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Female sex workers are a structurally vulnerable population, including critical insecurity such as having access to food and shelter. This risk may be heightened among individuals who enter sex work as minors. However, the reasons for entering sex work as a minor and the long-term structural risk implications are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the reasons for and long-term impact of trading sex before the age of eighteen on women’s structural vulnerability among a cohort of 250 cisgender women involved in street-based sex work in Baltimore City, Maryland, USA. We used logistic regression to explore the role of age of entry on two structural vulnerability outcomes of interest (homelessness and recent food insecurity in the past 3 months). Overall, 73% of women entered the sex trade to get drugs, 36% of women entered to get basic necessities such as food or housing, and 17% of women entered to support their children or family. Of significance, 21% of those aged < 18 years at entry reported being either coerced, threatened, pressured, misled, tricked, or physically forced into trading sex compared to 5% in those who entered at an older age group (p value < 0.001). In adjusted analysis, women who first trade sex before the age of 18 had 4.54 increased odds of experiencing recent homelessness (95% CI 1.92–10.70) and had 3.14 times increased odds of experiencing recent food insecurity (95% CI 1.42–6.94). Those who entered as minors were also more likely to be HIV positive (11.3% vs 3.6%, p value = 0.02). This study highlights that those who trade sex at a younger age experience an ongoing cumulative vulnerability in comparison to those entering over the age of 18. These findings call for additional research into a more detailed understanding of young women’s entry into the sex trade and trajectory. A focus on the importance of policy changes and structural interventions that directly alleviate young people’s socio-economic disadvantage is needed.

Enhancing the role of private sector partners in education can lead to significant improvements in education service delivery. However, the realization of such benefits depends in great part on the design of the partnership between the public and private sectors, on the overall regulatory framework of the country, and on the governmental capacity to oversee and enforce its contracts with the private sector. Under the right terms, private sector participation in education can increase efficiency, choice, and access to education services, particularly for students who tend to fail in traditional education settings. Private-for-profit schools across the world are already serving a vast range of usersâ€\"from elite families to children in poor communities. Through balanced public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education, governments can leverage the specialized skills offered by private organizations as well as overcome operating restrictions such as salary scales and work rules that limit public sector responses. 'The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education' presents a conceptualization of the issues related to PPPs in education, a detailed review of rigorous evaluations, and guidleines on how to create successful PPPs. The book shows how this approach can facilitate service delivery, lead to additional financing, expand equitable access, and improve learning outcomes. The book also discusses the best way to set up these arrangements in practice. This information will be of particular interest to policymakers, teachers, researchers, and development practitioners.

Child Labour has been one of the persistent problems that has affected development. In spite of the efforts at both the national and international levels by government, social organisations and international bodies, child labour is widely prevalent in most developing and underdeveloped countries. However, except for a few summary measures, there is no detailed measurement of the impact and severity of child labour. In this paper we address some of these measurement issues in the light of data collected by the National Sample Survey Office of India.

The effect of school entry age on children’s later performance is a long-debated topic without any convergence. Besides, existing studies have mostly limited themselves to examining the impact of entry age on children’s cognitive achievements. In Germany, where different entry-age regulations exist across federal states and academic tracking takes place very early, it is crucial to investigate whether these differential school entry ages affect children’s outcomes. This study, based on the longitudinal data available from the National Educational Panel Study, investigates the possible entry-age effect on children’s willingness to make an effort and their school enjoyment in the German elementary school context. The study found a positive entry-age effect only for willingness to make an effort but not for school enjoyment, and the existing entry-age effect decreases over time. Therefore, empirical evidence confirms that, in Germany, the entry-age effect persists in the short run and some child outcomes seem more sensitive to entry age than others. These are important findings in the German context where students’ academic tracking starts from lower secondary schooling and entry-age effects may significantly influence it.

The report opens with a brief description of the conceptual framework that guided the analysis as well as the data used. The next chapter presents the analysis of changes in household behavior and educational outcomes related to the implementation of the reforms, at both the primary and secondary levels. The descriptive nature of this analysis does not allow for inferences regarding the effects of the reforms on enrollment and demand for education. The following chapter presents the results of an econometric impact analysis of the reforms to quantify the magnitude of the effects on enrollment. In considering priorities for the future, the Government is paying increasing attention to the impact of the investments in education on growth, jobs, and poverty reduction, as measured by increased earnings from employment, and particularly by improving opportunities for the labor force to move to higher productivity activities and livelihoods. The next chapter presents the results on the changing structure of employment in Mozambique between 2003 and 2008, the impacts of education on employment opportunities, and the implications of these changes for education policy. The final chapter integrates the education and labor force analyses and provides strategic recommendations as Mozambique continues to improve educational outcomes, particularly for those population groups that have had the most difficulty entering and remaining in school.

Prior research evaluating school entry age effects has largely overlooked the effects on social-behavioral skills despite the growing recognition of returns to such skills. This study is the first to examine the effects of kindergarten entry age on children’s social-behavioral outcomes using 9 years of panel data on a national sample of U.S. children. We leverage exogenous variation in birth dates and kindergarten entrance age policies to estimate instrumental variables models. Our results show that entering kindergarten a year later is associated with significantly better social-behavioral outcomes during elementary school. However, these effects largely disappear by the end of middle school. Larger gains over time among younger entrants support the notion that the estimated effects are age-at-test effects.

BackgroundThe issue of the mode of entry to nursing programmes and its effect on student success is a key concern among researchers globally. Identifying the mode of entry, which has the potential to improve academic success, decrease the failure rate and lead to the successful completion of a degree, is crucial to increase the nursing workforce.AimThe objectives of this study were to assess the association of mode of entry to a nursing programme on student success among undergraduate students.SettingThe study was conducted at a public nursing education institution (NEIs) in the northeast of Namibia.MethodA retrospective multi-cohort study was conducted to assess the association of mode of entry on student success. Academic outcomes were analysed, observing two cohorts of nursing students.ResultsResults show that 76.2% (f = 16) of mature-age entry students and 53.7% (f = 29) of direct entry students completed their programme on time. However, 42.1% (f = 8) of access students were expected to return. Female students 56.8% (f = 25) and male students 56.0% (f = 28) completed on time. There was no significant relationship between the mode of entry and completion status with p > 0.05, respectively.ConclusionA higher percentage of mature-age entry students was found to complete their studies on time than direct entry and English access entry students.ContributionThese findings could be used in the revision of student recruitment strategies to select nursing students who are more likely to achieve the best academic outcomes.

The age pattern of school entry reflects a complex social and empirical reality that is inadequately captured by a single number. Recognising these complexities in national and international research and policy discourse raises important but neglected questions around the identification of vulnerable groups, the relative value of pre-primary and primary education, as well as the normative powers and responsibilities of governments vis-à-vis parents, and the international educational community vis-à-vis both. This is illustrated by the example of Indonesia, where the official age norm for primary school entry is widely disregarded in practice, with a majority of children starting school one or even two years earlier. Crucially, it is the compliant children entering at the statutory age who tend to be from more disadvantaged households, and enjoy no benefit in educational outcomes from their greater maturity.

The existence of a rigid cutoff date which determines when children start primary school creates a large heterogeneity in students' level of maturity within the classroom. We use rich administrative data of the universe of public schools in Catalonia to show that: (1) relatively younger children do significantly worse both in tests administered at the school level and at the regional level, and they experience greater retention. (2) These effects are homogeneous across SES and significant across the whole distribution of performance. (3) Younger children in our data exhibit higher dropout rates and choose the academic track in secondary school less often. (4) Younger children are more frequently diagnosed with learning disorders.

In evaluating the role of kindergarten entry age, previous researchers have not examined the entry-age effects for English language learners (ELL). Additionally, little work has assessed the role of entry age on both achievement and social-emotional outcomes. This study is the first to do both simultaneously. The authors used data from a longitudinal study that followed a national sample of U.S. students from kindergarten through Grade 5. Relying on variation in children's birth dates and in states' kindergarten entrance age cutoffs, the authors estimated how differences in the age at which children enroll in kindergarten are related to their achievement and social-emotional outcomes. Our results show that enrolling in kindergarten as an older entrant is associated with significantly higher achievement and social-behavioral outcomes during the early elementary school years for ELL students, but that these effects largely disappear by the end of elementary school. Policy implications are addressed.