This article gives an overview of how Estonia has designed and implemented initiatives to equip its young people with digital skills starting from the 1990s when the Tiger Leap program was initiated. The overview will feature the state of affairs for implementing technology into education as part of the National Lifelong Learning Digital Turn…

Following the trend of much of the Western, non-English speaking world, Colombia has tirelessly strived for spreading English education in an effort to augment economic benefits. This paper aims at providing a critical account of foreign language education policy in Colombia, with special attention to English. It outlines the impact of its…

The "Marland" Report was the impetus and structure to provide a more systematic approach to building state and regional gifted programs. One of the strategies used to proliferate the spread of programming for gifted students throughout the states was the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented…

The stimulation of lifelong employability of employees is one of today's challenges in all sectors of the Dutch society. In this article, we will outline the historical context of the life-long employability issue in the Netherlands, and provide an overview of current business responses to the issue. We will discuss key obstacles for improving…

The formal organisation of science Olympiads in Mexico dates from 1987, when a national contest on Mathematics was held in order to identify a team to represent the country in the International Mathematics Olympiad. In 1991, the Mexican Academy of Sciences ("Academia Mexicana de Ciencias"-AMC) created the National Science Olympiads…

Four Chinese middle school students represented China during the third International Geography Olympiad (IGEO) held in 2000 in Korea and that was the first time for China to participate in the IGEO. In 2005 the China Society of Geography and the Beijing Normal University decided to co-organise the China National Geography Competition (CNGC) for…

The history of intellectual geography competitions for secondary school students in Russia (by that time--USSR) began after World War II, when the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University started to organise a yearly Geography Olympiad for Muscovite youngsters. Soon, organisers of this Olympiad decided to open it for secondary…

Fieldwork forms a substantial part of the International Geography Olympiad (IGEO) both in terms of time and in the nature of the experience in which participants get a chance to explore the "real world" of the host country. Fieldwork offers young geographers an excellent opportunity to explore the regional and local geography of the host…

The guiding principles and procedures for pupil assessment in Portuguese compulsory education were established by the Implementing Order No. 1/2005, 5th January, with amendments introduced by the Implementing Orders No. 18/2006, 14th March and No. 5/2007, 10th January, and apply to the learning objectives and competencies defined for the various…

The Olympiad movement has a long history in Estonia, and the national system developed several decades ago. The first Olympiad for gifted and talented students was held in mathematics in 1950. Now there are more than 20 different fields of competition for basic school and gymnasium students. In 2005/2006, Estonian teams participated in 18…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

A review of Chinese adult and continuing education traces the experimentation, innovations, and philosophy of the last 50 years. The consolidation and perpetuation of the Communist social revolution through educational channels, various programs and institutions, and the effects of the 1966 Cultural Revolution are examined. (LH)

The Polish school education system makes a distinction between two types of assessment: (1) Intra-school or internal assessment; and (2) External assessment. The idea of introducing external examinations into the Polish school education system emerged in 1992. This was directly inspired by study visits to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

The history of educational development in Thailand shows a transition from early concern for religious and moral training toward the present emphasis on the practical development of individuals and society. Thai culture may have originated in Mongolia and has been strongly affected by its present cultural neighbors, Malaya, Cambodia, Laos, Burma,…

The bibliography provides 128 titles of printed materials related to educational development in the USSR, and the publishers' names (many in Russian). The cultural revolution, eradication of illiteracy, adults' general education, contemporary evening schools, textbooks, and statistical reference books, as well as bibliographies and adult education…