share the development experience of China through targeted learning visits, and share experiences in skills development through regional forums. Second, China could support the regional initiatives of the PASET such as the establishment of the Regional Scholarship Fund for postgraduate studies in applied sciences, engineering and technology; the proposed regional TVET centres of excellence; and co-financing of the regional Africa Centres of Excellence project, currently financed by the World Bank. This would supplement China’s on-going investments, which could also benefit from the experience of well-designed programs with strong monitoring and evaluation. Third, China could co-finance country-level projects which are being prepared with World Bank assistance, focusing on technical/vocational and higher education. This will enable Chinese Ministries and institutions to learn from the experience of the World Bank and contribute to the development of the education and training system in Sub-Saharan African countries, while also contributing China’s experience in a concrete fashion.

Investment decisions are at the core of any development strategy. Economic growth and welfare depend on productive capital, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, total factor productivity and the quality of institutions. Decision-making process on the selection of suitable projects in the public sector is in some aspects more difficult than in the private sector. Evaluating projects on the basis of their financial profitability, where the basic parameter is the value of the potential profit, can be misleading in these cases. One of the basic objectives of the allocation of public resources is respecting of the 3E principle (Economy, Effectiveness, Efficiency) in their whole life cycle. The life cycle of the investment projects consists of four main phases. The first pre-investment phase is very important for decision-making process whether to accept or reject a public project for its realization. A well-designed feasibility study as well as cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in this phase are important assumptions for future success of the project. A future financial and economical CF which represent the fundamental basis for calculation of economic effectiveness indicators are formed and modelled in these documents. This paper deals with the possibility to calculate the financial and economic efficiency of the public investment projects more accurately by simulation methods used. Investiční rozhodnutí jsou jádrem všech rozvojových strategií. Hospodářský růst a prosperita závisí na stavu produktivního kapitálu, infrastruktury, lidského kapitálu, znalostí, souhrnné produktivity výrobních faktorů a kvality institucí. Rozhodovací proces výběru vhodných projektů veřejného sektoru je v některých ohledech těžší než v sektoru soukromém. Hodnocení projektů na základě jejich finanční rentability, kde základní parametr je hodnota potenciálního zisku, může být v těchto případech zavádějící. Jedním ze základních cílů přidělování veřejných prostředků je respektování principu 3E (hospodárnost, efektivita, účinnost) v celém jejich životním cyklu. Životní cyklus investičních projektů se skládá ze čtyř hlavních fází. První předinvestiční fáze je velmi důležitá pro rozhodovací proces, zda přijmout či odmítnout veřejný projekt pro jeho realizaci. Dobře navržená studie proveditelnosti, jakož i analýza nákladů a užitků (CBA) jsou v této fázi důležitými předpoklady pro budoucí úspěch projektu. V těchto dokumentech jsou modelovány budoucí finanční a ekonomické CF, které představují důležitý základ pro výpočet ukazatelů ekonomické efektivnosti. Tento článek se zabývá možností přesnějšího výpočtu finanční a ekonomické efektivnosti veřejných investičních projektů využitím simulačních metod.

Students from low income background often fall behind early on their education journey. Without adequate and timely support to address their learning needs they continue to perform poorly. Eventually the students lagging behind, will keep failing to learn the basic literacy and numeracy skills, and most likely will end up dropping out of school illiterate. The majority of Global Education Partnership (GPE) countries have acknowledged in their education sector plans and strategies the need to address the problem of low learning levels, and of students not going efficiently through the public education system, which has resulted in wastage of financial and human resources. Ideally interventions that aimed to improve learning of low performing students should be included in the framework of a country's educational policies in alignment with other institutional arrangements such as teacher training, curriculum, assessment, available pedagogic materials, instructional time, language of instruction (when applicable), among others. However, many of these countries are yet to draft policies that will specifically focus on helping low performers. Currently, it can be concluded that academic improvements from remedial support may help students to pass the grade or yield fast improvements, however such interventions by themselves may have not been sufficient to raise achievement at adequate levels. Remedial education programs will likely be most effective when included as part of a country's overall strategic plan to deliver quality education for all of its students. Overall, the renewed focus on low performers, many times victims of teacher neglect and other social exclusion experiences, by the means of directing programs and resources to address learning gaps is already a huge step towards achieving learning for all.

Ireland has consistently supported workforce development (WfD) as a key element of economic development. This study has been commissioned by the World Bank to test a new instrument, within its Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-WfD project, which provides an opportunity to benchmark this support and identify progress made over two decades from 1980-2000. This was a period of rapid expansion of Ireland's economy and major reform in WfD policies. The findings will assist other countries in identifying measures which have been effective in progressing aspects of workforce development within a framework of national human capital development and may also contribute to on-going policy dialogue on workforce development in Ireland. The tool is based on an analytical framework that identifies three functional dimensions of WfD policies and institutions: strategic framework, which refers to the praxis of advocacy, partnership, and coordination in relation to the objective of aligning WfD in critical areas to priorities for national development; system oversight, which refers to the arrangements governing funding, quality assurance and learning pathways that shape the incentives and information signals affecting the choices of individuals, employers, training providers and other stakeholders; and service delivery, which refers to the diversity, organization and management of training provision, both state and non-state, that deliver results on the ground by enabling individuals to acquire market-and job-relevant skills. These three dimensions constitute a closed policy-making loop and, when taken together, allow for analysis of the functioning of a WfD system as a whole. This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of WfD.

This public expenditure review identifies various opportunities to improve efficiency and equity in the social sectors. In terms of efficiency, common issues across sectors include prioritizing public interventions on the basis of their costs and effectiveness, reducing the share of personnel expenditures through a more efficient deployment of human resources, and reviewing financial mechanisms to minimize distortions and induce cost-savings (particularly in the health sector). Reallocating resources towards maintenance services, while encouraging outsourcing practices is another cross-cutting theme. Regarding equity, there is a need in all sectors to improve targeting mechanisms in the allocation of public subsidies. The Government still faces the challenge of reducing gender inequalities, particularly among low-income groups. The message also emerges that the private sector should have a more prominent role both in the financing and provision of social services. Improving institutional capacity, governance, and accountability is also a precondition for higher efficiency and equity. One of the most important recommendations from the review is the need to pursue structural reforms to promote growth, while changing the focus of public expenditure management from driving growth to ensuring stabilization and an efficient supply of public goods. The role of public expenditure in the social sectors should be to guarantee necessary investments in human capital to support growth.