Showing papers on "Compulsory education published in 2006"

The Silent Epidemic Perspectives of High School Dropouts

Abstract: T here is a high school dropout epidemic in America. Each year, almost one third of all public high school students – and nearly one half of all blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans – fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Many of these students abandon school with less than two years to complete their high school education. This tragic cycle has not substantially improved during the past few decades when education reform has been high on the public agenda. During this time, the public has been almost entirely unaware of the severity of the dropout problem due to inaccurate data. The consequences remain tragic. The decision to drop out is a dangerous one for the student. Dropouts are much more likely than their peers who graduate to be unemployed, living in poverty, receiving public assistance, in prison, on death row, unhealthy, divorced, and single parents with children who drop out from high school themselves. Our communities and nation also suffer from the dropout epidemic due to the loss of productive workers and the higher costs associated with increased incarceration, health care and social services. Given the clear detrimental economic and personal costs to them, why do young people drop out of high school in such large numbers? Almost every elementary and middle school student reports ambitions that include high school graduation and at least some college. Why are so many dreams cut short? And what steps should be taken to turn the tide? In an effort to better understand the lives and circumstances of students who drop out of high school and to help ground the research in the stories and reflections of the former students themselves, a series of focus groups and a survey were conducted of young people aged 16-25 who identified themselves as high school dropouts in 25 different locations throughout the United States. These interviews took place in large cities, suburbs and small towns with high dropout rates. A primary purpose of this report is to approach the dropout problem from a perspective that has not been much considered in past studies – that of the students themselves. These efforts were designed to paint a more in-depth picture of who these young people are, why they dropped out of high school, and what might have helped them complete their high school education. We wanted to give their stories and insights a voice, …

Policy development and reform principles of basic and secondary education in Finland since 1968

Abstract: This book examines the development of education policy and reform principles in Finland over that 40-year span. The 1960s and 1970s were times of drastic change as the country evolved from an agrarian society to a Scandinavian welfare state. To facilitate this transformation, the education system, which maintained the inequities of the class society for which it was designed, needed a total overhaul. Adopting a comprehensive school reform approach, Finnish educators and policymakers scrutinized everything from curriculum and textbooks to salaries and administration. At the same time, teacher training underwent substantial revision, with the goal of raising teacher education to the university level. Significant resources were also invested in adult education and higher education. Structural change not only led to a complete revamping of the education system; the reformed system also, in turn, created opportunities for Finland to move toward a post-industrial information society.

Social Disadvantage and Education Experiences

Abstract: This paper discusses how social disadvantage affects the learning experiences of households with fewer economic resources, at each stage of the individuals' life-course, and on some of the "social" effects of such learning. It argues that while education can be an escalator out of social disadvantage — leading to better job prospects for youths facing greater risks of poverty and reducing the prevalence of income poverty in adult age — educational failure can reinforce it: a significant minority of students in several OECD countries do not even complete compulsory education; students' test scores in lower secondary education are strongly shaped by family characteristics; and the expansion of university education has most often benefited households with better educated parents. Far from "equalising" opportunities, education can be a powerful driver of social selection. When returns to education increase over time, this may lead to greater inter-generational persistence of poverty and less equality of opportunities.

ICT integration in schools: Where are we now and what comes next?

Abstract: The case for more technology in schools is compelling. The leverage for a school based solution is traceable to the Common and Agreed National Goals for Schooling (AEC, 1989), namely that students will develop skills in 'information processing and computing'. Schools have wrestled with this 'integration challenge' since 1989. This paper is a snapshot of the ICT efforts of 18 regional schools as they come to terms with the challenge of ICT integration. Building on the work of Lim et al (2003), and the JISC (2003) MLE benchmark study, this paper profiles what ICT integration looks like in schools since AEC (1989), identifying 'administrative imperatives' as the key factors underpinning ICT integration decisions in schools. In terms of capacity management, the paper identifies those who plan, design, develop and build school ICT infrastructure. Each school participating in this study is assigned an integration score, identifying them as low, medium or high integration schools based on ICT integration efforts. Evidence from this study indicates a great deal of ICT integration development and activity taking place in schools at all integration levels. The good news is that national and state education initiatives over the last 17 years have delivered an integration (of sorts) of ICTs into compulsory education. The sad news is that the question of ICT pedagogy remains largely unaddressed in our schools.

Meeting the challenges of secondary education in Latin America and East Asia: improving efficiency and resource mobilization

Abstract: In a context of increased primary school enrollment rates, secondary education is appearing as the next big challenge for Latin American and East Asian countries This report seeks to undertake a detailed diagnostic of secondary education in these two regions, understand some of the main constraints to the expansion and improvement of secondary education, and suggest policy options to address these constraints, with focus on policies that improve the mobilization and use of resources

Implementation of free basic education policy

Abstract: This report focuses on the results of the 2005 survey. It is divided into five sections. Section one briefly discusses the non-cost barriers to education. It then provides an overview of user fees - the impact that user fees have on school enrollment, household contributions as a percentage of total education expenditure, household education expenditures as a percentage of household consumption, and the impact of user fees on poor households. Section two presents the results of the 2005 World Bank survey on user fees. Section three draws on the experiences of eight African and three Asian nations that have eliminated user fees, in order to highlight the successes and challenges of implementing such policies. Section four provides observations on the lessons learned. Section five concludes the report and makes recommendations.

Educating all children : a global agenda

Abstract: Access to education increased enormously in the past century, and higher proportions of people are completing primary, secondary, or tertiary education than ever before. But efforts to universalize the provision of high-quality schooling face major problems. In Educating All Children (which grew out of a multidisciplinary project undertaken by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences), leading experts consider the challenges of achieving universal basic and secondary education globally. The contributors discuss the current state of education and how to measure global educational progress, the history of compulsory education, political and financial obstacles to expanding education, the role of educational assessment and evaluation in developing countries, cost estimates for providing universal education (and why they differ so widely), the potential consequences of expanded global education, and the relationship between education and health.The research suggests that achieving universal primary and secondary education is both urgently needed and feasible. Will the international community commit the necessary economic, human, and political resources? The challenge, say the editors, is "as inspiring and formidable... as any extraterrestrial adventures-and far more likely to enrich and improve life on earth."

Transition club: Facilitating learning, participation and psychological adjustment during the transition to secondary school

Abstract: The transition from the primary to secondary phase of education has been highlighted as an area of concern for policy makers, educators and researches alike in recent years. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that it is during this crucial phase of compulsory education that many pupils are at risk of becoming marginalized and disaffected — thus, it is a salient topic for consideration in the broader discourse on inclusive education. The current paper reports on the attempts of a secondary school in the north-west of England to facilitate the learning, participation and psychological adjustment of new pupils through an innovative process called Transition Club. Using participant observations, questionnaires and a focus group interview we examined the views of 38 pupils who participated in its pilot. Qualitative content analysis of our dataset indicated that Transition Club was successful in providing pupils with a sense of belonging, helping them to navigate the ‘maze’ of secondary school, and making learning fun. There was also evidence to suggest that pupils who did not participate directly also experienced some of the benefits of the process.

Peace education for consensual peace: the essential role of conflict resolution 1

Abstract: Peace education is a key for establishing and maintaining a consensual peace. Creating an effective peace education program involves five steps. First, a public education system must be established with compulsory attendance; all children and youth should attend so that students from the previously conflicting groups interact and have the opportunity to build positive relationships with each other. Second, a sense of mutuality and common fate needs to be established that highlights mutual goals, the ‘just’ distribution of benefits from achieving the goals, and a common identity. In schools, this is primarily done through the use of cooperative learning. Third, students should be taught the constructive controversy procedure to ensure they know how to make difficult decisions and engage in political discourse. Fourth, students should be taught how to engage in integrative negotiations and peer mediation to resolve their conflicts with each other constructively. Finally, civic values should be inculcated th...

The Virtual Revolution: Understanding Online Schools.

Abstract: No doubt the Internet has had a profound effect on our lives, our work and play, our politics, and our business. But in the middle of a revolution that seems so profound, no one is yet quite certain what the landscape will look like when the electronic dust settles. Some believe that schools have come late to the revolution; some would say late is good. For better or worse, though, the Internet is beginning to liberate education from the confines of traditional time and space. According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), during the 2002-03 school year (the last data available), 36 percent of U.S. school districts (5,500 out of 15,040) had students enrolled in distance-education programs, and 38 percent of public high schools offered distance-education courses. The DOE study had 328,000 students in 8,200 public schools enrolled in distance-education courses. As of November 2005, the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) listed 157 unique online learning programs in 42 states in its database, including 32 virtual charter schools, 3 online home-school programs, and 53 public, non-charter virtual schools that offer programs. The DOE's 2004 National Education Technology Plan predicted that with the "explosive growth in the availability of online instruction and virtual schools ... we may well be on our way to a new golden age in American education." Virtual schools have arrived--and with them, a host of challenges to our notions about school and schooling. What will the new landscape look like? Will it be one without class periods, grade levels, six-hour school days, or 180-day school years? Will it even need school buildings, classrooms, or district boundaries? Those questions are no longer the stuff of education science fiction. Our Virtual Ancestors Most accounts of the history of schooling take us from fee-based schools in ancient Athens, to the first tax-funded public schools in our land in Boston in 1635, to the compulsory education of Horace Mann's "common school" in the mid-19th century. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The modern mail-based "correspondence school" is said to have been invented at the University of Chicago in 1891. The delivery mechanism subsequently evolved from mail-based correspondence courses and radio programs to television and satellite broadcasts to today's Internet-based virtual schools, which were launched in the 1990s. There were a couple of important precursors. The federal Star Schools program began in 1988, with a focus on serving small rural schools through grants to advance distance-education technologies via telecommunications partnerships. In August 1993, Horizon Instructional Systems established a charter school in Lincoln, California, offering a range of innovative programs, including an "electronically assisted student teaching" program that blended home-based computers with distance learning and satellite technology. The first incarnation of what we think of as a K-12 virtual school appears to have been launched in the summer of 1995, with the CyberSchool Project in Eugene, Oregon. Started by nine district teachers, it offered supplemental online high-school courses. By 1996 the virtual fire was beginning to blaze: an experimental WebSchool in Orange County, Florida (a precursor to the Florida Online High School), offered online courses to local students; Federal Way School District in Washington State founded the CyberSchool Academy with nearly 50 students (both elementary and secondary); the Concord Virtual High School (later to be called Virtual High School) was awarded a $7.5 million federal Technology Innovation Challenge Grant; and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was awarded a combination of grants to research and develop Internet-based high-school courses (later marketed by a for-profit enterprise called Class.com). The growth of large, multi-state programs such as Florida Virtual School and Virtual High School was especially important in putting K-12 virtual schools on the map. …

Universalizing nine-year compulsory education for poverty reduction in rural China

Abstract: According to the 2000 census, China's rural population is 810 million-64 percent of the country's population. Over 80 percent of primary schools and 64 percent of lower secondary schools are in rural areas. The poor are concentrated in rural areas because of the gap between rural and urban development. The government focused on universalizing nine-year compulsory education to eliminate illiteracy among youth and adults and to upgrade the rural population's quality of life. Its longer-term goals were to eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable social progress. Since the 1986 passage of its compulsory education law, China has fundamentally achieved the national goal for the two basics, namely, extending universal nine-year compulsory education among the school-aged population and literacy among those less than 20 years old. The average years of schooling have risen from fewer than five in the early 1980s to more than eight now, a gain of three years. Nine-year compulsory education was universalized in the area where 90 percent of the population lives-up from just 40 percent in the early 1990s. In addition, the illiteracy rate for the 15-45 age cohorts was reduced to 4.8 percent from 10 percent over the same period. Consequently, the enrollment rates at the primary and lower secondary levels reached 98.6 percent and 90 percent, respectively, in 2002. The two basics were achieved in 2,598 counties, and 90 percent of the total number of counties in China.

Opportunity, Inequality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Child Labour

Abstract: This paper presents a model in which opportunity differences within society result in child labour, where ‘opportunity’ is broadly defined but can include school quality, access to higher paying jobs, access to information about the returns to education and actual discrimination. If opportunity differences exist, child labour and poverty are shown to be symptomatic of this underlying socioeconomic condition. It is then shown that policies that ban child labour and/ or introduce compulsory education laws can actually reduce dynastic welfare, increase poverty and further exacerbate income inequality within society, because they treat the symptom rather than the disease: the lack of opportunity.

Effective curriculum policy and cross‐curricularity: analysis of the new curriculum design of the Hellenic Pedagogical Institute

Abstract: In this paper we perform text analysis on the new Cross Thematic Curriculum Framework Syllabus Design for compulsory education, which was constructed by the Hellenic Pedagogical Institute and is soon going to be applied in Greek schools. This curriculum text is treated as a policy text which introduces important changes in Greek school practice, mainly through the adoption of a specifically defined cross‐curricular approach to syllabus design. The core argument of the policy actors involved in this reform is that this particular innovation is a good curricular practice that will contribute to the further modernization of compulsory schooling in Greece. It is also claimed that this intervention is based on the Greek educational context as well as European educational policy. We investigate this argument by examining the way the idea of cross‐curricularity (or unifying school knowledge and teaching and learning across the curriculum) is introduced in the text as well as at the level of educational practice....

Policies for Compulsory Education Disparity Between Urban and Rural Areas in China

Abstract: An important function of public policies is to distribute public resources rationally. But for a long time, our public policies have been so “city-oriented” that public resources are allocated unfairly and majority of high-quality education resources are concentrated in cities. This has already led to a serious unbalanced development in compulsory education and to a tremendous gap in conditions in schools—running and enrollment chances for the school-age children between rural and urban areas, which tend to be enlarged. The unbalanced development in compulsory education has not only blocked the realization of public interest and equity of compulsory education but also restricted the harmonious social and economic development between urban and rural areas. It is necessary to look into public policies that have influence on the division of public resources and criticize them rationally. These policies include land institutions, tax systems, social security systems, policies for the input of compulsory education, and policies for teachers, etc. New policies should be made to distribute public resources fairly and rationally, narrowing the gap in compulsory education between urban and rural areas.

Participation of children with dyslexia in compulsory education: current public policy issues.

Abstract: The assessment and placement of children with dyslexia at appropriate schools has been regulated in the UK by a series of laws since 1944. Recent public policy developments such as the introduction of new duties and rights, and the development of law regarding educational negligence have sharpened the public policy debate on the effectiveness of these policies. This paper explores policy-related issues from an interdisciplinary perspective by outlining and discussing a sample of appellate legal cases regarding children with dyslexia. The provisions of these laws have shaped the actions of key stakeholders such as parents and councils. Similarly, the law on educational negligence has had a similar impact. Procedural rules of courts and tribunals have been equally important in restricting access to the courts by parents. Learning difficulty tests have further restricted their access. It is essential that provisions of the relevant Acts should be designed to enable these children to develop their academic and social skills in the same way as their non-dyslexic peers and to make the transition into employment and/or higher education successfully. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What comes after compulsory education? A follow‐up study on parental expectations of their child’s future education

Abstract: This paper examines the contribution of parents’ education and children’s gender on parental expectations of their children’s future education and the role of parental perceptions of their child’s competencies in the formation of their expectations. A group of university and vocationally educated parents (N = 418) were asked to estimate the probability of their child entering gymnasium (high school) or vocational education and assess the child’s competencies, first in preschool, and then at the end of the third school year. It was found that the education and gender‐bound differences in the parental expectations were established before the child entered school, and by the end of the third school year the relationships between expectations and competence assessments strengthened and were more uniform among the parents. The findings suggested that the parental assessments of their child’s abilities can be regarded as a potentially important social‐psychological process through which social differences are t...

Sex education in school: young people's views.

Abstract: The aims of this study were to explore adolescents' levels of knowledge on sexual health issues and their views on the sex education they receive as part of their compulsory education. Twenty students from two schools completed a short questionnaire and participated in a focus group discussion. The students had an excellent level of knowledge about sexual health issues, which contradicts Government views that ignorance is the key to adolescents' sexual health concerns (Social Exclusion Unit 1999). Participants felt their sex education was 'too little, too late' and that it should be taught by someone other than a teacher. Sex education should be introduced earlier in the curriculum as well as finding an acceptable 'teacher' if adolescent sexual health is to improve.

Gender and Student Achievement in English Schools

Abstract: The widening gap between the average educational achievement of boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. This gap is especially controversial for students taking national exams at the end of their compulsory education. However, the gender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages of education. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in the gender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsory education. We first use a combination of data sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolved over time and in what context they are most marked. Then we consider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps. We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. We also discuss the potential influence of wider social and economic changes as reflected, for example, in the much higher education of mothers relative to those of previous generations. Analysis of this issue is important in the context of research on the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevant issues in relation to whether changes in the school system can effect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement.

Three different types of elementary school students' school achievements, perceived social support, school attitudes and behavior-adjustment problems.

Abstract: The aim of this research was two fold. First is to compare three different types of primary schools (i.e., boarding primary, bussing primary, and regular) students' behavior-adjustment problems and second is to investigate the environmental and psychological predictors of these students' school success. The sample of the study consisted of 438 students of whom 203 were females (M^sub age^ = 11.24) and 235 were males (M^sub age^ = 11.46), recruited from the primary and secondary levels of eight years of compulsory education. Results showed that especially the primary level boarding school students` total adjustment scores were lower (S (2, 425) = 2.93, p Key Words Elementary School, Boarding School, Bussing School, Behavior-Adjustment Problems, School Achievement. With the implementation of eight years of compulsory education law, families from rural areas or families living in poverty started preferring boarding or bussing elementary schools for their children. These children who are living away from their families for education are protected by the state. There are 299 boarding schools with approximately 142.788 students and 6337 bussing schools with approximately 698.061 students (MillI Egitim Bakanligi, 2005). Even though these schools have a big share in the education system; unfortunately, there are only few studies that have been focusing in these schools or the students. In these rare studies, findings revealed that boarding (Ari, 2000; Guven, 1995) and bussing school (Altunsaray, 1996) students are not happy with the conditions of their schools. They think that physical resources of these schools are insufficient and they feel anxious about their future. The literature reveals that children separated from their families to get education have insufficient social support sources and negative attitudes towards schools. All of these negative factors have an impact on students' school achievements and adjustments (Kuperminc, Leadbeater, & Blatt, 2001; Levitt, Guacci-Franco & Levitt, 1994; Marchand, Poulson, & Rothlisberg, 2001; Wentzel, 1997). One of the most important aims of these schools is to support the children coming from lower socio-economic levels and help them to get a qualified education. It has been found that children growing up in poverty have lower academic success (Dubow & Ippolita, 1994; Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1994; Pungello, Kupersmidt, Burchinal, & Patterson, 1996). In this research, elementary school students who attend at boarding, bussing, or regular schools were compared with regard to their total adjustments and behavior problems. Predictors of school success were also investigated. More specifically, the following questions were answered. 1. Is there any difference among these schools in terms of student behavior-adjustment problems? …

Educational Expansion and Shortages in Secondary Schools in China: the bottle neck syndrome

Abstract: This article explores a developmental issue in education in China—the shortage of Chinese secondary schools. China has dramatically expanded access to elementary education since the passing of the Compulsory Education Law in 1986, and in recent years, higher education has also undergone rapid expansion. However, access to secondary schools, especially senior high schools, is still very restricted. There is a dire shortage of senior high schools, which is most serious in the rural areas. There are historical as well as policy issues involved in the lag in the developing of secondary schools. China is now facing the challenge to enlarge access to secondary education in order to meet the demands by society and the needs of a fast developing economy. Central and local governments have discussed ways to resolve the shortage. This discussion, however, is being complicated by the demand for cheap labor for the expanding market economy in the country, and the lack of will to put money and resources into this leve...

Analyzing teacher resistance to teaching probability in compulsory education

Abstract: From the beginning of the nineties, the different curricular reforms in Spain have favoured the introduction of probability. However, the reality in the classroom is very different since teachers show resistance to accepting this curricular innovation. To explain this situation, the "Professional Development Teachers" research group in the University of Cadiz carried out research dealing with teachers' conceptions of probability, the sources of professional knowledge used to teach probability, and the probability content in Spanish textbooks. In this particular paper we will present results form a case study where teachers' arguments to justify their resistance to introducing probability in Compulsory Secondary Education are analyzed. A theoretical framework related to the knowledge of probability and pedagogical professional knowledge is introduced in order to interpret the teachers' reasoning and understand the evolution of teachers' intervention in the teaching and learning process.

Judicial Activism and the Origins of Parental Choice: The Court's Role in the Institutionalization of Compulsory Education in the United States, 1891–1925

Abstract: A considerable body of scholarship has examined the history of compulsory attendance in the United States in an effort to explain why compulsory attendance laws were enacted, what effects they had on school attendance rates, and what made enforcement of these laws effective eventually. Recent research has revealed that some long-standing assumptions and conclusions about compulsory attendance warrant reconsideration. For example, the assumptions that educators promoted compulsory attendance and that compulsory attendance laws were enacted when state legislators responded to educators' demands disregard the historical reality that educators and state teachers' associations generally did not support compulsory attendance and that the biggest proponent of compulsory attendance legislation was a faction of the Republican Party. Similarly, the conventional periodization of compulsory attendance laws into two phases—“symbolic” and “bureaucratic”—obscures several facts. The conventional periodization holds that before the 1890s compulsory attendance laws were merely symbolic because the laws enacted were “unenforced and probably unenforceable.” During the bureaucratic phase, between the 1890s and 1920s, new compulsory attendance laws —“strong laws” with teeth—were passed, which finally made compulsory attendance effective. This periodization obscures the facts that (1) compulsory attendance did not develop in any linear or progressive fashion as much as in a “two steps forward, one step back” manner; (2) the state had limited power to enforce even “enforceable” compulsory attendance laws in the early twentieth century when most funding was local not state funding; and (3) compulsory attendance laws were not tremendously effective, accounting for no more than 5 percent of the increase in school attendance in the first half of the twentieth century.

Compulsory education in religion—the Norwegian case: an empirical evaluation of RE in Norwegian schools, with a focus on human rights

Abstract: Christian knowledge used to be taught in the Norwegian state school as a compulsory subject for members of Lutheran churches. In 1997 this was replaced by a subject that is compulsory for all pupils, where both Christianity, other religions and secular world views are taught on an equal basis, although more time should be used on Christianity than other views. Some parents took the state to court because they wanted full withdrawal from the subject for their children. Having lost the case, the parents of four pupils then appealed to the UN’s Human Rights Committee, which in November 2004 gave a verdict supporting the parents. This article is based on an evaluation project, asking parents, pupils and teachers about their experiences with the new subject, and also asking parents how they would prefer religions and world views to be taught. We focus on what we regard as the subject’s most central dilemma: how can the school contribute to giving the pupils and society a common cultural basis while at the same...

Policy formation and implementation in secondary education reform: the case of Chile at the turn of the century

Abstract: This case study examines secondary educational reform in a favorable social and political context-one of consensus and continuity and in which education received high political priority and resources-by examining its policy process, contents, implementation, and results. This book is organized into seven chapters. The first chapter will describe the political and institutional contexts of the policies. Chapter Two, Macro Process: Strategic Options in Educational Policy provides a general characterization of the strategies chosen by the government regarding secondary education between 1990 and 2006, and will focus on policy generation and evolution, distinguishing between improvement programs and reform. A third chapter will describe the content of policy and reform in the 1990s, referring to its key characteristics. Chapter Four, Micro Process: Different Political Economies for Different Contexts returns to a more detailed analysis of three strategic policy components, examining their origin, politics, use of resources, and tools (technical, political, bureaucratic, financial), to reveal marked variations in the policy process of different parts of the reform. The three policy areas are: i) a system-wide program of investment in learning resources and support for process innovation in school work and teaching (the MECE program); ii) a comprehensive curriculum reform; and iii) a large-scale change in school infrastructure and attendance hours. Chapter Five analyses results of the policies of the 90s, distinguishing four dimensions: access, conditions for learning, teaching practices, and learning outcomes. Chapter Six looks at the key challenges facing Chilean education from the 2006 perspective, after a decade or more of investments and innovations. The case study closes with an attempt to draw some general conclusions based on the Chilean reform process in education.

Primary Education as a Fundamental Right: Cost Implications

Abstract: In an attempt to attain the goal of universal primary education, many developing country governments, including India, have abolished official fees in primary education. The 86th amendment to the Indian Constitution made free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6-14 years. There are other direct and indirect costs that can deter children from going to school. In this paper, using a rich nationwide data set, the authors construct the incompressible direct costs of attending primary school in India. After controlling for the opportunity cost of going to school (as proxied by the ratio of children's wages to adult's wages), it is found that the direct costs of education adversely affect the probability of children going to school, more so for children from poorer households. The results show that relative to boys, girls are more likely to be affected by the direct costs of schooling. The authors show that making primary education completely free will not increase the attendance rates to 100 per cent. They find that the government will have to incur an additional minimum expenditure of over Rs 2,900 crore every year in order to defray the basic or incompressible cost of attending school.

Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge: A Policy Evaluation using the Labour Force Survey

Abstract: Over the past decades, an increasing number of young people have entered into higher education in the UK. Yet, despite this growth, the UK still has a low ranking in international comparisons for the rate of participation in post-compulsory education. Furthermore, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are greatly underrepresented. Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge is one of the government initiatives designed in an attempt to address this problem. The policy was introduced in September 2001 in the same areas as those targeted by the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme. Its stated aims are to raise aspirations and participation in tertiary education of individuals aged between 14 and 19; a special focus is on the targeting of people with a disadvantaged background. In this paper we study the impact of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge using information contained in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for individuals aged between 16 and 20. Individuals in Local Education Authorities (LEA) where the programme was introduced are compared to individuals in LEAs where the policy was not implemented. The difference in average outcomes over time is compared for Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge LEAs and the 'comparison group' of LEAs outside the programme. This 'difference-in-differences' methodology allows us to distinguish the impact of the policy on outcomes from the (time-constant) effect of unobserved LEA attributes and trends common to both groups of LEAs. Yet, given that the policy was implemented in EiC areas, and that there may be complementarities between the two programmes, our results should not be interpreted as isolating the independent effect of the Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge programme. Overall, we find that the policy did not have a positive and statistically significant effect on further/higher education participation rates (and educational attainments) for young individuals. In fact, while point estimates of the impact of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge suggest a positive impact of the policy on the fraction of young individuals studying beyond compulsory education, there is enormous variation around these estimates and they do not provide (statistically) reliable information on the effectiveness of the policy. This is due to the way in which the policy was implemented to cover only a few (very broadly defined) 'treatment' areas, which have to be compared to a similarly broadly defined comparison group. As a result, there is considerable variation in the outcome variables and only very large policy effects might be expected to result in statistical significance. However, our analysis gives stronger evidence of heterogeneity in the effects of the policy. Individuals from more disadvantaged backgrounds (for example, as indicated by those living on social housing or having unemployed fathers) have seemed to benefit more from the policy, compared to students from better-off backgrounds - their probability of entering post-compulsory education is significantly higher as a result of the policy. However, again, the estimates are relatively sensitive to specification and therefore should be interpreted with some caution.

Calidad, equidad e indicadores en el sistema educativo español.

Abstract: In analyses of education indicators, the question that should Þ rst be raised is what we understand by “quality education”, since the concept that is used as a starting point will determine which indicators are used and how. In educational debate by today’s Information Society, the term “quality” is given pride of place. Although the key challenge that is faced by education systems continues to be making basic education available to all the population and guaranteeing a common compulsory education for all citizens, another challenge that is posed by today’s education systems is how to ensure the quality of teaching. In this paper, we look at the relationship between the concepts “quality” and “equity” and at the education indicators used to analyse them.

Analysis of Child Labour and School Attendance in Nigeria: the Present and Future Implications

Abstract: Child labour acts as a major hurdle for ensuring free, quality education for all children. Over 246 million girls and boys around the World are working instead of attending school and enjoying their childhood of which Nigeria account for about 6.1 %( 15million). This paper investigated the motivating factors into child labour in Nigeria, examined Nigerian government efforts at reduction and improvement of child labour and school attendant rates. The result showed that child labours are predominantly found in the informal sector of Nigeria with family characteristics as a very important determining factor of children’s educational attainment and labour in Nigeria. The future implication of the exploitation of child labour will not only damages the children concerned but also inhibits the emergence of a skilled workforce, but will force Nigeria into a cycle of impoverishment. It will lead to high child mortality rate as a result of working too young, for too many hours, and in hazardous conditions. By the time such children reach adulthood they are often damaged physically, emotionally, morally and intellectually and would have lost the opportunity for an education that would open up a better futures and the amount of schooling in children today determines the wage they command as adult tomorrow. Government should not only emphasis the need for a reduction in family size but also enforce the law on the ban of child labour and compulsory education and give parent who want to educate their child access to market credit.