Distance education and the World Bank

This article is based on a study undertaken for the Education and Training Department at the World Bank which reviewed 32 Bank projects 1963–1985 that included education via broadcasting (television and/or radio) and by correspondence. It is clear that Bank investments in distance education were most beneficial when the borrowing country and the Bank agreed on the educational objectives of the distance education component. It is also clear that distance education was most effective when it was sharply focussed on improving the quality of teaching available, when it was used to offer non-formal education to students who were without teachers and classrooms, and/ or when it met social demands and answered urgent needs for formation of human capital through education and training.     

World Bank okays public interest in higher education

This essay review discusses the report of TheTask Force on Higher Education and Society(TFHES), convened in 1998 by the World Bank butindependently financed and staffed incollaboration with UNESCO and severalfoundations. Peril and Promise marks anhistoric turning point in the framework forpostsecondary educational planning. Rate-of-return analysis has been de-emphasized,while promotion of the public interest hasmoved front and center. The report of theTFHES, published in 2000 by the World Bank, hasreceived deserved attention in some parts ofthe world and has even developed an associatedwebsite (http://www.tfhe.net). As we explainbelow, the framework advocated by the TFHES isalready being used in official policy documentsof the World Bank, whose position will surelymultiply the influence of the Task Forcethrough its effect on other development banksas well as on programs of bilateral nationalassistance. And yet, despite its seminalimportance, the TFHES report has yet to befully appreciated by many researchers of highereducation. With this essay review, we hope tobroaden the discussion of the Task Force, and to offer a preliminary assessment of its impactin the 2002 World Bank policy document, and toconnect its arguments to questions that arecentral in the scholarly literature of ourfield.     

The World Bank and financing higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article critically examines World Bank andother donor agency's policy changes towardfinancing of higher education in Sub-SaharanAfrica. It concludes that policy vicissitudeshave adversely affected these institutions. Therecommendation is that the unique context ofeach state play a role in higher educationfinancial policy formation and implementation.     

Twenty years of World Bank support for basic education

Chief of the Education and Employment Division in the World Bank's Population and Human Resources Department. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked for UNESCO and UNICEF in Africa. He has published extensively on educational planning and management; he is co-author, with Marlaine Lockheed, of Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries: A Review of Policy Options.     

World Bank policy on education: A personal account

Based on the author's over two decades of association with the World Bank, this paper reviews the institution's policies and practice on education. It describes why education policy, as revealed by operations, shifted dramatically since the early Bank projects on education and identifies the reasons for such a shift. The paper argues that the multi-agency Education for All initiative is unrealistic and unlikely to be reached in this century. Also, the paper discusses the Bank's lack of concrete policies and priorities, especially regarding the trade-off between primary and tertiary education.     

Economic analysis of World Bank education projects and project outcomes

This paper tests the hypothesis that World Bank education projects have a higher likelihood of being successful if at the time of appraisal, they underwent good quality economic analysis. Analysis shows a strong relationship between the quality of cost–benefit analysis and cost–effectiveness analysis and the quality of project outcomes. Economic analysis of projects is a tool for weeding out potentially poor investments and selecting potentially worthwhile ones. Good practice education projects require good economic analysis—analysis of demand, of the counterfactual private sector supply, of the project’s fiscal impact, of lending’s fungibility—and strong sector work before project design.     

The global politics of education: Brazil and the World Bank

This paper questions the cultural neutrality of modernizationand globalization policies that are imposed by major internationalmonetary agencies. The authors propose that the structuraladjustment policies imposed by the World Bank and InternationalMonetary Fund are predominantly guided by the concept of developmentalassociation. Guided by this concept, the dominant countries andagencies perceive all developing countries to be merely culturalvariations of the same problem that assumes all countries requirethe same solutions. Through an analysis of the failures of WorldBank programs in Brazil and other developing countries, the authorsargue for greater recognition of the problems inherent in imposingcosmopolitan and global solutions on local contexts. The authorsconclude that globalized solutions for local contexts areinappropriate when they are formulated out of ignorance of thelocal culture and context.     

Training policies in the World Bank

Taught at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, the Vargas Foundation, the University of Chicago, the University of Brasilia, the University of Geneva and the University of Burgundy (Dijon). Was the Technical Co-ordinator of the research project on education in the framework of the Programme of Joint Studies on Latin American Economic Integration (ECIEL), was the director of CAPES (Brazilian Agency for Postgraduate Education) and was the Executive Secretary of CNRH (the Brazilian social policy institute of the Planning Secretariat). At present is the Chief of the Training Policies Branch of the International Labour Office (Geneva). Has published over twenty books and over 150 scholarly articles.     

The rise of the transnational capitalist class and World Bank 'aid' for higher education

This article looks at globalisation as a process of replacement of the global political order of nation states with the global economic order of transnational corporations. It is argued that this process carries far-reaching consequences, in which a growing number of spheres, including education, are subjected to the interests of the global economic order. Under the disguise of global economic development activities the new world system strives towards maximising the short-term profits of the transnational capitalist class. Following Sklair's global systems theory, this article looks at the World Bank as a transnational organisation. Based on recent World Bank higher education reform loan projects in Eastern Europe, it is argued that the primary outcome of the World Bank loan projects is the redistribution of the resources of the so-called 'recipient countries' to the transnational capitalist class.     

Changing patterns in World Bank investments in vocational education and training: Implications for secondary vocational schools

The economic efficiency of vocational secondary schools in improving the employment prospects for graduates has been questioned, leading to policy recommendations in favor of enterprise-based training and training in non-formal training centers. The role of secondary education would be to impart basic skills, perhaps through reformed curricula that, while falling short of vocationalism, better prepare graduates for adult life. This paper examines trends in World Bank investments in vocational education and training for the period 1963–86 to answer three questions. Is there evidence to suggest that educational authorities in developing countries, as well as in the World Bank, have moved away from investments in secondary vocational schools? What does the record suggest about the patterns through which alternative training systems evolve in developing countries? Is there any evidence that a ‘new educational vision’ is emerging for secondary education? The paper concludes that investment in secondary vocational schools has declined substantially in favor of non-formal training systems. Nine characteristics of effective non-formal systems are identified. Diversified secondary schools, as one model of a ‘new vision,’ have not succeeded, raising important questions regarding possible directions for improved secondary education.     

在化学教学中渗透学习心理辅导

1　背景在我国逐步推进素质教育的今天 ,研究学习辅导问题 ,培养学生形成良好的个性心理品质、健全的人格 ,显得尤为迫切。面对学生复杂多样的心理问题 ,当今中学心理辅导教育一般是单列一门课 ,由于相应课程合格师资的缺乏等种种因素所限 ,在有的学校就是形同虚设或干脆就当作是上政治思想课了。而学习心理辅导是学校心理辅导的一个重要课题。据有关同志对上海市 4649名中小学生的心理现状的调查表明 ,中小学生亟须作心理辅导的心理问题居于前十位的是 :学习动机不正 ,学习习惯不良 ,学习能力不够 ,注意力障碍 ,自控力差 ,自我中心 ,耐挫力…     

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

ABSTRACT

The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international development, as UNESCO’s Education for All agenda was replaced by Education 2030, which would identify minimum standards of education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its existing PISA assessment into low- and middle-income countries through PISA for Development (PISA-D) and positioned the new assessment as a means of tracking progress on the post-2015 goals. The organisation maintains that PISA-D was introduced primarily in response to the demands of the international community, especially low- and middle-income countries, and that the assessment was developed in partnership with them. This paper investigates those claims through an analysis of the arrival of PISA-D in Cambodia, situating the analysis within UNESCO’s shifting agenda and the strategic visions of the OECD and World Bank that first emerged in the 1990s. The result is a very different picture to the portrayals of local agency, demand, consensus and partnership that adorn the official websites and pamphlets of global agencies and much academic research, raising serious doubts about education governance post-2015.     

Interrogating an omission: the absence of a rights-based approach to education in World Bank policy discourse

This study provides a discursive analysis of World Bank policy documents in order to reveal the stark omission of a rights-based approach to education, while highlighting instead the support of an economic-instrumentalist approach. Plausible explanations are provided to shed light on this exclusion, including the feasibility critique of education as a right, and the Bank's limited institutional mandate. However, the rationales are presented as unsound and unacceptable justifications for the omission. By drawing on Amartya Sen's theoretical work on human rights and development policy frameworks, this study concludes by arguing for the Bank to integrate into their mandate a conception of education as a human right.