Barbara Bruns

Achieving universal, primary education by 2015 : a chance for every child

A number of countries committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at eradicating extreme poverty, and improving the welfare of people by the year 2015. The book assesses whether universal primary education can be achieved by 2015. The study focuses on the largest low-income countries that are furthest from the goal, home to about seventy five percent of the children out of school globally. By analyzing education policies, and financing patterns in relatively high-performing countries, the study identifies a new policy, and financing framework for faster global progress in primary education. The authors use a simulation model to show how adoption of this framework, could accelerate progress in low-income countries, currently at risk of not reaching the education MDG. The study however, makes it clear that worldwide attainment of universal primary education by 2015, will necessitate an even stronger combination of political will, deep and sustained reform, faster dissemination of best practices, and intensified financial effort than has been marshaled to date.

Achieving world-class education in Brazil : the next agenda

Education is improving in Brazil. The average years of education has almost doubled over the last 20 years, as has the proportion of adults who have completed secondary school. Brazils high school students have improved consistently in math and language performance over the last decade. These gains stem from the federal governments priority attention to education through both reforms and resources over the past 15 years. The progress laid out in this book is impressive and praiseworthy, but Brazil still trails its competitors in several of the ways that matter most. Student learning, while improving, still lags far behind wealthier nations. Many secondary schools lose the majority of their students well before graduation. Teachers are drawn from among the lowest achievers and have few performance incentives, and it shows in how class time is used. This important book explores not only the basis for Brazils progress, but also what it must do to bridge the remaining quality gap to a first-rate education for its children. It provides detailed recommendations for strengthening the performance of teachers, supporting childrens early development, and reforming secondary education. In Brazils highly decentralized basic education system, each level of government has an integral role to play.

School-Based Management

This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The fi ndings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily refl ect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgement on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the vii Preface School-based management (SBM) has become a very popular movement over the past decade. Our SBM work program emerged out of a need to defi ne the concept more clearly, review the evidence, support impact assessments in various countries, and provide some initial feedback to teams preparing education projects. During fi rst phase of the SBM work program, the team undertook a detailed stocktaking of the existing literature on SBM. At the same time we identifi ed several examples of SBM reforms that we are now supporting through ongoing impact assessments. An online toolkit providing some general principles that can broadly be applied to the implementation of SBM reforms has been developed and can be accessed on Mackintosh provided excellent editing of the content and Victoriano Arias formatted the document. The team received very useful feedback from Ruth Kagia and Robin Horn. The peer reviewers for this task were Luis Benveniste and Shantayanan Devarajan. Excellent comments were received for an informal, virtual review from Erik Bloom.