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Are school-based management reforms improving education? This book analyzes the theory and evidence behind decentralized decision-making in schools worldwide. Decentralized Decision-Making in Schools explores the impact of school-based management (SBM) reforms across diverse countries. It examines how empowering principals and teachers, and strengthening parental involvement, affects educational outcomes. The authors review over 20 country experiences, providing insights into the effectiveness of SBM in various contexts. * Discover the key factors for successful SBM implementation. * Understand the impact of SBM on student achievement and attendance. * Learn how to design effective education projects with decentralized authority. This insightful analysis is for education officials, policymakers, and researchers seeking evidence-based strategies for improving school governance and student outcomes.

Background: Recent initiatives by the Department of Basic Education to support teachers to enhance their use of formative assessment are positive steps for improving teaching and learning. However, the nature and type of support required by teachers is unclear given the dearth of information on teachers’ current pedagogical practices, and the extent to which formative assessment approaches are applied. Aim: This article explores teachers’ pedagogical practices in relation to five key formative assessment strategies: introduction of lesson objectives and assessment criteria, questioning and learner engagement, feedback practices and peer and self-assessment. Setting: This study was conducted in two districts involving 96 foundation and intermediate phase teachers selected from 54 fee- and no-fee-paying schools. Methods: Data were obtained using lesson observations and document review schedules. The analysis comprised descriptive and chi-square statistics. Results: Some evidence of all the formative assessment strategies as well as the range of steps that characterised each strategy was observed in the pedagogical practices of teachers sampled for this study. However, only a minority of teachers were able to demonstrate effective use of any specific strategy. No significant differences were detected between teachers in fee-paying and no-fee-paying schools as well as between the foundation and intermediate phases. Conclusion: Evidence of various aspects of the formative assessment approach in teachers’ pedagogical practices provides a positive platform for enhancing their formative assessment knowledge and skills. The key challenge pertains to ensuring the effective implementation of the formative assessment approach to address the specific learning needs of all learners, in both fee and no-fee schools.

Why abolish school fees in Africa? The answer seems obvious: to achieve the right to education for all and thus promote equitable participation in economic growth and political action. However, moving from a system based on user fees, which stifled enrollment of the poorest and most vulnerable children, to one of free basic education for everyone has hidden costs if the effort is unplanned or underplanned. The immediate and dramatic influx of students can overburden the education system and compromise quality because of a lack of qualified teachers, an increase in class size, and the loss of school-level funding. Such a result benefits no one. If the elimination of school fees is to make a positive and sustainable impact on school access and learning outcomes, then it must be carefully planned, widely negotiated, and financially supported. Toward these ends, the School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) was launched jointly by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank in 2005. The initiative promotes access to quality basic education worldwide through three specific goals: constructing a knowledge base (database and analysis of experiences), providing assistance (technical and financial) to countries developing a national education plan, and building the partnerships that will ensure success. 'Abolishing School Fees in Africa' is the product of a SFAI workshop, \"School Fee Abolition: Building on What We Know and Defining Sustained Support,\" held in Kenya in 2006. The book begins with a comparative overview of the processes, challenges, and lessons learned by five countries that had already abolished school fees: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique. The subsequent chapters delineate the actual experiences of each of the countries in planning and implementing their policies. This volume will be invaluable to national policy makers and their development partners—civil society, the private sector, development agencies—in eff orts to open access to a quality basic education to all.

In Australia, a range of financial services, including education bonds, high interest personal loans and credit card debt, have long been used to help families pay for the cost of schooling. However, innovative financial technology (fintech) solutions are emerging which align with the growth of a lower risk 'buy now, pay later' phenomenon. Fintechs claim to expand financial inclusion to more people, particularly when their lending activities are compared to traditional banking services. This paper focuses on Edstart, a fintech edu- business that provides low-risk lending for families managing the cost of school fees. In conducting qualitative content analysis of Edstart's website and blog, I catalogue its market- making activities and how it is leveraging logics of school choice to create a new education service market in Australia that normalises school privatisation and the payment of school fees. I end this paper with a discussion of how school choice - as a key policy reform of governments - is associated with the rollback of the welfare state and increased levels of individual financialisation. I argue that parent consumers have become increasingly invested in choosing the 'best' school for their children, and that this often increases their level of private debt. [Author abstract]

Education is one of the most important drivers of the development of individuals and societies. It not only has powerful implications for the creation of human capacity, but also helps people realize their full potential and expand their connections with the world. Economic analyses repeatedly demonstrate that education gives a high economic return within the life - span of an individual and is a key factor underlying the economic growth of nations. Viewed from these perspectives, the decision at the turn of the millennium of governments and development partners to pursue the goal of Education for All (EFA) was not only an important contribution to one sector, but the launch of an endeavor with major implications for the future of humanity. The early perception of the goal of EFA was that all children should have access to education-every child should be able to exercise the right to go to school. This limited goal soon broadened to address the quality of the education that a child received at school and the factors that ensured the child was able to stay in school long enough to learn enough. These additional objectives have expanded the goal of EFA, so that it now aims to ensure that every child has the opportunity to complete an education of good quality, although definitions of quality and completeness remain under discussion. The question now is not whether school health and school feeding programs are necessary to EFA, but how they can be implemented at meaningful scale in the poorest countries, which need them the most.

As in most countries worldwide, Sub-Saharan African countries are striving to build their human capital so they can compete for jobs and investments in an increasingly globalized world. In this region, which includes the largest number of countries that have not yet attained universal primary schooling, the ambitions and aspirations of Sub-Saharan African countries and their youth far exceed this basic goal. Over the past 20 years, educational levels have risen sharply across Sub-Saharan Africa. Already hard at work to provide places in primary schools for all children, most countries of the region are also rapidly expanding access to secondary and tertiary levels of education. Alongside this quantitative push is a growing awareness of the need to make sure that students are learning and acquiring the skills needed for life and work. Achieving education of acceptable quality is perhaps an even greater challenge than providing enough school places for all. Thus, Sub-Saharan African countries are simultaneously confronting many difficult challenges in the education sector, and much is at stake. This book gives those concerned with education in Sub-Saharan Africa an analysis of the sector from a cross-country perspective, aimed at drawing lessons that individual country studies alone cannot provide. A comparative perspective is useful not only to show the range of possibilities in key education policy variables but also to learn from the best performers in the region. (Although the report covers 47 Sub- Saharan African countries whenever possible, some parts of the analysis center on the region's low-income countries, in particular, a sample of 33 low-income countries). Although countries ultimately must make their own policy choices and decide what works best in their particular circumstances, Sub-Saharan African countries can benefit from learning about the experiences of other countries that are faced with, or have gone through, similar development paths. Given the large number of countries included in the analysis, the book finds that Sub-Saharan African countries have more choices and more room for maneuver than will appear if attention were focused on only one or a few country experiences. Countries can make better choices when understanding the breadth of policy choices available to them. They are well advised, however, to evaluate the applicability of policy options to their contexts and to pilot and evaluate the results for performance and subsequent improvement.

This review was prepared jointly by the World Bank Group and the World Food Programme (WFP), building on the comparative advantages of both organizations. It examines the evidence base for school feeding programs with the objective of better understanding how to develop and implement effective school feeding programs in two contexts: a productive safety net, as part of the response to the social shocks of the global food, fuel and financial crises, and a fiscally sustainable investment in human capital, as part of long-term global efforts to achieve Education for All and provide social protection to the poor.

BackgroundFormative assessment has been reported to improve learners’ learning in affluent contexts. However, very few studies have reported the impact of formative assessment on teachers’ knowledge and understanding in no-fee public schools located in a low socio-economic context.AimThis article investigates the impact of the Assessment for Learning Capacity Development Programme (AfL CDP) on teachers’ formative assessment knowledge and understanding pertaining to the five formative assessment strategies: learning intentions and success criteria, questioning, feedback, peer and self-assessment.SettingThis study was conducted as part of the Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Africa project in one Gauteng district involving 20 Grade 3 teachers from six no-fee public schools.MethodsTeachers in this study participated in the AfL CDP, implemented using the reflect, mediate, acquire and adapt, plan, prepare, present, support (ReMAPS) intervention framework. Baseline and endline data were collected using the formative assessment reflection exercises (FARE) before and after the AfL CDP, while t-tests were used to determine differences in performance.ResultsThe results revealed significant improvements in teacher formative assessment knowledge and understanding across all five strategies.ConclusionThe ReMAPS intervention framework, applied in the AfL CDP, proved successful in supporting teachers to improve their formative assessment knowledge and understanding, even when implemented in challenging contexts, and provides a viable, practical model for implementing AfL pedagogical strategy by the Department of Education.ContributionThis study adds to the body of knowledge by providing research-based findings about how an AfL capacity development programme implemented in a challenging context in South Africa, benefited teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and understanding.

Abstract This study examines the extent to which Jordan is committed to principles of compulsory and free basic education, by analyzing legislation in light of constitutional and international standards regarding the right to education. Methodology includes quantitative assessment of these principles using a questionnaire distributed to students and their teachers in a number of public schools in three Jordanian governorates. Three focus group sessions composed of students and their teachers were held. The study suggests that, whilst the Jordanian Constitution has explicitly adopted such principles, Jordanian law yet includes provisions that diminish providing free basic education to all children of compulsory age and that mitigate the number of students who drop out of school. This study proposes amending the title of Chapter II of the Constitution and Article 20 to ensure that all children living in Jordan enjoy the right to education.