Search results

The closure of University satellite campuses on the 24th August 2001 by the Federal Government Confirms the shabby nature of Distance Education in Nigeria. Distance Education though set up to help solve educational problems, if not properly handled will exacerbate poor quality instruction and contribute to educational problems. Application of computer network services in DE will help enrich the programme and enhance qualitative education. This paper explores the concept and problems of DE in Nigeria and examines the feasibility of the application of Information Technology to it, speculating how the integration of IT may enhance the quality of the learning experience. DOI:10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n5p43

Irish higher education has been undergoing significant change, provoked by the global financial crisis and its particular manifestation in Ireland. The demand for higher education is rising at the same time that public funding is declining. In response, mergers and strategic alliances, including regional clusters, of higher education institutions has become a key component of the strategy to better position Irish higher education for greater efficiency, enhanced quality, improved competitiveness and visibility, and clearer alignment with national policy objectives. This chapter traces these developments. It describes the socio-economic and policy context underpinning developments in Irish higher education since the 1970s, and traces the origin and evolution of collaboration initially incentivised by government funding (1996-2011) to the current phase (2011-) which envisages structural reform and system-wide change as part of top-down policy-steering. The conclusion discusses over-all changes to the higher education landscape, and the implications of a shift from a policy of laissez-faire to steering-from-the-centre.

The Timorese Government has embarked upon several approaches to empower national education, namely through the restructuring of the secondary education. Due to the lack of skilled professionals in education, East Timor has resorted to the support of international cooperation with institutions such as the University of Aveiro, in Portugal. In this paper, we present a starting project that aims at investigating how the new curriculum of secondary education in East Timor is being implemented, through its monitoring and short-term exploratory evaluation. At its core, this project seeks to provide constructive feedback both to the authors of the curriculum, as well as to Timorese stakeholders. Furthermore, this project constitutes a unique opportunity to closely follow, in the context of international cooperation, the process of the restructuring of an education system in a developing country, boosting the relationships between the researchers, the authors of the restructuring and the Timorese stakeholders.

The study addresses four major concerns within the Bank's Economic Restructuring Program in Karnataka: 1) identifying the priority issues facing the education sector; 2) indicating possible areas for expenditure reform, to improve the efficiency, and equity of public spending in education; 3) identifying measures to strengthen the effectiveness of public expenditure; and, 4) assessing the resource requirements for school education. The report reviews achievements, and educational trends in the nineties, looking at the factors shaping Karnataka's education development, to then examine public expenditures on education, and the efficiency of public spending. Improvements in the effectiveness of public expenditures in education are proposed, namely in the input utilization of teachers, and non-teachers; in management strengthening of the private sector; and, decentralization in the education system. To attain the elementary, and secondary education goals, considerable financial allocations will be required, where the volume of additional requirements depends critically on the strategies adopted by the Government of Karnataka (GOK), particularly as these affect the expenditures on teachers. The analyses show that if the GOK adopts fiscally sustainable strategies in school education, provided fiscal reforms are successful, financing requirements for the educational system expansion of higher quality, could be met, mainly from its own resources, and private sector mobilization, as well as from the adoption of cost-reducing strategies to narrow the financing gap.

1. Changing the soul : the contours, currents and contradictions of the neoliberal revolution -- 2. The machinations of the managerialism : new public management and the diminishing power of knowledge professionals -- 3. The neoliberalization of knowledge : privatization and the new epistemic economy -- 4. The new marketplace of ideas : the new knowledge makers and their new knowledge -- 5. Creating the "clever country" : neoliberalism, knowledge society policies and the restructuring of higher education -- 6. "An island of socialism in a free market sea" : building the market-oriented school -- 7. Aligning markets and minds : the responsiblized self in the new entrepreneurial culture.