Universal Primary Education Research Articles

The impacts of retention, expenditures, and class size on primary school completion in Sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-national analysis

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly viewed as a means of emancipation, acting as a transformative project for social mobility. Developing nations have subsequently pursued policies designed to increase access to education and improve upon student outcomes, such as universal or free primary education. In this study, direct and indirect precursors to primary school completion in Sub-Saharan Africa are considered using cross-national data collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Path analysis results show that imbalanced pupil-teacher ratios and high student retention rates are negatively associated with primary school completion. Additionally, the positive relationship between expenditure increase and completion rates is mediated by a negative contribution to pupil-teacher ratios. Results are compared with existing production function research on varied educational inputs and student success.

Prawo dzieci do edukacji a jakość nauczania w Afryce Subsaharyjskiej na przykładzie Madagaskaru

In 2003 Madagascar joined the UNESCO “Education for All” programme. The primary objective of the programme is to improve accessibility to and the quality of the education system. Although there has been progress in achieving universal primary education, this progress has not been accompanied by the necessary safeguards for ensuring quality of education. According to the UNESCO report “Éducation pour tous. Madagascar 2015" only 79% the Malagasy children who started school went on to complete their primary education. The PASEC (Program on the Analysis of Education Systems) report also shows the low quality of education – children repeating school years together with low educational outcomes in Mathematics and French. This poor quality of education is undoubtedly in violation of the rights of children to their individual development. This article attempts to answer the question about the causes of the low quality of education in Madagascar. According to the author it’s important to note that apart from poverty and child labour the low professional qualifications of teachers is also a contributory factor.

Early School Withdrawals and Underperformance as Indicators of Poor Attention to Learner’s Welfare: Botswana in 50 Years of Self-Rule

<p>September 30<sup>th</sup> 2016 was Botswana’s 50th birthday. Botswana, a deeply impoverished country in 1966 was on that day an upper-middle income country in the world rankings. Its education expenditure was one of the highest in the world, at around 9% of the GDP. It was on record to have provided more than 90% of universal and free primary education. Guided by the 1977 and 1994 education policies, the country committed itself to the universal declaration that education is a fundamental human right. It adopted a priority of reducing the growing percentages of non-enrolled school age children, let alone working around the clock to increase access to basic education schooling. Despite these good policies and sound financial resources, it has not escaped global challenges of unequal access which has denied some learners the opportunity to complete their education programmes. It also faced huge challenges of low school retention rates, particularly in the basic education programme, that is primary and secondary school systems. This article considers these challenges as critical indicators of lack of attention to learner’s welfare in public schools. It argues that in the 50 years of self-rule, the basic education program remained trapped in a culture of moral indifference and silent exclusion. The article argues that post 50<sup>th</sup> birthday, Botswana needs to begin a new chapter, developing an education system that cares about learner’s education welfare more than ever before.</p>

Assessing Progress and Pitfalls of the Millennium Development Goals in Zimbabwe: A Critical Analysis

Zimbabwe adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at their inception in 2000 and it has trends of its progress in its attempt to attain these MDGs as indicated in progress reports since 2004, 2010, 2012 and 2015. In these reports optimistic trends are chiefly found in MDG2 on universal primary education which is Zimbabwe’s pride in Africa, MDG3 regarding gender parity in schools and MDG6 on HIV and AIDS. The country continues to face its biggest challenges in attaining MDG1 which is eliminating extreme poverty and hunger and MDG5 which is increase nurturing mortality, whereas all the objectives under these goals are dubious that would be attained at the cut-off date. It was unfortunate that, the inception of the MDGs coincided with the deepening of socioeconomic, political and environmental crisis in the country which made it very difficult for Zimbabwe to accomplish all of its MDGs. The focal motive of this study was to check the progress, policies, programmes and strategies which were in place to promote the attainment of the MDGs from 2000-2015 and other strategies or policies in place to attain the SDGs 2016-2030. This paper recommended that there is need for institutionalisation of SDGs that is aligning them with Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socioeconomic Transformation (Zim-Asset) cluster; for instance, value accumulation and beneficiation, nourishment security, poverty extermination, social services and strengthening partnership with all stakeholders. The research uses intensive secondary data analysis from various sources including government gazette, journal articles, e-books, and government website, reports, published and unpublished books.

Does Keeping Adolescent Girls in School Protect Against Sexual Violence? Quasi-Experimental Evidence From East and Southern Africa

PurposeWe examine the relationship between educational attainment in adolescence on young women's lifetime experience of sexual violence in Malawi and Uganda. MethodsExposure to Universal Primary Education policies in the mid-1990s serves as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of schooling on women's subsequent experience of sexual violence using an instrumented regression discontinuity design and Demographic and Health Survey data. ResultsWe find a one-year increase in grade attainment leads to a nine-percentage point reduction (p < .05) in the probability of ever experiencing sexual violence in a sample of 1,028 Ugandan women (aged 18–29 years), an estimate which is considerably larger than observational estimates. We find no effect of grade attainment on ever experiencing sexual violence among a sample of 4,413 Malawian women (aged 19–31 years). In addition, we find no relationship between grade attainment and 12-month sexual violence in either country. Analysis of pathways indicates increased grade attainment increases literacy and experience of premarital sex in Malawi and reduces the probability of ever being married in both countries. ConclusionsKeeping girls in school results in a number of benefits for young women; however, protects against lifetime experience of sexual violence only in Uganda. It is possible that overall higher grade attainment, particularly at secondary school levels is driving this effect in Uganda. More research on this relationship is needed, as well as on effective interventions, particularly those which can be taken to scale related to enhancing the quality and quantity of education.

Digital preservation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which digital preservation facilitate the implementation of electronic government, open data and the right to information.Design/methodology/approachA case study research which chronicles the link between transparency and data availability. It makes use of a theoretical framework based on the open archival information system to analyse, explain, clarify and justify the application of open data, electronic government and the right to information.FindingsThe paper argued that e-government, open data and the RTI will remain elusive if a digital preservation infrastructure is not pursued. Within the context of e-government, the paper adumbrated that government agencies can incorporate e-government legislations into their digital preservation activities, precisely because the relationship between digital preservation and e-government have always been symbiotic. It alluded to the fact that an obligation will be placed on all public authorities and private agencies covered by the RTL law to create, keep and organise an effective and efficient system of record keeping, so as to give meaning to the right to information when citizens apply for information.Practical implicationsFuture research should examine closely the implication of open data government within the context of digital preservation. Whilst digital preservation looks forward to the longevity of digital records and its accessibility, open data focusses on the utility of these records through online services, reuse and distribution for the purposes of transparency and citizens’ participation.Originality/valueThe application of digital preservation to open data in this paper appears to be more relevant at a time when most governments of the world are striving to obtain data to fight poverty, achieve universal primary education, fight HIV and foster maternal health. Its originality can further be established from the symbiotic relationship between digital preservation and electronic government, open data and the right to information.

Educate or Adjudicate? Socioeconomic Heterogeneity and Welfare

I present a formal framework to explore the welfare and distributional effects of a government’s optimal choice over two types of public spending in a closed economy: domestic security (DS) and investment in social capital (SC). Production is characterized as a function of social and physical capital stocks that both vary across the regions. DS stands for total factor productivity, while SC stands for human capital and civic cooperativeness combined. SC accumulates via public spending on universal primary education, cultural, and civic events and such, and is exposed to regional spillover effects. Numerical simulations of the static solution of the government’s welfare maximization problem reveal that the optimal rate of spending on SC (m*) is negatively related with the income share of physical capital, SC spillovers and fiscal decentralization. Simulations also show that SC homogeneity is positively associated with both the level and equitability of aggregate income. The maximum attainable levels of income, welfare and social cohesion and the most equitable incomes are all observed to realize at some intermediate range of m* values. In case DS augments SC, however, social cohesion improves and welfare declines monotonously in m*.

Education Policy and Under-Five Survival in Uganda: Evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys

This study seeks to examine the influence of mothers’ schooling accomplishments on child mortality outcomes by exploiting the exogenous variability in schooling prompted by the 1997 universal primary education (UPE) policy in Uganda. The UPE policy, which eliminated school fees for all primary school children, provides an ideal setting for investigating the causal effect of the subsequent burst in primary school enrollment on child mortality outcomes in Uganda. The analysis relies on data from three waves of the nationally representative Uganda Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2000/01, 2006, and 2011. To lessen the bias created by the endogenous nature of education, this study employs the mother’s age at UPE implementation as an instrumental variable in the two-stage least squares model. The empirical analysis shows that one-year spent in school translates to a 2.24 percentage point decline in under-five mortality as observed at survey date and a 1.58 percentage point reduction in infant mortality even after accounting for potential confounding variables. These upshots are weakly robust to a variety of sample sizes and different model specifications. Overall, the results suggest that increasing the primary schooling possibilities for women might contribute towards a reduction in child mortality in low-income countries with high child mortality rates.

Le Défi De La Scolarisation Primaire Universelle Des Filles Dans La Région Du Worodougou En Côte D’Ivoire

Under-education and schooling are important phenomena that hinder the achievement of universal primary education, especially for girls. This article aims to analyze strategies to implement in order to achieve universal primary education for girls in the region of Worodougou, in northwestern of Côte d’Ivoire. To collect data, individual and group interviews were conducted with actors of education. After this investigation, it is concluded that the obstacles to achieving of this goal are, among others, poverty, illiteracy of the parents, social representation of women in the community, migration of girls from Worodougou region, in particular, the dream of going to settle in the west countries, and more specifically in France, etc. The proposed strategies are numerous. However, we can mention the need for the implementation of literacy programs, effectiveness of free education for all the children, increasing educational opportunities, etc.

The causal effect of increased primary schooling on child mortality in Malawi: Universal primary education as a natural experiment

The primary objective of this analysis is to investigate the causal effect of mother's schooling on under-five health - and the passageways through which schooling propagates - by exploiting the exogenous variability in schooling prompted by the 1994 universal primary schooling program in Malawi. This education policy, which saw the elimination of tuition fees across all primary schooling grades, creates an ideal setting for observing the causal influence of improved primary school enrollment on the under-five fatality rates of the subsequent generation. Our analysis uses data from three waves of the nationally representative Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 2000, 2004/05, and 2010. To address the potential endogeneity of schooling, we employ the mother's age at implementation of the tuition-free primary school policy in 1994 as an instrumental variable for the prospect of finishing primary level instruction. The results suggest that spending one year in school translated to a 3.22 percentage point reduction in mortality for infants and a 6.48 percent reduction for children under age five years. For mothers younger than 19 years, mortality was reduced by 5.95 percentage points. These figures remained approximately the same even after adjusting for potential confounders. However, we failed to find any statistically meaningful effect of the mother's education on neonatal survival. The juvenile fatality estimates we find are weakly robust to several robustness checks. We also explored the potential mechanisms by which increased maternal schooling might help enhance child survival. The findings indicated that an added year of motherly learning considerably improves the prospect of prenatal care use, literacy levels, father's educational level, and alters fertility behavior. Our results suggest that increasing the primary schooling prospects for young women might help reduce under-five mortality in less-industrialized regions experiencing high under-five fatalities such as in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some empirical evidences about the educational sector of Pakistan; &amp; Some Suggestion for improvement

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this article, some actual problems regarding the education department of Punjab province are presented. Mostly all of them are observed by the author himself during his duty during Govt. survey for admission policy for gaining hundred percent targets. For this purpose, first survey was done for U.S.E. (Universal primary Education), while second survey was completed for U.S.E. (Universal Secondary Education). In both surveys, after getting complete information about the children regarding their particulars, they knew that how many children are remaining to get education. In this way, targets were set for every school under union councils for admissions in primary and secondary levels. During survey, different problems had to face to whom, who were doing door to door survey of concerned villages in village areas and concerned streets in city areas. Some of children’s parents behaved in inhuman behavior about giving particulars of their children. Some of them did not inform about their daughters’ particulars. In short, level of education is attached with economic condition of the developing countries.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Global Common Good and the Future of Academic Professionals

The status and working conditions of the academic profession worldwide are under strain due to both mass access and budget constraints. While the profession faces different challenges in different regions, the professoriate is confronting significant difficulties everywhere. ... It is possible that up to half of the world's university teachers have only earned a bachelor's degree. In much of the world half the academic staff is close to retirement. There are too few new PhDs produced to replace those leaving the profession. ... In many Latin American countries, up to 80 per cent of the teachers in higher education are employed part-time. ... Moreover, in recent years, a global academic marketplace has developed: academics are internationally mobile. (UNESCO, 2015, p. 56)Can the higher education faculty sustain itself as a profession? And why does this question matter as much as more frequently asked questions regarding access, costs, quality, governance, and competitiveness? Are those who educate-teachers, scholars, and supporters-so different from nation to nation, culture to culture, economy to economy as to preclude any commonality that might underlie a shared profession worldwide? This special issue of Higher Learning Research Communications seeks to address these questions by posing as a unifying concept the academic profession's duty to the common good. It is a duty that of necessity and of increasing urgency transcends borders and boundaries of every kind.The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warns that the world's population of teachers, including postsecondary teachers, faces daunting challenges and limitations, which may hamper the world's ability to ensure opportunity and sustainability for humanity (2015). Education is a central avenue by which nations and people seek to improve the status of the collective, just as they use it for more self-interested purposes. Elementary and secondary schooling are the baseline for individual and societal wellbeing-as reflected in the United Nations' (UN) Millennium Development Goals, which called for achieving universal primary education by 2015. Higher education is essential for creating the advanced knowledge and human capital necessary to address the world's most challenging issues, ranging from the environment to health to security to societal stability with such immediate crises as drought and climate change, terrorism, migration, famine, and health epidemics.While enormous progress was made in achieving the UN's 2015 goal, especially in expanding access to education for girls and women at primary and secondary levels, the necessity of greatly enhanced education is now universally recognized as essential to global progress, equity, and justice. The 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals step up the expectations for education, calling forinclusive and equitable quality education at all levels - early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary, technical and vocational training. All people, irrespective of sex, age, race or ethnicity, and persons with disabilities, migrants, indigenous peoples, children and youth, especially those in vulnerable situations, should have access to life-long learning opportunities that help them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities and to participate fully in society. (United Nations General Assembly, p. 7)In an era of unprecedented social disruption and migration, the challenges facing higher education are daunting with unforeseeable long-term consequences.Postsecondary education provides the advanced knowledge that, most often, allows for innovation and improvements to the quality of life for groups (cultural, political, religious, economic, or geographic) as well as the whole-whether a nation, a region, or the world. The structures needed to provide education and training are bound by a common need for personnel to deliver the content, engage the students, conduct the research, and administer the organizations. …

The backbone of schooling: entangled histories of funding and educational administration – introduction

Funding, administration and social goals are aspects of school policy that are highly interrelated. No country has achieved universal primary education without relying mainly on taxes. This had profound consequences for educational administration. As soon as schools were no longer subsidised by private backers or ecclesiastical funds, administrators and inspectors had to learn new cultural techniques. Since early modern times and in international comparison different ways of interrelating school funding and administration can be observed. To date there is no unique method of educational organisation even though global trends play a role in national developments. In this introduction to the special issue on entangled histories of funding and educational administration an overview is given on the current state of research and an effort made to address certain questions that still remain to be answered.

Decentralization and Distribution Primary Education Access in Indonesia 2014

This paper examines decentralisation and distribution of access to primary school in Indonesia. Data come from Indonesia National Socio Economic Survey 2014, and statistic reports from Ministry of education, Ministry Of Finance, and General Election Commision. Descriptive statistic is used to describe spatial distribution of decentralization in primary education system and distribution of primary education access. The results show there are districts disparities in decentralization of primary education system and primary education access especially between district within Java islands and Papua islands. The results highlight the need to improving decentralization performance to achieve universal primary education in Indonesia, particularly within districts outside Java islands. Improving bureaucracy capacity particularly teachers is important to improve decentralization performance in primary school access.

Is Swaziland on Track with the 2015 Millennium Development Goals?

According to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreement, each participating country has to periodically provide a report that will show the progress on their achievement towards the goals. This article’s aim is to evaluate Swaziland’s prospects of achieving eight MDGs by 2015. This article is an analysis of the current situation of Swaziland, and the aim of this analysis is to look beyond the statistical values to see if the achievements (including lifetime achievements) are on track and whether what is yet to be achieved can really be achieved. Secondary information was collected from various sources. Several countries and organizations have committed themselves to the following eight development goals: (1) eradicate extreme poverty; (2) achieve universal primary education; (3) promote gender equality and empower women; (4) reduce child mortality; (5) improve maternal health; (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (7) ensure environmental sustainability; and (8) develop a global partnership for development. National development is dependent on many factors; therefore, different countries across the world have adopted the MDGs as means of alleviating many of the social ills hindering progress and development. Based on different sources, Swaziland is on track with its MDGs, and there is no doubt that Swaziland will continue to work hard to these ends. It has been argued that there has been progress made that has resulted in significant changes to people’s lives, but the question that has to be asked is how long these achievements can realistically last. A reduction of the rate of child mortality, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS in Swaziland are needed.

Does community involvement affect teacher effort? Assessing learning impacts of Free Primary Education in Kenya

While the impressive school participation impacts of Universal Primary Education policies in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, attempts to measure learning gains from schooling remain minimal. Utilizing a unique international test score dataset, we measure and explain grade six reading and math learning outcomes in Kenya. By comparing competences between public and private schools before and after the introduction of free primary education, we find large achievement declines and inequalities based on gender and socioeconomic status. The declines are associated with low teacher efforts and community disengagement. Policy studies on community involvement in schools will likely lead to improved learning.

Female Education and Enrolment for Health Insurance Scheme in Nigeria

In this study, we investigate the extent to which female education could help in the expansion of healthcare coverage through enrolment for National Healthcare Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The major finding is that female schooling is positively and significantly correlated with enrolment for NHIS. A year of female schooling increases the probability of enrolment for NHIS by 11 percent. This finding is robust to the inclusion of large number of relevant covariates. Exploiting the differential exposure of women in different LGAs to the 1976 Universal Primary Education (UPE), we obtained Instrumental Variable Probit estimates that are at least twice as large as estimates obtained from probit regressions. Household wealth, information obtained from radio and newspapers and partners’ education are the channels that link female schooling to enrolment for NHIS.

Beyond enrolments: the determinants of primary-school attendance in Melanesia

ABSTRACTThe second millennium development goal (MDG) is to achieve universal primary education and while developing countries have made good progress on primary-school enrolment rates, school attendance remains low. This paper addresses the determinants of school attendance using unique household survey data for two Melanesian economies rarely reported in the international literature: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. There is a high degree of heterogeneity in the results across both gender and location. The main findings are that as children get older, they are less likely to attend school as are children that work either inside or outside the home. School fees act as a major deterrent for sending children to school, even though governments and international donors have taken significant steps to make primary education free. Finally, community programs that aim at increasing school attendance have been successful, particularly for girls and children in remote areas. A number of policy implications are provided.

Challenges Facing Mobile Schools among Nomadic Pastoralists: A Case Study of Turkana County, Kenya

As the universalization of primary education has become a central factor in countries’ global competitiveness, nations round the world are engaging in alternative approaches for educational provision initiatives aimed at reaching the disadvantaged nomadic pastoralist groups. Among the strategies in use are mobile schools, as a Non Formal Education (NFE) approach. Mobile schools are weighed down with challenges of implementation and its graduates being integrated into the formal system of education, hence threatening its survival. This study presents the findings of a qualitative multiple case study conducted on mobile schools aimed at exploring the challenges facing provision of education to the nomadic pastoralists of Turkana County, Kenya. This study used bottom-up policy implementation theoretical approach. The findings of this study indicate that inadequate number of teachers; lack of teacher motivation; lack of community awareness and sensitization on importance of schooling; lack of food and water for both human and livestock; and unavailability of health services as the key challenges. The study recommends more teachers to be employed, teachers motivation be improved and a multifaceted approach in education provision in order to promote the sustainability of this form of education provision through mobile schools.

The New Horizons in Education: The Hope for Future

Education for all has been an international driver in the past decade for states that have been progressing rapidly and been making remarkable progress in education practically eradicating illiteracy and achieving nearly universal primary education along with gender parity. India being the second largest populated country in the world constituting a significant portion of the world population has made significant progress over the last couple of decades in the field of education. This progress undoubtedly has been through the efforts of the political system within the country and undeniably it can be attributed to the international targets such as Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Such national and international efforts have been made to prepare globally competent citizens in India as well as in other countries. Yet as the deadline for EFA approaches, some states and regions within India remain far from achieving some goals and urban rural disparities exist that hold back India as a whole from achieving set targets for 2015 as a nation. India remains to be under the lower third in the Educational Development Index with EDI of .790 (UNESCO, 2012). Therefore, it is important to make a final assessment of progress under the framework of EFA with a vision beyond 2015 that will help achieve international and national targets in the coming decade. This paper concludes that as India prioritizes to prepare globally competent citizens in the coming years there needs to be a well thought-out education strategy that can be implemented via reforms in these key areas – access, quality, governance. Keywords: Global education, Millennium Development, Universal Primary Education, Sustainable Development, gender equality, childhood education