This article provides a chronologically presented overview of policy reforms designed to enhance skill levels via education and training for school-age learners attending post-compulsory education institutions. It is argued that the catalyst for the creation of vocational diplomas is economic rather than educationally based, arising from the…

The paper reflects on the use by the UK central government of statistical evidence in educational policy matters. Particular attention is given to school league tables. The paper is generally critical of government attitudes, but suggests that progress towards rational decision-making does occur. (Contains 5 notes.)

On December 24, 2005, the State Council issued the Circular on Deepening the Rural Compulsory Education Assured Funding Mechanism Reform, initiating the prologue to free compulsory education in China. Following on the heels of China's annulment of rural taxes and the implementation of the new rural cooperative medical system, the rural compulsory…

In 2006, the Chinese government conducted, in the western provinces and a few central provinces, a reform that exempted all rural compulsory education stage students from tuition and miscellaneous fees, in accordance with the measures for implementing the New Mechanism for Assured Funding for Rural Compulsory Education (hereafter "New…

The policy of "two exemptions and one subsidy" (TEOS), which is a "popular sentiment" project, has brought life to the western region's rural education and light to impoverished families. In addition to launching the battle for the "two basics" in the western region, the overall popularization of distance education…

After the implementation of the "two exemptions and one subsidy" (TEOS) policy and between the spring of 2006 and 2007, China's western, central, and eastern regions introduced a new mechanism for guaranteeing rural compulsory education. This mechanism resulted in great changes in the environment for implementing TEOS and, in addition,…

Drawing upon the writings of Maxine Greene and Paolo Freire, this article explores the necessary conditions for the advancement of education for democracy in the context of modern post-industrial societies, with a focus on schooling in the Republic of Ireland. The article charts a general topography of the Republic of Ireland in relation to the…

Failure to achieve equitable access to university studies has contributed to turning the focus to the funding of higher education systems. This paper aims to review critically the literature assessing the effectiveness of existing financing schemes and changes in them as a means for reducing the prevalent under-representation of students from a…

Traditionally, violent acts against children in Japan were considered private, isolated incidents largely outside the reach of government policy and legal action. Increasingly, however, public perception in Japan, mainly driven by the mass media, has shifted away from such complacency. A few well-publicized attacks on children have forced Mombusho…

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of…

President Bush's education legacy is inexorably tied to the No Child Left Behind Act, the comprehensive K-12 reform law he signed in January 2002. The law has drawn praise for requiring schools to show specific progress in educating minority and low-income children or face sanctions for failing to do so. But critics say the Bush administration…

Using an ecological framework, this study identified which factors related to out-of-home placements significantly influenced multiple placements for children in Utah during 2000, 2001, and 2002. Multinomial logistic regression statistical procedures and a geographical information system (GIS) were used to analyze the data. The final model…

This article gives an update on school choice in Canada. Currently, school choice in Canada is stable. Provincialism, in both senses of the word, is a major factor in Canadian political life. There is no contradiction between Ontario's recent electoral rejection of the extension of funding to non-Catholic religious schools, and the strong support…

On the surface the change seems minor, almost imperceptible: What once read "requires" now reads "needs." But the amending of that single word in the 2004 update of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) automatically triggered a surge in the number of students eligible for assistive technology in K-12 schools.…

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis conjectures a nonlinear relationship between pollution and economic growth, such that pollution per capita initially increases as countries economically develop, but then reaches a maximum point before ultimately declining. Much of the EKC literature has focused on testing this basic hypothesis and,…