Background: This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations. Objectives: This study aims to increase…

Several current international comparative large-scale assessments of educational achievement (ICLSA) make use of "Rasch models", to address functions essential for valid cross-cultural comparisons. From a historical perspective, ICLSA and Georg Rasch's "models for measurement" emerged at about the same time, half a century ago. However, the…

The history of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) arises in the late 1990s when the first formal procedures for quality assurance begun to stabilize on a national level. As a result of the European Pilot Projects in the field of external quality assurance during the nineties, participants felt the need for…

This report is a product of an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) seminar on the first external evaluations of quality assurance agencies, held in Paris in July 2008. The seminar took stock of the achieved reviews of agencies to learn lessons from these first outcomes and, hence, provided a platform for…

International education involves a dichotomy of study between the largely theoretical discipline of comparative education, and the still relatively under-researched body of international schools. The last 40 years has seen the rapid growth both in scale and diversity of this type of school, plus the emergence of a discrete industry. This dimension…

This article examines the contribution of the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) global partnership in strengthening aid effectiveness in the education sector, and specifically how the implementation modalities of the EFA-FTI Catalytic Fund (CF) have contributed to this strengthening. The empirical findings are based on a review…

The present report follows an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) Workshop on Quality Assurance and Postgraduate Education, hosted by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) in Brasov, Romania on 12-13 March 2009. The workshop was an excellent opportunity for ENQA members to exchange…

Economic development in Latin America has trailed most other world regions over the past four decades despite its relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle can be resolved by considering the actual learning as expressed in tests of cognitive skills, on which Latin American countries consistently perform at the…

The present report is a product of two ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) seminars, held in 2007, on current trends in European Quality Assurance. The first seminar, hosted by the Bulgarian National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA), examined the situation in South-Eastern Europe. The second seminar…

Paper inquires into whether comparative education involves any value judgements and if it does what their role and character in comparative study may be. (Author)

The present report is the product of an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) Bologna Seminar "Quality Assurance in Transnational Education: from words to action" hosted by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA, UK) in London in December, 2008. The seminar discussed the current trends in Transnational…

Nonformal education is explored in the context of development in order to provide researchers with fundamental tools for selecting nonformal educational activities that can provide a framework for analysis. Criteria that can be used to determine nonformal educational activities are identified; development as the setting of nonformal education is…

An analysis of new directions for secondary education, vocational education, curricula, educational methodologies, evaluation techniques, and teacher training proposed at recent conferences of the Council of Europe is provided. (DE)

The global status of comparative education from the 1960s to the present is presented in three parts. Part 1 comprises a general review of the background to seven regional studies. The review provides a picture of the overall historical development; the modifications in the concept of comparative education that have occurred; the general…

A summary of major concerns of UNESCO's Educational Innovation for Development program in six world regions is presented in this conference report. The conference included educational network participants from Asia, the Caribbean, Southeast Europe, the Arab States, Africa, and Central America. The program encourages innovative educational efforts…