Economic Adjustment,Education and Human Resource Development in Africa: The Case of Nigeria

On the basis of the Nigerian experience, this article argues that the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, when misapplied, can have a devastating effect on the educational systems that are essential to human resource development. The paper considers how the objectives of structural adjustment might have been accomplished without harming education, and recommends an outcomes-based educational policy for Nigeria which could serve equally well in other developing nations. The key message of the paper is that the ongoing austerity programs have been secured at excessively high human cost, and that it is time for a policy redirection that reaffirms education as the essential tool of all development.     

Donkeys and Superteachers: Structural Adjustment and Popular Education in Latin America

In the past two decades Latin American governments have carried out dramatic social and economic transformations. The application of different programs of structural adjustment and decentralization has promoted deep changes, not only in the economic and social arenas, but also within the educational systems. The dominant tendency is to look for all the answers to educational problems in the realm of the "free market". However, contrary to what this situation may suggest, practitioners of "popular education" in the region have not lost all their vitality. This paper explores the challenges and possibilities of popular education by examining the educational field after the application of structural adjustment programs, presenting a critique of Gramsci's model of the organic intellectual as understood by many within popular education, and offering the specific example of a popular education workshop in Argentina.     

Structural adjustment and education: Adapting to a growing global market

Structural adjustment effects on education have largely been viewed as policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This view overlooks the larger process of structural adjustment in a rapidly growing global economy. This article seeks to locate the structural adjustment implication for education within a global framework. Education's systemic dependence and system influence are identified. Specific educational effects of structural adjustment are discussed, addressing both short-term implications and long-term responses. Educational policy implications and research trends are addressed in the light of the evolving world system of education.     

Apercu

This paper is an attempt to describe the nature and scope of educational provision in Tanzania since 1967. It focusses on the implications of educational policy for the development of manpower which would be suited to the satisfaction of basic needs in rural areas.Tanzania since 1967 is reportedly attempting to implement what amounts to a basic needs strategy of development in line with the declared socialist objectives of the Government.This strategy is essentially a mixture of poverty and employment oriented strategies directed at satisfying essential human needs in areas such as health, education, safe water, housing and sanitation, and food supply as well as other requirements for a fully productive life.Although the provision of education is itself a basic need, it is also a vehicle for the production of trained manpower which is essential to the effective implementation of the basic needs strategy in the other sectors mentioned above. This paper presents preliminary and tentative impressions of the relevance of Tanzania's educational system to the Government's objective of meeting the basic needs of its people as soon as possible.The paper is divided into four sections: educational philosophy in Tanzania, educational growth and development, manpower implications and theoretical models explaining the development of educational resources in Tanzania since 1967.It concludes that, where planning has preceded political decisions, large measures of success have been achieved, but that, overall, political expediency and haste have created substantial divergences between policy and practice.     

The contribution of education for self-reliance to manpower development in Tanzania — A critical appraisal

This paper is an attempt to describe the nature and scope of educational provision in Tanzania since 1967. It focusses on the implications of educational policy for the development of manpower which would be suited to the satisfaction of basic needs in rural areas.Tanzania since 1967 is reportedly attempting to implement what amounts to a basic needs strategy of development in line with the declared socialist objectives of the Government.This strategy is essentially a mixture of poverty and employment oriented strategies directed at satisfying essential human needs in areas such as health, education, safe water, housing and sanitation, and food supply as well as other requirements for a fully productive life.Although the provision of education is itself a basic need, it is also a vehicle for the production of trained manpower which is essential to the effective implementation of the basic needs strategy in the other sectors mentioned above. This paper presents preliminary and tentative impressions of the relevance of Tanzania's educational system to the Government's objective of meeting the basic needs of its people as soon as possible.The paper is divided into four sections: educational philosophy in Tanzania, educational growth and development, manpower implications and theoretical models explaining the development of educational resources in Tanzania since 1967.It concludes that, where planning has preceded political decisions, large measures of success have been achieved, but that, overall, political expediency and haste have created substantial divergences between policy and practice.     

论教育公平发展的财政政策创新——基于美国的政策分析

追求教育公平是基础教育发展的政策目标之一,财政政策是教育公平发展的核心政策。美国教育财政政策调整与变革中投射出理念与实践的创新,其早期教育财政诉讼强调平等,要么提高贫穷地区的教育经费,要么降低富裕地区的教育经费,或者二者兼施,随后诉讼逐步出现从公平到充足的转向,实践中,主要采用统计分析、经验观察、专业评估等模式,制定教育充足财政政策。充足财政政策是由教育结果引导的政策,基于教育标准对政策效果进行评价,同时也是教育公平发展新形势下的财政政策创新。     

区域基础教育均衡发展的伙伴协作研究

均衡发展既是义务教育的本质属性,也是现代基础教育的本质要求。依据我国目前的社会经济发展状况、教育管理体制和教育投资体制的现实,以区县为单位推进基础教育的均衡发展,可以更好地结合当地实际,提出更有针对性和可行性的均衡发展政策措施。区域基础教育均衡发展的关键问题,是“政府的政策指导与调节”和“提高教育质量”。本研究是以推进区域基础教育均衡发展为目的的U—D伙伴协作研究,通过建立大学专业人员与5个区县教育实践者之间的伙伴关系,共同面对教育实践本身的复杂性,从中发现、研究并解决教育实践中的各种问题,从而提高区域的教育质量,推进区域基础教育的均衡发展。     

A conspicuous production theory of resource allocation in higher education

Despite well-founded predictions that the 1970's and 80's would be characterized by excess capacity in graduate education, new graduate programs have continued to appear and existing programs have expanded capacity. This paper proposes a utility maximization theory to explain the continuation of the growth process and describes the nature of the public policy which will be necessary to effect changes in resource allocation in higher education. The basic hypothesis of the theory presented in this paper is that utility maximization of decision makers in higher education is functionally related to minimization of the gap between desired and prevailing institutional status. In an operational sense, status depends on an institution's factor complement, i.e., the institution's instructional and research programs and the quality of faculty and other inputs used to operate these programs. This implies that factor complements provide utility to decision makers in addition to their actual contribution to the educational process. Recognition of this factor and the oligopolistically interdependent nature of the decision making process in higher education is essential for the formulation of effective public policy to induce necessary reallocation of resources to graduate programs.     

我国农村中小学撤点并校的政策变迁及其出路探寻简

2001年,国务院发布《关于基础教育改革与发展的决定》,对农村义务教育学校进行了布局调整,被称为“撤点并校”。这一政策在当时的条件下,较好地整合了教育资源,提高了办学资金的利用率,一定程度上满足了农民子女在“有学上”之后“上好学”的愿望。但是一些地方的过度集中办学也带来一定的负面影响。此政策在实施十年之后,被国务院紧急叫停,2012年11月,教育部要求各地暂停撤点并校。文章对撤点并校政策十年的变迁进行整理了分析,找到政策变迁背后的原因,为完善撤点并校政策提供合理的建议。     

新形势下高职教育改革的思考

伴随着我国经济结构的不断调整与重组,职业教育的供需关系、人才培养方向都发生了根本性变化,课程改革成为高等职业教育适应社会经济发展新形势的紧迫任务。高职教育的课程改革应该充分结合我国产业状况与教育政策,进行教育目标、教育内容、教育手段、新型师生关系、品牌教育等内容的全方位改革,树立新的高等职业教育观。     

教育政策问题的内涵及特征——以师范生免费教育政策问题分析为例

教育政策问题确认是教育政策动态运行过程的逻辑起点,而明晰教育政策问题的内涵和特征则是教育政策问题确认的前提和基础。教育政策问题是指基于特定的教育客观情境,为了协调现存的教育利益、价值冲突及满足未来教育价值的公益性诉求．由政府或教育行政部门予以确认和试图解决的公共教育问题及公益性教育价值诉求。本文结合师范生免费教育政策问题,分析了教育政策问题的内涵和特征,以期为提高教育政策制定过程的科学性有所裨益。     

Adult literacy education and development in Thailand: an historical analysis of policies and programmes from the 1930s to the present

This study of adult literacy education in Thailand analyses the ways in which the Thai state has historically shaped adult literacy education policies for development. For the authoritarian Thai state of the 1940s and 1950s, literacy education was a means of promoting nationalism through an imagined community of Thai citizens. For the developmentalist state of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, literacy education was the means to create a new Thai working class for industrial capitalism and export-oriented growth. For the liberal democratic state of the 1990s, literacy education was re-oriented toward a post-Fordist economy. Most recently, in the wake of the 1997 economic crisis and subsequent IMF and ADB ‘structural adjustment’ policies, state educational policies have shifted to an emphasis on fiscal economics over education. While state ideologies of educational policy are dominant in this historical narrative, they also possess internal contradictions contested by popular movements and social groups outside dominant classes. Literacy education in Thailand is, as such, not only the site of production and reproduction of state ideologies, but also of struggles over their meaning. Thus we find within the authoritarian nationalism of the 1940s and 1950s, a movement for popular democracy through literacy education born of the 1932 Revolution; within the work-oriented literacy programs of the 1970s, a trend towards broader community development inspired by the student revolution of October 1973; and within the neoliberal Thai state's embrace of globalization, a call for further democratization of educational opportunities first promoted by the May 1992 uprising and then embodied in the new Constitution of 1997 and the Education Act of 1999.     

英国高校创业教育发展：效果、特点与启示

英国高校创业教育由20世纪60年代发展至今,取得了显著的成效,形成了鲜明的特点。如：政策支持,教育资金有保障;三位一体,共建创业教育网;高校支持,创业教育环境优;结构完善,教育课程种类多;方法灵活,学习模式重实践;等等。这些经验值得我国高校创业教育借鉴。     

Federal policy in Native American education, 1925‐1985

The history of education for native American (Indian) children has been significantly affected by the shifting policies of Republican and Democratic administrations in Washington, DC. For more than a hundred years the resources allocated to educate Indian children have increased and diminished according to the political philosophies and whims of the political party in power. The resulting confusion of policy, best described as a quagmire, has been that Indian children have been victims of a federal neglect that has led to near cultural genocide. No authority maintains that Indian children have received the educational support, health services, and vocational training necessary for them to have a chance to become productive and contributing citizens in the general society. Today, American Indians are among the most poorly educated, least vocationally trained, and most unemployed of minority groups. This paper attempts to show the relationship between political philosophies and acts of federal administrations and their impact on education programs for Indians across the nation. The reader will be able to see a pattern of policy development based more on political needs rather than educational needs of Native Americans.     

试论教育的异化

改革开放以来,教育也不可避免地进入了商品化的时代。生活价值的追求与技术知识对教育的统治,使受教育者在获得教育权力的同时,却丧失了生命的自由。教育异化包括两方面：一是人对教育的异化,二是教育对人的异化。本文旨在探讨新时期教育异化的宏观和微观表现,分析其根本原因,使教育异化变为教育解放的艺术就在于寻求个体内在生命的成长与外在生活的发展之间的平衡,只有当教育真正确认人的自由本性和智慧生活的人生意义,教育最终消除异化才有可能成为现实。     

多样化以致丰富——高中教育多样化发展政策研究

高中教育进入大众化发展阶段,面临着由数量扩张向内涵提升的发展转型,多样化成为高中教育发展的基本策略。论文在阐述高中教育多样化内涵的基础上,具体分析了高中教育在学校类型、学校特色、教育服务和课程结构等四个方面的结构性调整方案。     

The Capitalist State and Public Policy Formation. Framework for a Political Sociology of Educational Policy Making

This article argues that public policy formation cannot be understood without a consistent theory of the capitalist state and politics. This is particularly true with respect to education policies. Expanding capital accumulation and increasing the legitimation of the entire mode of production seem to be the principal roles of the capitalist state, a role that is in perpetual tension. Coming to grips with this tension constitutes a principal challenge for the state. Considering educational policies, programs and practices, to inquire into the reasons for the growth of a given educational level—how programs have been devised historically, by whom, for what purposes, and how they are related to the educational clientele that they are supposed to serve—is to ask for an explanation of the determinants of educational policy formation. In this article a framework for a political sociology of educational policy making and a set of hypotheses on the production rules of public policy are offered.     

Education service contracting in the Philippines: human rights as trumps, goals, or policy talk?

In recent years, the goals and purposes of education within the international development discourse have shifted significantly away from education for productivity or human capital development and towards education for the fulfillment of the individual through human rights. The current global education climate provides governments with an environment to support policies of free basic education, driven by a global diffusion of the central principles of education as a human right. This article considers the function of international human rights law and political movements within educational policymaking and practice, specifically regarding policy efforts to increase school access. Using the Philippines as a case study, this article addresses the guarantees for free secondary education in Philippine legal and policy documents, and assesses the current government policy for secondary education expansion??the Education Service Contracting (ESC) Program??to discuss the impact of the country??s human rights commitments on educational policy. Using Kingdon??s multiple streams model of policy analysis, I account for human rights law within ESC policymaking and determine the drivers that have led the country to take up its current model of private expansion. In conclusion, the human right to a free education should be deliberated, not as a trump card to supersede local educational obligations, but as a guiding principle, placed within problem, solution, and political contexts to assess the current state of education and adequately protect those who need publicly funded schooling the most.     

The effects of adjustment on education: A review of asian experience

Summary and conclusions It is difficult to isolate the effects of adjustment policies on education. Even elaborate country studies could not properly assess the definitive effects of adjustment. As Stanley Fischer (1991, p. 526) observed, ‘the evaluation of adjustment lending is not only extremely difficult, but also essential. None of the methods of evaluation are entirely satisfactory’. Here, an attempt has been made to examine the association between adjustment and the development of education. The effects identified can, at best, be treated asprobable effects. While no causal relationship could be found, intense adjustment is generally associated with declines in a variety of indicators on educational development in Asian countries, similar to patterns observed in many other regions. At the same time, it should also be noted that, on the average, while the education sector in Asian countries suffered during adjustment, it also seems to have been relatively well protected from the brutal effects affecting developing countries in other regions experiencing adjustment. The effects of adjustment, however, have not been uniform on all countries of the Asian region, and several economies suffered severely. It has been found that, during the adjustment processes, the proportion of GNP or of total government expenditure allocated to education declined in a majority of the adjusting (including intensely adjusting) countries, even though the corresponding figures also point to a decline in some of the non-adjusting countries. In a large number of the adjusting countries, the relative share of capital expenditure on education declined and that of current expenditure increased. The allocation of resources to primary education seems to have been protected in most countries, except in Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is also true of non-adjusting countries, such an India and Malaysia, where the relative share of primary education actually increased. More importantly, the real expenditure per student in primary education increased significantly in all countries, with the exception of the Philippines and Nepal, during the first half of the 1980s (the only period for which these data are available). Expenditure per student in primary education as a ratio of GNP per capita also increased in all countries, while the corresponding proportion relating to higher education declined in all countris, except in India. All this indicates that concerted efforts have been made by the adjusting as well as the non-adjusting countries in Asia to protect primary education; a remarkable achievement when compared to other developing countries of the world (see Berstecher & Carr-Hill, 1990). Adjusting countries could have protected primary education from budget cuts through social safety-net programmes introduced as a part of adjustment policies in several countries, as in India during the 199s. However, enrolment ratios in primary education declined in two of the intensely adjusting countries, namely in Pakistan and Thailand. Although the gross enrolment ratio in Pakistan is deplorably low (44% in 1990), Bangladesh registered remarkable progress with increases not only in gross but also in net enrolment ratios, which went up from 54% in 1985 to 69% by the end of the 1980s. The number of pupils per teacher in Bangladesh, however, has increased to one of the highest levels in the region, suggesting that quality was traded-off for quantitative expansion. Internal efficiency also increased in all countries of the region. While gender discrimination has been found to have increased as far as the stock of the educated people is concerned, gender discrimination in enrolments has been coming down in all the countries. Lastly, the relative share of the private sector, although limited at present, seems to be increasing. Fees appear to have been introduced even in primary schools in some countries and have had a negative effect on the demand for education and on total enrolments. Increases in the degree of privatization and the introduction/increase of fees in education have been dominant, thought not necessarily explicit, components of adjustment polcies. While, on the whole, the effects of adjustment on education seemed to be mixed, and no striking difference could be observed between adjusting/intensely adjusting and non-adjusting countries in short-term educational development trends in Asia, the tentative evidence from a few countries does suggest a strong association between adjusting policies and a deterioration in educational situations. Such a strong association is clearly discernible with respect to several important indicators of educational development, although not with respect to all. It would be useful to look into this association more closely in one or two selected countries to clearly understand the effects of adjustment on education. Though the problems that will be found and the associations observd in a particular country may be unique, and may not be relevant for others, such country studies would be valuable to draw lessons, not only for the countries concerned, but also for others. The experience of both the Asian (and even other) countries, as well as of international agencies with structural adjustment programmes is short (about ten of fifteen years). As ‘adjustment’ is a long on-going process, analysis of its effects over a short period of time would be premature and problematic, as quick results cannot be expected. More importantly, it is probable that the ‘positive impacts are realized with a considerable time lag, while its adverse effects are immediate and highly visible ... [but these programmes] may not be sustainable, economically and politically, if their immediate [negative] impacts are not mitigated’ (Yanagihara, 1989, p. 319-21). Otherwise, programmes may not be taken to their logical conclusion. Further, gradual adjustment policies have been generally found to be successful in the East Asian economies, rather than a ‘big bang’ approach involving shocks and sudden simultaneous shifts in all policies in an attempt to move forward quickly (Agrawal et al., 1992, p. 182). The latter approach can, in fact, be counter-productive. As a result of the growing research in the area and the interest of international organizations, such as UNICEF, the adverse effects of structural adjustment on social sectors are being monitored by both the donor agencies, such as the World Bank/IMF, and the countries concerned. Accordingly, structural adjustment programmes are being supplemented in a number of countries with sectoral adjustment and ‘social safety nets’ and other contingency programmes, so that the poor are not severely affected. Primary education is one of the important components of such programmes. In general, it is necessary that structural adjustment programmes and education sector adjustment programmes be integrated, and that the adjustment programmes include agreements on increasing public expenditure on education. Structural adjustment policies without such education sector adjustment programmes and social safety-net programmes that guarantee increases in public expenditure on education are likely to cause serious adverse effects. Hence, ‘it is important that structural adjustment agreements recognize the need for countries to commit new resources and reallocate existing resources toward investment sectors, such as basic education, which affect both social welfae and medium- and long-term economic growth’ (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1992, p. 63). Further, it is necessary for the success of the adjustment programmes that the primary responsibility for the concetion of structural adjustment programmes lie with the national authorities that will implement and sustain the programmes; imposed programmes may not work (Malan, 1991, p. 539). The Republic of Korea is a good example of how structural adjustment programmes could succeed because it was undertaken on the basis of its own conviction. This will also help in reducing the political costs of adjustment programmes. With the level of expertise and competence available in the Asian countries one should expect that shifting the primary responsibility to the national governments is perfectly possible, compared to those regions that do not have indigenous expertise. Of late, some flexibility in and softening of the World Bank/IMF’s hard-line views of precisely what an ideal package of structural adjustment reforms should consist of are visible (Ranis, 1987, p. 97), though it may have to be further improved (Tilak, 1992). Lastly, it should be realized by all-the lending institutions and the countries concerned-that education becomes an important input in the success of the adjustment programmes, and hence investment in education is necessary for the very success and sustenance of structural adjustment programmes. Original language: English Jandhyala B.G. Tilak (India) Head of the Educational Finance Unit, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, Ph.D. from Delhi School of Economics. Mr Tilak taught at the University of Virginia, the Indian Institute of Education and the University of Delhi. He was also on the staff of the World Bank. Recent publications includeEducation for development in Asia (1994),Educational planning at grassroots (1991), and several articles on economics, development studies and education. A contributor to theInternational encyclopaedia of education. Editor of theJournal of educational planning and administration and a member of the editorial board ofHigher education policy.     

需要关注家庭教育--教育改革杂谈

家庭教育是人类社会最古老的教育,它与后来形成的学校教育、社会教育相辅相成,是发展人类社会文明不可缺少的三种教育形式。 中国有重视家庭教育的优良传统,但是当前中国的家庭教育存在着许多认识上的误区和实践中的不良做法,给教育乃至社会发展带来许多问题。 加强家庭教育的理论研究,是教育工作者刻不容缓的社会职责,学习和掌握科学的家庭教育知识是家长应具备的素质。全社会都应关注家庭教育的发展。