Beyond aid effectiveness: The development of the South African further education and training college sector, 1994–2009

The current dominant account of aid to education focuses on schooling and official development assistance and talks in terms of policy work, donor harmonisation and, increasingly, budgetary support. However, this approach is limited in a number of ways. The return of international policy interest in vocational education provides an opportunity to take a look at whether the dominant paradigm is really a solution in all cases. Through an exploration of the evolution of the South African further education and training, this paper illustrates the importance of looking at where a country wants and does not want to learn from. It points to the need to gaze beyond official development assistance to examine the way that dimensions such as cultural diplomacy, commercial interests and solidarity play a role in policy learning. It also draws attention to the often-varied national institutional resources for learning and the complex interplay of individuals, both local and foreign, in the learning process. Finally, it hints that many apparently minor instruments such as exile, study abroad and structured exchange visits may contribute to a far more complex web of policy-related learning than is captured in conventional accounts of policy borrowing/learning that focus on the official level. It may be that a more meaningful discussion of the effectiveness of international cooperation, rather than the more narrow notion of aid, would ensue if such perspectives were taken on board.     

Donor financing of basic education: Opportunities and constraints

Much progress has been made in improving access to basic education in recent years, but international support has been less than promised and the ‘funding gap’ to achieve universal primary education remains stubbornly present. This article identifies six interrelated factors that constrain such donor financing. Prioritization of basic education, evidence and advocacy, and aid architecture present the biggest challenges, followed by donor capacity, partner absorptive capacity and demand. We conclude that future success in attracting external financing for basic education will depend on the sector's ability to raise its political profile, make an evidence-based case for support, tap into new donors and improve its aid effectiveness.     

The impact of aid on education policy in India

In the early 1990s, large numbers of children in India remained out of school. International commitments to achieve education for all (EFA) globally meant that India was an important case for donors. India was pressed to accept aid for primary education, and agreed with some reluctance. Although subsequent donor involvement was substantial and influenced aspects of both policy implementation and management, it is shown that Indian education policy priorities remained self-determined. The Government of India – though falling short of securing universal education for its children – succeeded in using external resources and expertise in ways which suited its own purposes, whilst minimising external impact on policy development. The politics and economics of this process are discussed.     

Ownership and capacity: Do current donor approaches help or hinder the achievement of international and national targets for education?

Donor-initiated changes in aid delivery, to sector-wide approaches and direct budget support, have coincided with the focus on global development goals. Although intended to make funding more efficient and strengthen local ownership, they can stretch limited capacity. Literature on implementation of large-scale education reforms identifies three key sustainability factors related to policy, capacity and infrastructure. Current donor approaches targeting policy and budget may not adequately build the capacity required to improve quality and create sustainable reform of education systems. Building capacity is likely to be more critical than ownership; ignoring school-level capacity reduces the likelihood that targets will be achieved.     

The external agenda of aid in internal educational reform

This paper examines the recent orientation of educational aid policy away from enclave projects managed and protected by special donor-controlled units to interventions which support locally developed education policies and which are implemented through local sustainable institutions. Structural adjustment involves the international agencies in encouraging and assisting national governments to create their own development priorities and establish institutions of governance which can effectively direct and control sectoral activities. The World Bank and other agencies have in recent years examined the educational needs of Africa in particular and have initiated programmes of local capacity building to encourage national policy and management development. The paper explores the meaning of capacity building and its relation with local capacity utilization. The anomaly of donor policies which set out to liberate governments from donor influences is pointed out, together with the need for donor agencies to define more clearly their own policies and to subject them to the same sorts of analysis which they are advising for recipient governments.     

A Conceptual Analysis of State Support for Higher Education: Appropriations Versus Need-Based Financial Aid

In this paper, we use economic concepts to examine the choice that states make between giving appropriations to public colleges or need-based financial aid to students. We begin by reviewing the economic justification for state support for higher education. Next, we introduce a simple economic model for comparing and contrasting appropriations and need-based aid for supporting higher education. We then provide a graphical depiction of the model and simulate the effects of each policy on access to higher education. We show that it is in the best interest of states to provide need-based aid and not appropriations. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the factors that complicate the reallocation of state funding away from appropriations and towards need-based aid.     

UPE in Tanzania: SWAP‐ing quality for quantity—again?

In 2002, Tanzania renewed its 1974 commitment to universal primary education. This paper explores differences in the current policy‐formulation context, examining how development discourse and aid practice have shifted the space and scale of public governance in Tanzania, legitimising international agendas and the participation of non‐Tanzanians in the domestic policy process. The analysis suggests that the influence of a highly co‐ordinated transnational aid community and the package of aid mechanisms that are being deployed with considerable effect in Tanzania are likely to replicate a situation in which access has been prioritised once more at the expense of improving the quality of primary education.     

Cast the net a little wider: Australian aid in the South Pacific

This article examines the development of Australia's bilateral aid programme to higher education in the South Pacific, specifically at the University of the South Pacific (USP). The premise is primarily historical, focusing on the important decades of USP's expansion and Australian aid policy development in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This article briefly examines current challenges for donor and recipient. Both historical and current perspectives are fundamental to understanding key issues about aid in the South Pacific. Australian aid priorities have ranged from the explicitly political and security focused, to priorities of education and welfare. This article is timely given Australia's continued influence in the South Pacific.     

从卢旺达教育援助项目看英国对外教育援助的评估模式

在对非教育援助中,英国政府将嵌入式评估作为一种有效问责手段,提高了经费的使用效能,完善了经费的分配方式,为英国政府提供了决策依据。同时,在开展对非教育援助的过程中英国政府也在努力完善、调整并改良评估模式,帮助非洲受援国提高中小学教育质量,激活受援国教育发展的内部动力。文章从英国对非教育援助的 PbR评估模式入手,以英国对卢旺达教育援助项目为例,分析了RBA评估模式的应用与改良,介绍了评估团队的竞标与对他们的要求,阐释了评估结果的使用。     

Knowledge aid as instrument of regulation: World Bank's non-lending higher education support for Ethiopia

In the context of low-income countries, the role of donors in public policymaking is of great importance. Donors use a combination of lending and non-lending instruments as pathways of influence to shape policy directions in aid-recipient countries. This paper reports some findings from a doctoral study on the role of the World Bank in the recent higher education (HE) policy reform process in Ethiopia. It focuses on the nature and impact of non-lending assistance by the Bank to the Ethiopian HE subsystem. Based on an interpretive policy analysis of sector reviews and advisory activities of the Bank, and selected national HE policy documents, the following findings are highlighted. First, as a ‘knowledge institution’, the World Bank produces, systematises and disseminates knowledge through policy advice, policy reports, analytical sector reviews, and thematic conferences and workshops. Second, knowledge aid from the Bank not only has a profound discursive effect on shaping Ethiopian HE policy reform priorities in accordance with its neoliberal educational agenda but also undermines the knowledge production capacity of the nation. The paper also argues that, for an effective education policy support, the Bank needs to shift its modality of engagement from knowledge aid to research capacity building.     

Education,Teacher Training and Prospects for Economic Recovery in Cambodia

With the conclusion of 1994, Cambodia will have ended its first year of rehabilitation under a freely elected government. Since the 1993 elections, Cambodia has moved cautiously towards a modern era and there has been considerable international effort to ensure that all sectors of the economy achieve the improvements required to achieve political and economic stability towards 2000. The education sector has been a major focus. Cambodia is ready to move into the next stage of development of the education sector-reconstruction. With the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) having provided support in this sector for over 10 years, the restoration of bilateral and multilateral aid will see a growing involvement of foreign governments and donor organisations in the restoration of the sector. This activity will need to be coordinated. Cambodia had a rapidly expanding education system before Pol Pot's Year Zero. Largely based on French colonial models and structures that system served a society very much in transition - a transition from colonial dependency to a possible so-called 'new tiger'. The current period will see a different 'system' emerge; one that is neither French nor Western nor indeed 'modern'. The transition of the education system will be predicated on an overhaul of the existing bureaucracy, training regimes and school curricula before modernisation processes are installed. This paper provides a historical backdrop for the current situation. It also examines current policy priority areas in education in Cambodia and the level of international assistance.     

Education for all: a framework for addressing the persisting illusion for the Kenyan context

The economic and sociopolitical context for implementing education for all (EFA) policy in Kenya is examined. The policy absolving households from the responsibility of paying user fees for primary education leads to a focus on the capacity of the government to fully fund universal primary education. Funding constraints are identified as the primary limitation to the realization of universal access. A proposal on projection for funding level required for the realization of universal access based on current enrolment and existing infrastructure is offered. International comparison in funding levels provide context for assumptions made regarding differentials in educational access and quality. It is apparent that even without improvement in quality of educational infrastructure, realization of universal access will remain an illusion unless the Kenyan economy is able to support her education system.     

美国联邦大学生资助政策的转变及其影响

美国联邦大学生资助政策是联邦高等教育政策的重要组成部分,学生资助政策扩大了高等教育入学机会,促进了高等教育的发展,提高了美国的国民素质和生产力。联邦学生资助政策在实践中不断进行适时地调整和变革,随着财政资助项目的变化,少数民族学生丧失了大学的信心吗？由于债务因素,改变了学生的学术计划吗？这些变化对本科教育质量意味着什么？本文试图探究美国联邦学生资助政策的转变对大学生入学和学习,以及教育质量的影响。     

A time of transition: exploring special educational provision in the Republic of Ireland

Special educational provision in the Republic of Ireland has experienced significant changes in the past decade. A combination of interrelated factors including litigation, legislation, parental advocacy and international developments has radically altered the landscape of special education. As a result of these changes the move towards establishing inclusive learning environments appears irreversible though many critical issues remain to be addressed at this time of transition. This study examines how key stakeholders in primary education perceive the challenge of responding appropriately to increased diversity. The results indicate that many barriers remain in the development of inclusive learning environments. The conceptual understanding of special educational needs (SEN) was seriously deficient and this affected the coherence of policy and service delivery. The system lacked strategic leadership, according to participants, and this restricted the capacity to support schools. School capacity to deliver quality education for children with SEN was constrained by the serious shortfall in the range and level of skills required and opportunities for professional development available. There was strong support for the principle of inclusion into mainstream though this was principally perceived in terms of the development of socialisation skills. It was concluded that in this transition phase schools required strategic leadership from policy‐makers to address the many challenges that remain in the establishment of inclusive learning environments.     

Resistance Towards the Language of Globalisation – The Case of Sri Lanka

This paper relates the contemporary educational reforms in Sri Lanka to the processes of globalisation. The international monetary organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank and the regional organisations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) play a dominant role in influencing the debt-receiving countries when it comes to their educational practice. The intensity of the influence of these organisations can vary depending on the existing educational policy of the aid receiving countries. This paper, after a brief introduction on globalisation, examines its effects on the education policy in Sri Lanka with a special emphasis on the current language policy. Equity in education is usually advocated at primary level based on the universal primary education concept so highly upheld by the World Bank. However, the present high human development indicators are undoubtedly due to Sri Lanka's free education policy in native languages. The paper concludes stressing the importance to retain the national education policy as a means of empowerment and liberation of its masses and creating stronger ethnic harmony.     

英国教育援助的成效、问题与动向

作为教育援助的输出国,英国致力于帮扶贫困的发展中国家改善落后的教育现状,在基础设施建设、物资供应、人才培养等方面成效显著.目前,英国的教育援助发展已经进入了新的五年规划期,援助的方向也随之发生了转变,加大了对女童教育的资助力度,提升了教育援助经费的成效,强化了援助合作的管理方式.本研究从英国教育援助的发展入手,分析了教育援助的成效与问题,并从援助质量、国际合作、政策调整和女童教育等方面,总结了英国教育援助的发展趋势和动向.     

澳大利亚对印尼基础教育援助探析——以印尼学童创新项目为例

受到外交战略和现实需求的影响,多年来澳大利亚一直为印尼提供各方面的援助。2014年澳大利亚发布印尼学童创新项目,力求通过提高教师的课堂教学质量、提供宏观和微观层面的教育支持、促进全纳教育的发展,达到提高印尼基础教育质量的目的。该项目设置了灵活递进的多项目标,实施了契合本地情况且随时改进调整的各项举措,设立了专门的管理机构,并吸纳广泛的合作伙伴,援助效果十分明显。印尼学童创新项目教育援助经验在于:立足受援国实际,以增强援助的有效性;发挥受援国的主体作用,从援助国单向主导转向双向合作;鼓励多方参与,扩大援助主体,以提高援助能力。     

Beyond business as usual: Aid and financing education in Sub Saharan Africa

Since 1990 and the World Conference on Education for All well over half a trillion dollars has been disbursed as aid to education with much of it targeted on low income countries especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the beneficiaries of this aid have transformed their economies and their education systems to the point where they can act as fiscal states and finance their recurrent and capital spending on education from domestic revenue. But too many states have failed to make this transition and remain overly dependent on sequential waves of external assistance to reduce gaps between the finance available and what is needed. Grant aid is now unlikely to grow as COVID-19 related recession supresses donor spending. Concessional lending to countries with sub-prime credit ratings and high debt service ratios looks imprudent. The architecture and goals of external assistance need to change to focus on making better use of the resources that are available though much increased efficiency and effectiveness, and on ensuring domestic revenue is increased since this is the only pathway to sustainable development that avoids the infinite do-loop of using aid to fill gaps rather than to address their causes.     

宁波义务教育均衡发展研究

为了解宁波区域义务教育均衡发展现状,以宁波区域义务教育2006-2010年的办学条件、师资条件、生源、生均教育事业性经费为对象,研究发现,宁波初中办学条件均衡状况优于小学,小学师资条件均衡状况胜于初中,而危房占校舍面积比例有待于进一步降低。基于对影响宁波区域义务教育均衡发展的主要因素(区域内经济发展水平、教育经费支出程度和政策制度)的分析,提出深入了解区域内义务教育的现状、完善统计数据库、调整义务教育办学标准、落实政府责任和建立健全政策保障机制等五项促进区域内义务教育均衡发展策略。