Policies and programmes pursuing the universalisation of elementary education (UEE) in developing nations have been influenced by a set of complex forces in international, state, and local arenas. This paper explores how a large-scale standardised assessment programme shaped by international and market-oriented discourses has been differently…

This article explores the development of policy in quality assurance in higher education. While it briefly examines the broader context of quality assurance in South Africa in terms of the National Qualifications Framework as one of the political levers for establishing a quality assurance system in education and training systemically it focuses…

This paper explores the development of policy to facilitate self-examination by schools. The context is that of Flanders (Belgium), although there are implications for other school systems. In Flanders, more and more schools are becoming autonomous as they are being given some responsibility for providing high quality education, the supervision of…

Licensing requirements are often regarded as minimum standards that result in only a basic level of care. In fact, the minimum standards that licensing requires can be as high or low as licensing rules permit. Further, in almost all cases, licensing requirements provide a foundation upon which higher standards can be built. The relationship…

A plan is presented herein for development of a Rural Education Information System for the 10 states which comprise the Southeastern Regional Council for Educational Improvement. Since the Council considers its principal function to be support of educational policy analysis and formation in its member states, the information system design…

The prospects for managing the tension between accountability and improvement in further and higher education (FHE) were examined through a literature review and a 5-year ethnographic study of a change management project at a higher education college in Wales. Special attention was paid to the following challenges facing FHE: globalization; the…