The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international development, as UNESCO's "Education for All" agenda was replaced by "Education 2030", which would identify minimum standards of education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its existing PISA assessment into low- and middle-income countries through PISA…

This handbook, first published in 2014, aims at helping policy makers and social partners understand some of the ways in which learning in the workplace can be encouraged and how its quality can be improved. It is also intended to help them understand some of the ways that such learning can be organised in a structured manner so that it benefits…

What insights and generalisations can be drawn from looking across the work of multiple governmental and non-governmental organisations aimed at supporting basic education in low and medium income countries? To address this question, this study analysed findings of nine evaluation meta-studies completed by international assistance organisations,…

The purpose of this article is to share information about the Costa Rican Marine Education Programme in relation to the quality criteria for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Schools. We found that the application of these criteria is feasible, not only to the organisation and management of schools that are looking to become ESD Schools,…

This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts--in schools and…

What was accomplished and what was learned from United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) investment of over $733 million aimed at strengthening basic education systems in the developing world? These questions were addressed through an analysis of 286 documents drawn from 33 projects sponsored by the USAID between 1990 and 2005.…

At the time of writing, it is not possible to measure progress accurately, or even assess the baseline status of aid effectiveness in the education sector. Twelve targets en route to the five objectives of the Paris Declaration were set and agreed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); they were to be measured…

Since 2001 the government of Cambodia has striven to advance policy-led education reform based on a sector-wide approach. This paper critically reviews the status and progress of Cambodia's education reform from the perspective of the aid's effectiveness. The paper looks at the performance of the sector reform in the three priority areas…

Open and Distance Education if well organized, is an adequate alternative to conventional education. For acceptability of this assertion, the public, governments, employers of labour and other stakeholders need to be convinced that ODL institutions are not providing half-baked education. Also, for the public and other shareholders enthusiasm and…

In 1983, after over 10 years of working on mathematics education reform in the Philippines, I wrote a paper for a Tokyo conference arguing that education reform in developing countries such as the Philippines should begin by working on macro-problems, namely the social, political, and economic environment of the schools, as a context for the…

A randomized evaluation suggests that a program which provided official textbooks to randomly selected rural Kenyan primary schools did not increase test scores for the average student. In contrast, the previous literature suggests that textbook provision has a large impact on test scores. Disaggregating the results by students' initial academic…

Definitions of terms and an explanation of the concept of transfer of technology are provided as background for this examination of some critical issues in the introduction of such process technologies as instructional development and evaluation into the rapidly changing milieu of a developing nation. (JEG)

This evaluation study was conducted at the behest of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the Institute for Policy Reform (IPR), working under contract with United States Agency for International Development. AKF's primary concern was to evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and the likelihood of sustainability of the School Improvement…

The study used an adaptation of Provus' discrepancy evaluation model to evaluate a distance teacher education program in the University of Cape Coast, the premier teacher education institution in Ghana. The study involved comparing performance data of the program as perceived by students and faculty/administrators to standards prepared from the…

A relationship between the medical schools of Chiang Mai University and the University of Illinois, part of a national involvement in Thailand's socioeconomic development, is analyzed. Antecedents, activities, outcomes, and problems are reviewed with emphasis on need for sound training, energy, adaptability, and investment of years. (JT)