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An examination of the contrast between citizenship & "customership" in the context of community focuses on education policy in the UK during the 1979-1997 Conservative government period to show the damage done by the marketization of citizenship. The three key problems stemming from marketization processes -- distortion, degradation, & residualization -- are related to the introduction of market criteria into UK education policy. While residualization has not occurred in the British education system, examples of distortion include grant-maintained schools, local management of schools, parental school choice, the use of test scores to measure achievement, & the maintenance of selection. Nursery & training vouchers are detailed as evidence of degradation. A discussion of the dual individual & collective nature of education notes the immediate benefits of education to the individual, & the long-term state advantages of an educated citizenry, contending that education policy can never be totally statist or individualist. It is maintained that the dialectic of education policy conflict generates new attempted syntheses, as well as interesting compromises between citizens, markets, & communities. 15 References. J. Lindroth

This paper explores the current tensions both within higher education and between education systems and society at large. These tensions lead to media portrayals and public beliefs about higher education that are not always accurate but which affect higher education policy which in turn affects education systems. Because the author?s affiliation and background centers on the United States its educational systems are the focus of this article, but similar conclusions can be extrapolated to most Western democracies.

The judicial efforts at national level along with the pressure built by International community at Jometien Conference and afterwards finally led to the Constitutional Amendment in 2002 to ensure 8 years of basic schooling as a fundamental right in India. The amendment needed enabling legislation to be effective, the enactment of which was not smooth but had a long chequered history, depicting official apathy. The historic legislation was ultimately enacted in 2009 but its criticism outnumbered its main features. The paper submits the critical appraisal of the legislation which most of the critiques have neglected.Â

This paper attempts to evaluate the status of education in the
current districts of Punjab and compare this with the status of
education attainment in 1998. The tool used for assessment and
comparison is the Education Index (EI) for the districts of Punjab. The
Education Index is a composite index which is calculated using
enrollment at different education levels and literacy rates. The main
data sources used are the Population Census 1998, Punjab Development
Statistics 1998 and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2008.
Using data from these sources, robustness in the results is verified by
comparing different weighting simulations of the EI. The EI results are
found using the UNDP methodology and the Principal Component Analysis
(PCA) method. Both methodologies of calculation lead us to ascertain the
robustness of the EI calculation using the data. This testing allows an
important conclusion to emerge that the different weighting schemes does
not largely affect the ranking of districts. Further, by comparing the
results for both years, considerable development in education status is
observed; however, an unexpected result also appears. The relative
pattern of education status across Punjab has hardly altered in the last
ten years even with the considerable progress that has been witnessed.
This shows that an unchanging relative ranking of districts seems to
exist unless significant endorsement of education takes place within the
lowest ranked districts. JEL classification: I2, O1 Keywords: Education,
Development, Developing Country

This paper examines the role of different types of post-compulsory education in determining civic engagement (political interest and election participation) in England and Germany. The educational systems of England and Germany provide ideal comparators for investigating the social benefits of education, in particular those that accrue from vocational education. The paper uses two longitudinal panel surveys, the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel for empirical purposes. Contrary to our expectations, our findings revealed few differences between the two countries: the level of political interest is the same for youth who had a vocational degree as those without any further qualifications, in both England and Germany. Similarly, greater levels of interest in politics were observed in adulthood for youth who had achieved academic qualifications in both countries. Likewise voting behaviour in particular was associated with the achievement of academic qualifications in Germany and to some extent with the achievement of mixed vocational and academic qualifications in England.

For some years, education has been high on the agenda of heads of state, policy makers and civil society, on the international, regional and national levels. Most reforms have emphasised the importance of teachers and, more specifically, the critical impact that teacher preparation is proven to have on student learning (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Research also suggests that, in addition to teacher preparation, the quality of learning largely depends on Continued Professional Development (CPD) (OECD/WB, 2014). Moreover, preparing and empowering educators through lifelong learning is a complex undertaking that includes induction and mentoring at entry point into the profession. It is a long learning journey that starts with university preparation but continues through the career development path of each professional. It has various configurations, but most importantly is seen in school and in partnership with universities. The best CPD programmes highlight what great instruction looks like through curricula and pedagogy, impart educators with the knowledge and capacity to deliver exemplary instruction, build practical skills through professional development opportunities, support educators with good mentors and coaches, select and develop good instructional leaders who focus on instruction and creating learning communities, and enable educators to learn from each other (Barber and Mourshed, 2007). Many international task forces and initiatives have been established in the last fifteen years to support teachers at the heart of educational reform in Europe and elsewhere (UNESCO, 2014; Twining, et al., 2013; Haigh, et al., 2013). In recent years one of the lead bodies for the Arab region, the League of Arab States (LAS), developed visions and strategies to promote quality educational reform and research. These two concerns have featured in every single Arab Summit meeting since 2006. In fact already in 2005 a department for education and scientific research was created at LAS to support the new policy direction. In 2006, LAS and various other regional bodies, such as the Arab League Education Culture and Science Organization (ALECSO), the Arab Bureau for Education in the Gulf States (ABEGS), the regional offices for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the regional office for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) joined hands in a partnership to enhance the quality of education in the Arab world (League of Arab States and UNICEF, 2010). The partnership chose teachers as their entry point for the purposes of bringing about reform. Several studies were conducted and compiled to further understand the status of teachers, their training and performance in the region. Studies on Arab universities have highlighted the fact that these relatively recently established institutions work in very complex contexts, and that although their numbers are rapidly proliferating they face considerable challenges with regard to the quality of their programmes, autonomy and governance (Mazawi, 2005; ElAmine, 2014; Al-Hroub, 2014). More specific studies on faculties of education clearly pointed to the fact that the Arab world in general suffers from weak professional development programs. Curricula in university faculties of education are not updated and do not emphasize innovation, critical thinking, reflection, research and problem solving. There is a weak link between theory and practice, and on-the-job CPD is very limited (Zaalouk, 2013). The situation is further aggravated by the low status and salary accorded to teachers (Farag, 2010; Herrara and Torres 2006). During later stages of the joint initiative on teacher enhancement led by the LAS, UNICEF, and the Middle East Institute for Higher Education (MEIHE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC), there have been many positive achievements in terms of advocacy and the production of a guiding framework for teachers' professional development. Since 2008, the initiative has been developing the capacity of two regional centers of excellence to enhance the professional development of teachers: one in Egypt – the Professional Academy for Teachers (PAT) and one in Jordan – the Queen Rania Teachers' Academy (QRTA). The advocacy from the regional teacher initiative overwhelmingly led by LAS, UNICEF and MEIHE, has made teacher preparation and enhancement a priority in all countries in the region. Moreover, other agencies have joined the reform attempts. The World Bank has launched the Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality (ARAIEQ) in partnership with ALECSO, UNESCO, the World Economic Forum, INJAZ al-Arab (a regional NGO) and QRTA in 2012. One of the main pillars of the initiative is 'Teacher Policies and Professionalization'. Reforms have been attempted, but many more efforts are clearly needed in the way of internationalization, cultural exchange and learning within borderless communities through the acquisition as well as the production of both explicit and tacit knowledge. In October 2012, the MEIHE was awarded a -36month project entitled "Capacity Development of Faculties of Education CDFE in International Approaches to Teacher Education" (Project number -530614TEMPUS- -1-2012-1EG-TEMPUS-JPHES). The project (abbreviated to CDFE) focused on building the capacity of selected higher education institutions. It focused on learning from good practices from the European Union (EU) in three strategic areas: action research, practicum and Continued Professional Development. In so doing, the project harmonized pre-university with higher educational reforms. It aimed at making the work of faculties of education relevant and integral to school-based reform. Through a collaborative network between faculties of education in some EU countries and some selected partners in the MENA/Arab region, the project aimed at enhancing the capacities of faculties of education in the latter. The project essentially aimed at rendering university faculties of education relevant to school and society. The goal is to strengthen the partnership between universities and schools through the organization of practicum, action research and Continued Professional Development. Schools are social institutions constituting the work place of future teachers. Effective teacher recruitment, employment, deployment and retention should begin with quality practicum during teachers' university years, followed by strong mentorship and professional development programmes during the early induction years, and continued lifelong learning through research during the mature years of teaching. Learning resulting from this project feeds into two regional centers of excellence: the Queen Rania Teacher Academy in Jordan (QRTA) and the Professional Academy for Teachers in Egypt (PAT) for sustainable capacity building of higher education institutions across the region. ; peer-reviewed

Expanding the geographical coverage of higher education is an important means to achieve two key objectives of the European Union Agenda for Higher Education. On the one hand, a broader geographical coverage lowers costs and barriers for student's access to higher education, particularly for pupils from lower social classes that are more penalized by the need to move to another region. On the other hand, higher education is an essential component of the formation of human capital, which is largely recognized as a major determinant of productivity and growth. In this respect, ETER can be used to examine the contribution of different types of Higher Education Institutions and of satellite campuses to the regional distribution of higher education. Results show that, in 2016, 59% of the NUTS 3 European regions, comprising 79% of the population and 75% of the surface of Europe, hosted at least one main seat of a Higher Education Institution. Additionally, more than 250 NUTS 3 regions (out of 1,700), containing about 15% of the EU population, are served only by satellite campuses, showing how their creation is a powerful tool to improve accessibility to higher education. Non-university institutions also significantly raise the share of European regions offering higher education and substantially increase the density and diversity of supply in densely populated areas. This process took momentum from the 1970s onward, when the diffusion process of universities started to slow down. At the same time, the research function of higher education, as approximated by the number of PhD students, remains highly concentrated in large cities. This report therefore shows how public policies mobilized different strategies to increase accessibility of higher education at the regional level, while keeping resources and research activities concentrated in the metropolitan areas. First, the creation of regional universities outside the main cities, then the establishment (or consolidation) of Universities of Applied Sciences, as ...