The authors describe an experimental 3-year project of the Thailand Ministry of Education's Nonformal Education Department. The project features decentralization and local participation in the integration of government services to villages. Results indicate that the methods used produce better than average participation and more benefits to…

Describes and identifies U.S. labor market areas (LMAs) and focuses on relationships between rural LMAs and local resources. Includes graph comparing labor-force educational levels of rural LMAs. Two U.S. maps identify rural LMA by industry, including resource (e.g. mining, agriculture), manufacturing, and public education/administration. (TES)

Describes the new national policy changes in education as: (1) dividing the secondary school into two phases, each lasting three years; (2) creating the junior secondary school composed of pre-vocational and academic courses; and (3) creating the senior secondary school which is comprehensive in its curriculum. (BSR)

Discusses the money saving practice of small communities contracting with neighboring communities for special government services like firefighting. Using fire protection as an example, provides practical information for negotiating a fair price. Stresses establishing a bargaining range within which negotiations can take place--setting upper and…

Argues that the conflict between elevator and railway operators and the grain farmers of western Canada was not so one-sided as typically presented in high school textbooks. Concludes that the 'courts' of Canadian history have promoted a 'rural myth' of the grain growers associations, the cooperative spirit of the 'Wheat Pools,' and the political…

A native Appalachian describes how his home in southwestern Virginia (Wythe County) seemed to him as a boy and how he feels it has changed today after an absence of 20 years. (Author/NEC)

The author discusses the Rural Development Degree Program (village-based, experientially oriented degree courses at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks), which is aimed at developing local leadership to mediate the impact of the dominant external forces and to maintain a modicum of social and cultural integrity. (CT)

Some 280 industry, education, labor, and state and local government leaders exchanged information about how Appalachian programs can harness technology to make traditional industries more competitive, package capital for job-creating industries and business, launch service industries, match education with jobs, and fit displaced workers into the…

The effect of education and rural development in India is assessed from the standpoint of: farmers' education; out-of-school and college education of youth and women; university education; and school education. The general conclusion is that nonformal education has a direct and important contribution for rural development. (LBH)

In these changing times, rural communities must be able to solve unforeseen problems, adapt to economic and social changes, and sustain their efforts into the future. Their capacity to do so is dependent on the human capital among civic leaders. This paper examines human capital among civic leaders in Herring Bay, Maine, a rural, coastal…

This report identifies local factors that foster rural economic growth. A review of the literature revealed potential indicators of county economic growth, and those indicators were then tested against data for nonmetro counties during the 1980s using multiple regression analysis. The principal variables examined included demographic and labor…

This guide presents basic information on searching the World Wide Web and lists selected Web sites and links to resources that contain information on rural development. The guide describes and differentiates among search engines, Web directories, metacrawlers, and mutations. Searching tips include: using quotation marks around phrases; using plus…

This first article in a series on telecommunications in rural America provides an overview of several key telecommunication issues facing rural regions. High speed data services known as broadband have the potential to make rural areas less isolated and improve the rural quality of life, but physical barriers, sparse population density, and few…

Discusses various aspects of the role of students in community development and social service programs around the world, including rural and urban development, problems of locus of leadership, racial or religious tensions, and the needs of youth themselves. (SF)

A model for education for development in developing countries is proposed. The author reviews problems of education for rural development. Emphasized is the necessity of internal change in efforts to reconcile the objectives and forms of rural development with the pressures of demographic trends and possible rates of general economics. (SM)