27 Apr 2015
Skills Development in India: a Daunting Task By Indu Grover
By Indu Grover, CCS Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, India. Education and skills, the foundation of human capital formation, are the key driving forces for socio-economic development. The Indian economy had a Hindu rate of growth (sic) for decades, before it opened up in 1991 with periods of ups and downs. Since May 2014, under the... Read More
20 Apr 2015
The Young Lives Longitudinal Study – Methodological Considerations By Angela W Little
By Angela W Little, UCL Institute of Education. In 2000 the Millennium Declaration issued by the United Nations identified poverty reduction as a main development goal for the twenty-first century. More specific goals were set by the international community in 2002, including the achievement of universal primary education by 2015. It was in this context... Read More
15 Apr 2015
In Search of Sustainable TVSD Financing: It’s Not (Only) About the Money, Money Money By Robert Palmer
By Robert Palmer, NORRAG Technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) spans many domains; in many countries it exists in schools and institutes under the authority of multiple ministries, including of course the ministry of education and ministry of labour; it exists in the private sector in enterprises and private vocational institutes; it exists at pre-tertiary... Read More
09 Apr 2015
Where do the Proposed Education Targets Fall Short? The View of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015 By NORRAG
By NORRAG. Below we highlight some of the key issues related to education post-2015 raised in the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015 that was published today. Overview of the proposed education targets The proposed education SDG (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all) and targets are ‘considerably broader than... Read More
18 Mar 2015
India’s Skills Challenge: Reforming Vocational Education and Training to Harness the Demographic Dividend By Santosh Mehrotra
By Santosh Mehrotra, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in India needs to expand very rapidly if it is to serve the interests of the 5-6 million youth joining the labour force every year, and of an economy that is both growing rapidly as well diversifying fast. However,... Read More
09 Mar 2015
Strengthening International Co-operation in Education By Colin Power
By Colin Power, University of Queensland. There can be no question as to the public and private benefits of education. But education is empowering only if it is of quality and leads to learning, that is, to the continuous development of one’s knowledge, expertise, talents and values, and to the wise and ethical use of... Read More
02 Mar 2015
The Biggest NGO in Government By David Levesque
By David Levesque, Independent Education Consultant. So said the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his autobiography, of Clare Short’s Department for International Development in the early 2000s. Whether irony or whimsical musing, it reflected a shift in the balance of how UK government aid had previously been perceived and challenged the zeitgeist on where... Read More
23 Feb 2015
International Benchmarking and Measuring the Quality of Learning By NORRAG
By NORRAG. Current post-2015 proposals for universal goals, targets and indicators, and the mushrooming of global initiatives, meetings and reports, suggest a shift of focus away from developing country contexts and towards a global framework of development. One of the key elements of this framework seems to be a strong push for internationally comparable data... Read More
19 Feb 2015
Education as a Stronghold? The Ambiguous Connections between Education, Resilience and Peacebuilding By Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo
By Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo, University of Amsterdam. The resilience-hype: the new kid on the education-in-emergencies block In a NORRAG blog-post Roger Dale (2014) convincingly argued how “without theory, there are only opinions”, in response to the seemingly unquestioned belief in ‘big data’ country comparisons and the political implications connected to PISA survey results. This argument,... Read More
16 Feb 2015
The Global Partnership for Education and the Evolution of Engagement in Contexts of Conflict and Fragility By Francine Menashy
By Francine Menashy, University of Massachusetts Boston and Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Official Development Assistance has historically focused on “good performers.” With evidence that aid works better in countries with stronger institutions and more effective policy regimes, good governance has long been a prerequisite for investment. What does this mean for international... Read More