Pakistan’s Education Reform Test

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (825) ◽  
pp. 133-139
Author(s):  
Faisal Bari
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
The Government ◽  
Provincial Autonomy

The Pakistani Constitution promises “free and compulsory” education for all, but 20 million children are not in school. Many who are enrolled receive poor-quality education: surveys show Pakistani students ranking among the lowest achievers in the world. This has led families in all but the lowest income groups to seek private alternatives for their children, weakening the constituency for improved public schools. Under Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government has pushed for a Single National Curriculum. Critics contend that it will not address lack of access or the poor quality of education, but that it could lead to restrictions on school choice, provincial autonomy, and linguistic diversity, while imposing a narrow vision of national identity.

scholarly journals Micro-Hydropower in Nepal: Analysing the Project Process to Understand Drivers that Strengthen and Weaken Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1582
Author(s):  
Joe Butchers ◽  
Sam Williamson ◽  
Julian Booker
Keyword(s):  
Poor Quality ◽  
Hydropower Plant ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Sustainable Operation ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Project Cycle ◽  
The Government ◽  
Hydropower Industry ◽  
Key Events

Evaluating the sustainable operation of community-owned and community-operated renewable energy projects is complex. The development of a project often depends on the actions of diverse stakeholders, including the government, industry and communities. Throughout the project cycle, these interrelated actions impact the sustainability of the project. In this paper, the typical project cycle of a micro-hydropower plant in Nepal is used to demonstrate that key events throughout the project cycle affect a plant’s ability to operate sustainably. Through a critical analysis of the available literature, policy and project documentation and interviews with manufacturers, drivers that affect the sustainability of plants are found. Examples include weak specification of civil components during tendering, quality control issues during manufacture, poor quality of construction and trained operators leaving their position. Opportunities to minimise both the occurrence and the severity of threats to sustainability are identified. For the micro-hydropower industry in Nepal, recommendations are made for specific actions by the relevant stakeholders at appropriate moments in the project cycle. More broadly, the findings demonstrate that the complex nature of developing community energy projects requires a holistic consideration of the complete project process.

scholarly journals Physical Activity as a Predictor of the Level of Stress and Quality of Sleep during COVID-19 Lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5811
Author(s):  
Anna Lipert ◽  
Remigiusz Kozłowski ◽  
Dariusz Timler ◽  
Michał Marczak ◽  
Kamila Musiał ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Quality Of Sleep ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Government

Background: The coronavirus pandemic and the government restrictions significantly disturbed the daily functioning of people, thereby influencing healthy behaviors, such as physical activity—the core indicator of well-being. This study evaluates the associations between physical activity (PA), the level of stress and quality of sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Methods: An online survey was distributed during the governmental lockdown in April 2020 and included measures for assessing physical activity, stress and sleep. The surveyed participants included all adults aged 18 years and over. The final data were collected from the 1959 respondents using: International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Findings: Almost half of the respondents indicated a low level of PA, performing only 60 min of PA daily. Most of the participants reported a moderate or high level of stress (57% and 29%, respectively) and 64% of them reported poor quality of sleep. People with low levels of stress performed on average 85.1 min/day of walking (WPA), 40.9 min/day of moderate PA (MPA) or 52.6 min/day of vigorous PA (VPA). People with good quality of sleep performed 82.9 min/day of WPA, 43.6 min/day MPA and 40.5 min/day VPA. Interpretation: The results from the study indicate that the volume of daily PA may be a predictor of the level of stress and sleep quality in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. To retain a low level of stress and good quality of sleep, a lifestyle that allows to achieve a moderate level of physical activity should be maintained. The optimal daily dose of PA is at least 70 min per day, involving different intensities.

scholarly journals The Madrasa in Indonesia (Authority, Knowledge and Discourse Surrounding its Development)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 231
Author(s):  
Syamsul Kurniawan ◽  
Muhammad Miftah
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
West Kalimantan ◽  
National Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Poor ◽  
National Education System

<p class="06IsiAbstrak"> </p><p class="06IsiAbstrak">The focus of this paper is the madrasa in Indonesia and its development which is examined from the perspective of Michel Foucault regarding their authority, knowledge and discourse.<strong> </strong>The madrasa’s performance, which is still relatively low and unable to compete with public schools or pesantrens (Islamic Boarding Schools), will be examined from this perspective. This paper departs from the study of literature with a historical-sociological approach. The sources of the data come from the literature related to the history and development of madrasas. From Foucoult's perspective, the performance of the madrasa--which in its development shows a decline trend and is of relatively low quality and less competitive compared with general schools or pesantrens-- is closely related to power, knowledge and discourse factors. My argument is supported by the evidence that there is no an established “blueprint” for the supervision and development of madrasas in Indonesia, in contrast to schools or pesantrens. Likewise, the problem of interplay of madrasa policies in the integration of the national education system has put the madrasa in the midst of domination of schools and pesantrens, especially in the midst of society since the appreciation and level of community participation in the madrasa are not very encouraging. In addition, there is an opinion among the public which perceives the madrasa as the second educational institution after schools or pesantrens. This opinion is, of course, supported by empirical data, such as research from Nur Hamzah (2017) and Sukino (2017) which examined the madrasas in West Kalimantan Province, and revealed the poor quality of some madrasas in this area, which in my opinion is the "top of the iceberg" of the madrasa, especially in the outermost, interior and underdeveloped areas of Indonesia.</p>

Pre-University Education in Egypt at the Turn of the Second and Third Decades of the XXI Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 102-114
Author(s):  
Sergey Volkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
University Education ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Technical Base ◽  
The Government ◽  
Weak Material

The author analyzes the system of pre-university education in Egypt, which the Constitution of 2014 undertakes to raise to the «international level». To this end, the government has been reforming it since 2017, which is partly financed by a loan from the World Bank. The main directions of the reform include improving preschool education, improving the qualifications of teachers, changing the system of assessing students’ knowledge and strengthening the technical base of schools and colleges. Despite the first successes of pre-university education reform, it is still expanding mainly extensively, without significantly improving the quality of education of Egyptian students. The reason for this lies in the significant lack of public investment, which the government is trying to compensate by attracting private business, both national and international, to this area. However, this leads to increased inequality in access to education. In addition, even taking into account private investments, the amount of funding for pre-university education is still far from the 4% of GDP provided for by the Constitution. The main problems of pre-university education continue to be the unsatisfactory average level of qualification of Egyptian teachers, mainly due to their low wages, a large number of pupils in classes, as well as the weak material and technical base of schools and colleges. There are also significant differences in the territorial development of pre-university education in Egypt, as well as between its various stages and directions. Egyptian business continues to experience a shortage of qualified graduates of the secondary vocational education system, despite certain successes achieved in its development in recent years.

Investigating the effect of government subsidies on end-of-life vehicle recycling

2020 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2095389
Author(s):  
Zhang Yu ◽  
Ma Tianshan ◽  
Syed Abdul Rehman Khan
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Quality Differentiation ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
The Government ◽  
Vehicle Market

To have a deeper understanding of the Chinese market reaction for different subsidy policies made by the government, we establish a game model of the competition between legal recyclers and illegal recyclers with government involved. Further, we consider the quality differentiation of end-of-life vehicles in every player’s decision-making. With a numerical simulation, the researchers validated this study. Based on the results of this research, we found that compared with the strategy of subsidizing the legal recyclers, subsidizing the end-of-life vehicle owners is more effective, and the legal recyclers would get more business from end-of-life vehicle owners. The quality of end-of-life vehicles plays a vital role when the recyclers make decisions on their recycling behaviour. Moreover, the differential subsidy policy will probably be useless if most of the end-of-life vehicles in the market are in poor quality. So, the Chinese government should adjust its policies on end-of-life vehicle market development based on the quality distribution of end-of-life vehicles, and the quality management should be implemented in the end-of-life vehicle supply chain for the efficiency and effectiveness of subsidy policies.

Betsy DeVos’s Education Reform Agenda: What Principals—and Their Publics—Need to Know

2018 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie S. Kaplan ◽  
William A. Owings
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
American Education ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Education Leaders

Betsy DeVos, the new U.S. Secretary of Education, has a reform agenda to advance school choice. Her track record includes enabling charter school growth in Michigan at taxpayers’ expense with little oversight or accountability. Although an effective advocate, DeVos represents a broader policy movement to privatize American education, much of it happening beneath public awareness. Understanding Ms. DeVos’s policy goals, how the President and Congress are supporting these, and how privatization is occurring in states can help principals and education leaders recognize the stakes, learn what to watch for, and take appropriate actions to preserve and strengthen America’s public schools.

scholarly journals Peran Strategis Madrasah Swasta di Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Solahudin Solahudin
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Main Class ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
The Government ◽  
Face Complex

This paper is aimed at discussing the strategic role of school (madrasah) in the country. Madrasah is one of the Islamic educational institutions that have an important role for the development of Islamic education in Indonesia. Madrasah is a place to galvanize the mental, moral, and spiritual of the young generation to educate students to be useful beings for the religion, state, and nation. Private Madrasahs as one of the Islamic Education Institutions in Indonesia have a strategic role in the participation of the nation's intellectuals. In the next developments, private madrasahs face complex issues. In one hand, there is a demand to improve the quality in order to compete with state Islamic education institutions and public schools, but on the other hand, the attention of the government, both central and local, to Islamic educational institutions is still low, even they are still placed not as the main class, but the second class of education institutions. The Ministry of Religious Affairs, which became the central policy, began to formulate serious efforts to improve the quality of madrasahs, such as through the Ministry's Strategic Plan.

scholarly journals Governing Indonesia’s Secondary Education System: Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement in the Province of Yogyakarta

2016 ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Astrid Meilasari Sugiana ◽  
Jumintono Jumintono
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Education System ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
The Government

This paper focuses on government policies for improving secondary education in decentralized Indonesia. The research combines policy evaluation in the field of education through mixed methods, namely the top down method measuring the effectiveness of Indonesia’s policy reforms in numerical terms and the bottom up ethno-methodological approach incorporating soft system methodology for complementing policy evaluation. Data analysis was done by examining the distribution of narratives provided by the respondents and carrying out a thematic analysis in which emerging themes were used to produce a complex and coherent narrative of the discourse emerging from the case study site in Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. The education system in modern Indonesia is marked by the tension between the centralized policy strategy of the Suharto period and the reactive strategy of Post-Suharto decentralization. During his current administration, President Joko Widodo promulgated education policies focusing on basic education reforms in five major areas, namely (i) facilitating the expansion of education facilities across Indonesia through the public and private sector (expansion of facilities and infrastructure in terms of quantity and quality), (ii) making basic education more affordable and accessible across regions and social-economic indicators (accessibility), (iii) improving the quality of educators, service and outputs in basic education (quality), (iv) increasing the relevance of basic education to the demands of tertiary education, the labor market and local economic development (relevance), and (v) good governance and accountability of Indonesia’s basic education system (accountability and public responsiveness). In conjunction with the government and the market in education, indigenous social and political groups have played significant roles in developing the secondary education system in Indonesia. Moreover, these groups have also improved pupils’ performance and pupils’ learning outcomes by improving the extent and quality of the services they provide in comparison to those provided by public schools run by the government. Individualized services which cater to the needs, backgrounds and interests of the consumers have had profound impacts on enrollment, retention, motivation and pupils’ character, knowledge, technical competence and competitiveness. This makes the education system more engaging, empowering and inclusive while taking into account its comprehensiveness. This also aids in promoting learning communities for complementing the government induced education system, for protecting children and for providing a holistic and integrated education services.

scholarly journals PEREMAJAAN KOTA UNTUK PERMUKIMAN KUMUH DI PERKOTAAN: ANTARA STRATEGI DAN SOLUSI

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Oot Hotimah
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Government

Improvement of social welfare is the responsibility of the government. One way to overcome poverty and improve the poor quality of the living environment of the urban poor is a more humane manner by involving them in development planning. The conventional approach in the form of eviction for urban renewal undertaken during this creates urban social problems more acute and complicated and not sustainable in overcoming poverty. One of the policies that need to be taken, among others, is to build low-rent flats and community involvement in public policy making. The advantage is the increased sense of community and they can become agents of development control.

scholarly journals Predictors of quality of life of older persons in rural Uganda:  A cross sectional study

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Maniragaba ◽  
Betty Kwagala ◽  
Emmanuel Bizimungu ◽  
Stephen Ojiambo Wandera ◽  
James Ntozi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Government

Background: Little is known about the quality of life of older persons (OPs) in Uganda in particular, and Africa in general. This study examined factors associated with quality of life of older persons in rural Uganda. Method: We performed a cross-sectional survey of 912 older persons from the four regions of Uganda. Data were analyzed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate level where ordinal logistic regression was applied. Results: Older persons in northern (OR=0.39; CI=0.224-0.711) and western (OR=0.33; CI=0.185-0.594) regions had poor quality of life relative to those in central region. Those who were HIV positive had poor quality of life (OR=0.45; CI=0.220-0.928) compared to those who were HIV negative. In contrast, living in permanent houses predicted good quality of life (OR=2.04; CI=1.391-3.002). Older persons whose household assets were controlled by their spouses were associated with good quality of life (OR=2.06;CI=1.032-4.107) relative to those whose assets were controlled by their children. Conclusion: Interventions mitigating the HIV and AIDS related Quality of life should target older persons. The government of Uganda should consider improving housing conditions for older persons in rural areas.

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