'The Link between Health, Social Issues and Secondary Education' is based on country studies in six Sub-Saharan African countries--Eritrea, Mali, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, and a literature review. It looks at the role of secondary education and training in promoting health, civics and life skills among the African youth. Specifically, this study focuses on examining which schooling programs are effective in equipping young people with life skills, which programs reduce drop-out and increase participation and how schools can become agents in tackling health and social...

'Developing Science, Mathematics and ICT in Secondary Education' is based on country studies from ten Sub-Saharan African countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and a literature review. It reveals a number of huge challenges in science, mathematics and ICT (SMICT) education in sub-Saharan Africa: poorly-resourced schools; large classes; a curriculum hardly relevant to the daily lives of students; a lack of qualified teachers; and inadequate teacher education programs. Through examining country case studies, this paper...

'Higher Education Financing in the New EU Member States' summarizes the experiences to date of the new EU countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia the EU8) in the reform of higher education systems in a period of growing demand; changing patters of access; rapid expansion and increased participation rates; and an apparent dilution of average quality. The study discusses the growing experience with a variety of financing mechanisms in EU8 countries, drawing on detailed country case studies, and seeks to develop some useful lessons from...

Following the transition from central planning toward market-based economies, the formerly communist states of Central and Eastern Europe introduced a number of reforms in the finance, management, and organization of the health sector. While health sector reforms in these countries have involved deep structural changes, they have generally been less successful in improving efficiency, enhancing equity in healthcare financing and delivery, and managing clinical quality of health services. Total health expenditures have increased in almost all countries, especially in recent years, and with...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are popular around the world, in part because they allow governments to secure much-needed investment in public services without immediately having to raise taxes or borrow. Yet, PPPs pose a fiscal danger because a government's desire to avoid reporting immediate liabilities may blind it to future fiscal cost and risks. Although PPPs may not blemish governments' reported fiscal statements in the short term, they do create fiscal obligations. This increases fiscal vulnerability and can result in poorly-designed PPPs. The extent of the danger depends on the...

'Administrative Capacity in the New EU Member States' reviews progress made in the development of public management systems capable of meeting European standards in the new member states of the European Union (EU), looking into the people, systems, and service delivery aspects of public management systems. The new member states face considerable challenges improving fiscal management, building absorption capacity of rapidly increasing levels of EU structural funds, and enhancing economic competitiveness making essential the building of high-quality public management systems. The study applies...

Vocational education is often ignored during discussions of secondary education reform even though it accounts for between 25 percent and 79 percent of upper secondary enrollment in the former centrally-planned countries of the European Union. Based on information, data, and feedback from most of these countries, this paper develops a set of propositions about vocational education reform, not with a view to prescribing a detailed 'one-size-fits-all' strategy, but rather it derives some principles that continued reform of vocational education could take into account, to the benefit of fiscal...

All development is ultimately about change, and this requires communication interventions. Communication must be framed in an integral 'two-way' process that involves stakeholders, accounts for their perspectives, and understands their socio-political context. This two-way process constitutes a new communication approach, providing a better understanding of the development context, tailoring development initiatives during design and implementation, and contributing to more sustainable results. This paper presents the methodology used by the Development Communication Division (DevComm) fo the...

This report assesses the status and practice of higher education quality assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on degree-granting tertiary institutions. A main finding is that structured national-level quality assurance processes in African higher education are a very recent phenomenon and that most countries face major capacity constrains. Only about a third of them have established structured national quality assurance mechanism, often only as recently as during the last ten years. Activities differ in their scope and rigor, ranging from simple licensing of institutions by the minister...

This World Bank Working Paper discusses equity and efficiency issues in secondary education transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its main purpose is to identify and analyze national, regional, and local measures that may lead to the development of more efficient and seamless transitions between post-primary education pathways. In most African countries student transition from primary to junior secondary is still accompanied by significant repetition and dropout. Transitions within the secondary cycle also cause significant losses and should use more effective assessment and selection...