Access and Equity in Basic Education

Schooling and Labor Market Impacts of Bolivia's <i>Bono Juancito Pinto</i> Program

Globally, access to basic education is a universal fundamental human right. Conversely, governments of underdeveloped and developing countries experience several challenges in ensuring equity in basic education. Along with the government initiatives, equity in basic education also depends on parental socio-economic status. Japan has achieved significant success in students' learning outcomes regardless of parental SES and might serve as a role model for Bangladesh to ensure equity in education. This case study research comprehends the dynamics of parental SES in accessing quality basic education for their children in Japan and Bangladesh. This paper argues that historically, meritocracy played a fundamental role in education. However, owing to the cultural paradigm shift, Parentocracy appears to be the better option for improving children's academic outcomes. The central theoretical argument of this study is to cognise whether meritocracy or Parentocracy in the modern education system can bring equity among children. This paper finds that Bangladesh can implement the Japanese experience through curriculum modifications and play-based learning approaches to ensure equity in basic education. Finally, parental involvement is vital in ensuring equity in education to accommodate all children to receive quality basic education in Bangladesh.

Ensuring equitable access to basic education is a core issue for promoting balanced regional development and sustainable educational outcomes. As a vast and sparsely populated region with relatively slow development, the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau faces particular challenges in ensuring educational accessibility and equity. Using a 100 m × 100 m travel time cost raster constructed from OSM road networks and the cost-distance method, together with local spatial autocorrelation, Lorenz curve, and Gini coefficients, as well as the Geodetector method, this study examines the spatial equity and factors influencing the accessibility of primary and secondary schools across 2798 townships at three time points (2016, 2020, and 2024) under three scenarios: Scenario 1 (nearby schooling), Scenario 2 (schooling within the prefecture-level city), and Scenario 3 (schooling within the county). The results show that: (1) Overall accessibility improved from 2016 to 2024, with primary schools being more accessible than secondary schools. Western townships, although initially disadvantaged, experienced the most notable gains. However, accessibility declined markedly when administrative-boundary constraints were imposed, with the greatest losses observed in ultra-high-altitude remote areas such as Ngari and Nagqu. (2) Spatial equity also improved, but when administrative boundaries were imposed, population-weighted inequities became even more pronounced than disparities in accessibility itself. Equity declined most sharply under county-level constraints, with pronounced impacts on both primary and secondary schooling. (3) Spatial variations in accessibility were jointly driven by multiple factors. In Scenario 1, road network density and population density had the strongest explanatory power. Under administrative boundary constraints, however, county type and ethnic autonomy became increasingly influential. In conclusion, in ultra-high-altitude areas where natural conditions remain difficult to overcome, improving educational equity depends less on transport expansion or facility provision and more on relaxing county-level boundary restrictions that constrain access to services. These findings may provide useful evidence to inform targeted policy interventions and resource allocation strategies aimed at promoting equitable access to basic education in underdeveloped and high-altitude regions.

Tanzania has had, over the past century or more, an educational system that reflects both the aspirations of and the disparities among its people. Initially, education was the responsibility of community elders, it was informal, and focused on life skills. Language use was largely oral, with influences from Arabic languages and cultures. While Tanzania was colonized by Germany in the late nineteenth century and was governed by Great Britain after World War I, schooling at the primary level in the country, was locally controlled, yet it began to mirror that of European nations, including the study of European languages, mathematics, and sciences. After Tanzania gained independence in the 1960s, its leaders established a national language (Kiswahili) to be taught in public primary schools. Through a socialist agenda, people were to place their children in primary schools—to support self-reliance and an economy of agriculture—with very few youth going beyond that level of schooling. School fees were eradicated in the public sector and enrollment in primary schools ballooned. These fees were reinstated in the 1980s with a concomitant drop in number of children attending primary school. Fees were again dropped in 2015. Progress in the education system has been made since independence; however, there are still areas that need improvement. Tanzania has a high enrollment rate at the primary school level but a huge number of students drop out before finishing their primary education. There is a national exam to move onto secondary school, and about 50% of students pass the exam and move on with another set of exams at the end of secondary school, in ten subjects (http://kisaproject.org). Eighteen percent of students pass to move into advanced levels of secondary schooling and, ultimately, college, typically in neighboring countries. In total, the enrollment for secondary education is 30.8% and for advanced secondary, only 1.9% (Fundi 2016; Mushi 2009). Students also have the option to seek vocational training or pay fees to attend private school (http://kisaproject.org).Language issues in Tanzanian schools continue to be a challenge. In public secondary schools, Kiswahili is used as the language of instruction while the exams are in English. The language of primary education is mixed, with many poor and rural children having no exposure to English despite it being the lanague in which the exams are given. As a result, the education system serves best those who can speak English—primarily the wealthy—and the majority of students only attain primary education level. There is no tutoring for children who fall behind, and although English is taught as a subject in primary school, many teachers themselves are not fluent (M. Yahl 2015, www.nyu.edu). Students attending public primary and secondary schools in rural areas often lack resources and adequate facilities for learning in any langauge. Moreover, there are no professional development opportunities for teachers to build their content-knowledge in English or any subject, nor are there professional development opportunities for building skill in pedagogical methods, classroom management, or differentiation (Fundi 2016).

Two decades ago, educational inequality in the People’s Republic of China was criticized for creating social stratification. Ethnic minorities, who occupy 60% of China’s territory, were considered disadvantaged due to the lack of access to quality education. Rapid economic development since late twentieth century has helped the country move toward equity in education. The introduction of nine-year compulsory education in 1986 has been an important step in this move toward educational equity. Policies aimed at controlling the dropout rate and ensuring that all children remain enrolled in school for 9 years, called “kong chuo bao xue,” have helped achieve this goal. In 2021, the government announced that the dropout rate at the basic education level (primary and middle school levels) that was initially identified as caused by financial difficulties was zero. However, the implementation of the policy at local levels encountered numerous challenges that caused negative side effects on perceptions of school education, specifically on equity and quality education. This book chapter analyzes the government policies, reports, and scholarly publications related to equity and quality education to evidence issues of practical challenges, cultural differences, and unified “examination-oriented” education. Data specific to Yunnan, China’s most ethnically diverse province, are featured with the aim of identifying social impact in education. Despite improvements in gender equity, high school participation rates, and university placements, there are still challenges looking ahead. Monitoring progress in educational equity in China is ongoing, but disadvantages may extend well beyond schooling and education.

With the rapid development of the Internet, various information resources have expanded dramatically. How to retrieve effective information resources at a high speed in a large-scale network environment has become a severe challenge facing the Internet. In recent years, P2P, as a new type of network application mode, has become more and more popular due to its scalability and high fault tolerance. As the core technology of P2P applications, the resource search mechanism can find resources that meet user requirements at the fastest speed in a distributed dynamic environment such as P2P. The equity of basic education in the dual structure of urban and rural areas is the focus of Chinese society, and its data analysis is crucial in the research process, and the resource search algorithm can efficiently search for the resources needed in this article. Based on this, this article aims to study the resource search algorithm in P2P and its application in the basic education fairness of urban and rural dual structure. After analyzing the characteristics of the P2P network, the classic resource search algorithm and the impact of basic education injustice, use the resource search algorithm. The flooding algorithm obtains and analyzes the relevant data related to the equity of basic education in the dual structure of urban and rural areas that this article needs, and puts forward suggestions on the equity of basic education on this basis. The research results show that since 2013, the qualification rate of full-time teachers in urban and rural primary and secondary schools in Province G has reached more than 99%; in addition, the proportion of teachers with a college degree or above in urban primary schools and a bachelor degree or above in junior high schools in 2016 has increased by 12 compared to 2010. 21 and 25.02 percentage points, while the proportion of teachers in rural elementary and junior high schools increased by 19.23 and 28.72 percentage points respectively.KeywordsP2PResource search algorithmFlooding algorithmEducation fairness problem

Measuring Gender Equality in Education: Lessons from Trends in 43 Countries

To get a better knowledge of the current situation of screen time among primary and secondary school students in all provinces of China from 2016 to 2017. Data was from the China National Nutrition and Health Surveillance of Children and Lactating Women(2016-2017).275 monitoring points were selected from 31 provinces of China by multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling. A total of 280 primary and secondary school students from 2 primary schools, 2 junior middle schools and 1 senior high school were randomly selected from each monitoring point to complete the survey.73629 primary and secondary school students(except grade 9 and grade 12) were included in this study. From 2016 to 2017, the average daily screen time of Chinese primary and secondary school students was(1.65±1.54) hours, M(P25, P75) was 1.29(0.58, 2.21) h. In terms of provinces, the average daily electronic screen time of primary and secondary school students in Beijing, Tianjin, Jilin, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan is more than 2 hours. In terms of rural and urban areas, the screen time of students in Beijing&apos;s rural and urban areas, Tianjin&apos;s rural areas, Hebei&apos;s urban areas, Liaoning&apos;s rural areas, Jilin&apos;s rural areas, Fujian&apos;s urban areas, Guangdong&apos;s urban areas, Guangxi&apos;s urban areas, Hainan&apos;s rural and urban areas, and Xinjiang&apos;s urban areas all exceeds 2 hours/day. Besides, screen times of rural primary and secondary school students in Beijing(Z=2.62, P&lt;0.01), Tianjin(Z=5.94, P&lt;0.01), Liaoning(Z=11.56, P&lt;0.01), Jilin(Z=-7.59, P&lt;0.01), Shanghai(Z=3.19, P&lt;0.01), Jiangsu(Z=12.00, P&lt;0.01), Zhejiang(Z=-4.80, P&lt;0.01), Anhui(Z=-4.67, P&lt;0.01), Jiangxi(Z=-3.29, P=0.01), and Sichuan(Z=-4.53, P&lt;0.01) are longer than that of urban students. There are urban-rural differences in the average daily electronic screen time and different types of electronic screen time of primary and secondary school students in China&apos;s provinces from 2016 to 2017.

Chapter 8 - Access and Equity in Higher Education in Indonesia: A Review from the Periphery

A field survey of ''physical and health education (PHE) in Basic Education curriculum: a study Ishiagu, Ivo local govt. area of Ebonyi State'' was undertaken in 2012 academic session with the following specific objectives: to assess the level of PHE facilities and literatures in the study area, to assess the level of PHE resource personnel in the study area, to assess the level of compliance of teachers to the curriculum content. Questionnaires, interview and field visit for PHE facilities was employed for the research. Systematic random samplings of the both the primary and junior secondary schools (this makes up the basic education in Nigeria) in the 11 villages that make up Ishiagu wasdone. Specifically, teachers and head teachers in the primary schools were covered while in the junior secondary schools, PHE teachers in one arm of the classes and the principals were covered. This serves as the representative unit for the area under study. Questionnaires were administered to one teacherin a class irrespective of the arms and the head teachers in the primary section. From each primary school, 7 questionnaires were administered. Within the 11 villages, this gives a total of 77 questionnaires administered.In the junior secondary schools, Ishiagu has 7 secondary schools. The PHE teachers and the principals covered in each secondary school were 4. In all the secondary schools, 28 questionnaireswere administered. This makes a total of 105 questionnaires administered. After the questionnaires were collated and coded, 100 were valid. Descriptive statistics was used in analyzing the collated data. The findings of the study indicated the following: that there are more female teachers at the basic education level, that the majority of the teachers are within the age range of 35 – 45 years, that PHE professionals, contact period, budget and facilities were significantly inadequate to realize the country's objective of PHE curriculum content implementation. Contrarily, PHE teaching aids were adequate, that majority of the basic education institutions are regular, formal, government owned and student/pupil per class is within the range of 20 – 30, that majority of the schools was fenced, have motorable roads, classes ventilated, lacks portable water, not connected to national grid but improvised with generating set for power supply, majority of the school have first aid facilities for emergency medical attention and mid day meal were brought from home, toilet facilities were markedly inadequate given the student toilet / ratio, surrounding bushes were utilized by most schools covered. It was recommended that adequate PHE specialists be employed by primary and junior secondary schools and to have an office tagged 'PHE Unit' where they will hold and attend to PHE needs of their respective institutions, that government and school proprietors should adequately fund school for PHE facilities and organize prized sporting activities within and between schools, that approval for school establishment and accreditation should compulsorily have provision for PHE facilities, personnel and teaching aids.

In China, legislation exists which requires compulsory schooling for all students of school age. This article examines the functions of and the constraints on using law to institutionalize equality in basic education. It argues that, in China, law is a last resort, holding governments of various levels accountable. Law can be a device of social justice to promote equity in education by serving as an important mechanism to check and balance the state’s power regarding its obligations toward instituting basic education, redistributing public resources, reducing disparities, and promoting equality in compulsory schooling. However, the use of legislation to promote equity in basic education is constrained by economic conditions and other extra-legal factors. This article concludes by offering an explanation of the functions of and constraints on law in the quest for equality in basic education, as well as the implications of China’s experience for understanding law and change.

This is the first book to provide a practical toolkit, grounded in both current educational practice and pedagogical research, on teaching Latin and ancient Greek at primary school with the aim of empowering primary school age children who do not traditionally get access to Classics in education. Taking the author’s decade of experience in coordinating primary school-level Classics projects in the UK and Belgium as a starting point, this book investigates how we can move towards educational equity by teaching primary school students Latin or ancient Greek. Following an introduction to educational inequity and the role of Classics in this, readers encounter four aspects of teaching Classics at primary school which, together, improve educational equity: widening participation, transformative learning, translanguaging, and community engagement. Through reflections on the author’s personal experiences, practical steps are set out in each chapter to demonstrate how these ancient languages may be taught at primary school in ways that are accessible for every pupil. Each chapter ends with a series of reflection questions to help readers consider future practices. Classics at Primary School: A Tool for Social Justice is designed for all those engaged or interested in teaching Latin or ancient Greek at the primary school level. Both the practical and theoretical components of this book appeal to teachers as well as researchers and policy makers with a background in education and/or Classics.

In the western regions covering 71.4% of China's total area, there are about 90,000 teaching sites with only one teacher in a school accounting for over 80% of all teaching sites in China. Due to a decline in the number of school-age children, many primary schools in villages are faced with diminishing numbers of students, rising costs, and mounting pressures regarding education quality. In a report entitled Eight-year Pain in Chedian Bingxiao Hurts Rural Primary and Middle Schools, the author drew readers' attention to the by-products of the restructuring process for rural primary and middle schools in Guangdong. These included difficult access to education, low re-utilization of closed schools, dropouts, and a widening urban-rural gap in education quality. Guizhou University and Guizhou University of Nationalities investigated the impact of resource concentration on basic education in poverty-stricken areas, and the effect of implementation of the chedian bingxiao policy. Keywords:boarding schools; chedian bingxiao policy; China; Guizhou University; rural areas

Since the enactment of Dakar Program in 2000, all of the countries have taken a series of measures to achieve the aim of universal education. China, the country with the largest population in the world, also makes every effort to popularize the universal education and to achieve the equity of education. After contact work for many years, China’s education has got a quite great development, especially in the aspect of popularizing the universal education, China have taken great achievements, just like the quite huge and great developments in the economic field. According to the Progress of China in Implementing the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) which was issued jointly by the government of China and UN agencies in China, China has achieved the goal of universal primary education by 2015 ahead of schedule: when the Chinese Government has progressed towards free compulsory education in a phased and planned way, the Chinese also has achieve the targets of universal 9-year compulsory education and basic elimination of illiteracy among the adolescents, and illiteracy rate among the adolescents has been below 1.0 %, and the net enrollment rate of primary-school-age children has increased to 99.8 %. In the aspect of eliminating gender disparity, the difference in net enrollment rate between boys and girls has been eliminated, and the gap between boys and girls in the years of education they received was narrowed from 1.3 years in 2000 to 0.8 years in 2014. In 2014, there were 32.458 million girl students in secondary schools, accounting for 47.84 % of the total number of students there, and 43.7196 million girl students in primary schools, accounting for 46.26 % of the total number of students there. The ratio of boy to girl students in primary and secondary schools is basically consistent with the ratio of school-age children between boys and girls. These glorious data remarked that Chinese education has attained the aim of “equity” and “popularization” in some extrinsic data and indexes, but these glorious outside data cannot hide the deep conflicts in the Chinese educational equity. In addition, with a decade of development, these extrinsic conflicts have become more internal. Due to their concealment, these internal conflicts of equity will be tough to solve. These internal conflicts can be summarized in three basic facts: quality, freedom, and equity. The relationship among them also becomes critical influences on China’s education today. 1. Educational equity and quality of education: how to ensure students in the poverty-stricken areas can enjoy high-quality education? Quality of education is the finally direction of the educational equity, and the quality of education in the poverty-stricken areas in China is still severe from the point of view of students’ scholastic achievement and the state of teaching staff. College entrance examination is the largest academic test in China, students get the qualification to enter the college through this text. For the students in poverty-stricken areas, college entrance examination is the only way for them to change their fate. However, according to a study published in the Social Science in China, the probability of rural students entering the college is getting smaller, and it will be increasing difficult for them to enter the college. In addition, the rate of rural students in the Chinese top universities is declining obviously. (Li 2012). On the other side, teachers in rural areas are not optimistic too. The Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Education is a fundamental human right and a critical driver of national development. Despite global efforts and commitments to Universal Primary Education (UPE), challenges persist, especially in the context of Free Primary Education (FPE) policies, with declining enrollment and low retention rates, particularly in Arid and Semi-arid Lands (ASAL) regions. Therefore, this study sought to examine the perception of teachers on the influence of socio-cultural factors on learner retention in primary schools in Turkana County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the pragmatic paradigm and adopted a mixed methods approach and a concurrent triangulation research design. The study was conducted in seven Sub-Counties of Turkana County, and the target population was 461 teachers, comprising 419 in public primary schools and 42 in private primary schools. A proportionate random sampling technique was used to select 291 teachers, while a purposive sampling technique was used to select 14 senior teachers comprising two from each of the seven Sub-Counties. Quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using percentages, means, standard deviations and multiple linear regression, while qualitative data was generated using semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that although the majority of teachers perceived early marriages and teenage pregnancy as societal norms in Turkana County, they posed detrimental effects on education, particularly for girls. The results showed that teenage pregnancy (β=-.356, p-value&lt;.05) and early marriage (β=-.126, p-value&lt;.05) had a significant negative impact on learner retention; while parental level of education (β=.168; p-value&lt;.05) had a significant positive influence on learner retention. The study recommends a holistic approach that involves community collaboration, policy advocacy, and educational support to improve learner retention in primary schools. The results of this study have invaluable implications for access and equity in education. The Ministry of Education can draw from the findings to develop targeted interventions for improving learner retention.