Based on fieldwork in Tinsukia district of Assam, this article examines the interplay of Ekal, ideology and education among the Adivasis in the tea gardens. The Ekal schools are one-teacher, informal schools operated by the Sangh Parivar in the underprivileged regions of India and Nepal. Considering the backward status of Adivasis in these tea…

By the end of the twentieth century, there was concern about the low levels of achievement in many English schools -- particularly those in London -- and this acted as a catalyst for change, a key remedial initiative being London Challenge. While there is much to celebrate about the improvements that have been made over almost two decades, the…

Rural subregions of the developing countries are suffering from many physical and socioeconomic problems, including scarcity of basic education institutions. The shortage of education institutions extended distance between rural localities and education institutions. Hence, to curb this problem, this research is aimed to deal with the basic…

This case study outlines the emergence of a large higher education partnership in a sub-region of Wales which has for many years been associated with a low skills stereotype involving unemployment, poverty and deprivation. It contextualises the difficulties and challenges of 2008--the time when the Universities Heads of the Valleys Institute…

Higher education in India has witnessed tremendous increase in the institutional capacity since independence. There are many issues and challenges of higher education in the country. Among them one is regional disparity. For instance, the North Eastern Region which comprises of eight states has been declared as an economically backward area and…

The aim of this paper is to examine how the University of Huddersfield embraced the ethos of community cohesion and made moves into a problematic community. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Oldham in Greater Manchester the paper presents insights into how higher education is viewed in the area. The research reveals that higher…

The Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the State University of Haiti hardly looks like an institute of higher learning. Hidden away on a quiet downtown cross street, the grimy one-story building contains just three classrooms, along with a library, the dean's office, and a teachers' lounge, each no larger than a bedroom. Two years ago, the…

The article analyses the main benefits of a Portuguese programme, launched in 1996, which was designed to support schools in segregated districts (TEIPs). The first part of the article presents a theoretical framework, before moving on to the main features of the TEIP programme in contemporary Portuguese society and education. An explanation of…

Developing vocational education is a necessity for the economic and social development of high-poverty areas in China. But vocational education in impoverished areas lacks social recognition and faces funding shortages, along with difficulties in recruiting students. Vocational high schools themselves also have shortcomings. This article considers…

In the aftermath of the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, international humanitarian groups and volunteers poured into the country, bolstering what was already one of the world's hot spots for nongovernmental organizations. But the magnitude of the disaster--an estimated 300,000 were killed and one million left homeless out of a…

The low literacy rates in developing countries have been repeatedly problematized as a major constraint to socioeconomic development by education planners and policy makers. In the 1950s and 1960s, the dominant rationale for literacy development was one of promoting economic growth. In more recent years, by contrast, literacy has increasingly come…

Jacques Bwira arrived in Uganda in 2000, having fled the violent conflict in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Though he had trained and worked as a teacher in Congo, he feared that speaking only French would prevent him from making a living in his new home. The police officer who interrogated Jacques on arrival in the capital…

In addition to the proliferation of private, fee-paying schools in India, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important role in providing educational services, especially in un-served and under-served communities. This paper uses qualitative research to critically examine the nature and potential of NGO provision of primary schooling in…

Working with the premise that information and communications technology (ICT) has the capacity to make or unmake so far as women's empowerment is concerned, this article looks at the ICT situation among female distance learners in both endowed and under-served parts of Ghana, to check the user differentials among the two contrasting groups through…

Reported here is a one-day conference of school superintendents and administrators called by the Quebec Minister of Education to discuss the Island of Montreal School Council's working paper, "Education and Development--an Approach to the Interventions of Education and Disadvantaged Environments." Topics discussed in the workshops…