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This report, produced with the help of Madagascar’s national education team in 2006-07, is designed to contribute to ongoing education reform discussions. It analyzes the constraints to system expansion and presents possible next steps for an appropriate course of action. This report aims to encourage discussion among policymakers, stakeholders and donors, and does not promote one approach over another. To promote a more competitive economy in Madagascar in the 21st century, the government expects to increase the average years of schooling from the current 4.5 years to about 9-10 years by 2015 for the relative age groups. This report discusses the ongoing reform and its impact and provides suggestions for implementation. This report is intended to be used as a discussion instrument and to be disseminated among Madagascar’s stakeholders in education. We hope this report will contribute to improved implementation of the secondary education reform in Madagascar.This study was prepared as part of the Secondary Education and Training in Africa (SEIA) initiative which aims to assist countries to develop sustainable strategies for expansion and quality improvements in secondary education and training.

All countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face the prospect of a substantial increase in the number of primary school completers in the coming years. Although initial conditions vary widely from country to country, this increase will inevitably intensify pressure on the education system, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels. African countries may thus find it timely to align their education policies and strategies to the emerging challenges. A key goal is to ensure that the education system continues to develop in an efficient, equitable, and fiscally sustainable manner even as it expands to accommodate the rising numbers seeking a place in secondary and tertiary education. The rest of this report is organized as follows. Chapter two elaborates the policy context for education development in SSA. Chapter three explains the methodology and data sources. Chapter four examines the challenges and constraints posed by the sheer volume of increases in enrollments in post-primary education with which most education systems in SSA must grapple in the coming years. Taking these constraints into account, the report evaluates the scope for policy development from three perspectives in the subsequent chapters: the coverage of education systems (chapter five), the quality and cost of service delivery (chapter six), and the division of financing by public and private sources (chapter seven). The fiscal implications of plausible policy packages that SSA countries might consider are assessed in chapter eight. Chapter nine seems up the general conclusions of the report.

This mixed-methods study investigates the differences in demotivation between Chinese and Korean English teachers. A questionnaire on demotivation was conducted on 58 Chinese and 94 Korean in-service teachers to find out the dominant factors in teacher demotivation. Follow-up interviews with teachers were conducted to explore the reasons as to why teachers found the salient factors to be demotivating. The results indicated that the number of students per English classroom was the detrimental factor for both Chinese and Korean teachers. Moreover, the only factor that Chinese teachers perceived to be more demotivating than Korean teachers was the excessive interference or expectations of school parents. For Korean teachers, large amounts of administrative tasks and students’ lack of interest in English were found to be the most detrimental factors. From the findings of this study, practical implications as well as research suggestions are provided.

Research Question - Is there a link between the investment in human capital, measured by the average gross salary in the pre-university education system and the student-teacher ratio together with the results obtained by students in tests? Motivation - In any society, the work done by man to obtain results is always present. Human capital in the economic and accounting context cannot be dissociated from its cost, and in the public system, it acquires an even greater influence. The role of human capital and implicitly its cost in the public expenditure system represents the largest part, and its significance is accentuated in education. Idea - The authors of this paper tried to see if investing in human capital has positive consequences on the outcome of the pre-university education system. Data - Research data were collected from the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) website Tools - The research was performed by quantitative methods using the least squares regression equation. The hypotheses tested by the authors were the existence of a relevant positive or negative correlation between the indicators presented. Findings - Following the analysis, found that there was a positive correlation between the salary level indicators and the average score obtained in tests, and a negative correlation between the number of students per teacher and test results. Contribution - This paper contributes to research in the field on the effects of decisions regarding funding and pay policy for pre-university education using the results obtained by students in standardized tests. Therefore, this research is part of a larger research project that shows that the level of funding is correlated with the results of students measured by tests in pre-university education.

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.

This study is intended for non-Russian researchers wanting to get familiar with the education system of the Russian Federation and more generally for all those involved in education and education policy. It does not represent exhaustive information on the Russian education system and all problems and challenges existing there, but briefly describes its main features. The report has the following structure. The opening chapter provides an overview of the education system in Russia and briefly reviews the most evident emergent trends. Chapters two through five are devoted to description of education system by level. The chapters are arranged by ascending order of educational level and each chapter's present information in a progression from the most general to the most specific. First, data on the current state of education system is provided. They characterize the human and financial resources allocated to education; describe the network of educational institutions across the country, and show regional disparities of spending on education. Next in each section key problems and challenges are examined; the focus is mainly made on access to and quality of educational services. Third, information on recent and ongoing reforms in the education sphere addresses each subsector separately and defines features typical for each of them. Fourth, there is discussion of policy options and analysis of what can be improved in the Russian education sphere. Finally, section six is devoted to lifelong learning. First, the section focuses on the condition of and development trends in lifelong learning. Then it examines the state of policy, staff training including financing and coverage, and learning for socially deprived groups of people. The section concludes with policy options and possible measures for improvement.

In the past fifteen years, Brazil has made great strides in increasing its population?s access to early child education, with both preschool and creche enrollment increasing by over fifty percent. Education programs for young children have consistently been shown to have long-term positive effects on life outcomes of participants. In Brazil, these programs have demonstrated positive impacts on, for example, income, length of schooling, and test scores. However, the quality of pre-schools and creches is essential in achieving these improvements, and even in capital cities, very few centers are rated as high-quality centers. Representation of the poorest and most vulnerable children among those attending pre-school and creche still lags considerably behind that of more privileged children, although poorer children stand to gain the most from early child education programs. Additionally, large rural-urban and regional disparities exist. This book details the literature on the effects of early child education and the importance of quality, and gives a comprehensive view of the quality, regional, and socioeconomic gaps in early child education in Brazil. It further examines existing public and private initiatives in Brazil, and discusses how they can be leveraged to effectively and efficiently provide quality pre-school and creche care. A central aim of the book is to provide policymakers with specific recommendations of policies to improve the quality and equity of the early child education experience in Brazil. Given the difficulty in reaching children in remote areas and the need to expand coverage to the poorest segments of the population, Brazil will need to be strategic in how and where it invests. It should target new centers and allocate existing spaces to the poorest people and areas. Municipal policymakers should allocate public spaces in a transparent manner, provide guidelines to institutions, and monitor them. Teachers need guidance on the best activities to use, to improve child outcomes. The use of participatory budgeting could potentially improve access and equity by involving the poor directly in the budgeting process. Increased cross-sectoral coordination could improve child welfare in cost-effective ways, and public-private partnerships could stretch existing resources further and expand coverage more quickly.

This thematic study discusses strategies for sustainable financing of secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report provides insight into options for financing the expansion of secondary education and training in Africa. This comes with a hefty price tag and points to the need to undertake fundamental reforms swiftly. This publication messages are clear: secondary education and training in Sub-Saharan Africa faces the challenge of improved efficiency and improved quality simultaneously with a fast growing demand. Sustainable financing will also require more effective public-private partnerships, because governments have many priorities and do not have a lot of room for significant additional public funding of post-primary systems. Educational reforms are needed to expand enrollment in secondary schooling in affordable ways. These reforms will contribute to poverty reduction by increasing the levels of knowledge, skills, and capability; diminishing inequalities in access that limit social mobility and skew income distribution; and contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that relate to education.