This handbook is an important reference work in understanding education systems in the South Asia region, their development trajectory, challenges and potential. The handbook includes the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries for discussion---Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka---while also considering countries such as Myanmar and the Maldives that have considerable shared history in the region. Such a comparative perspective is largely absent within the literature given the present paucity of intra-regional interaction. South Asian education systems are viewed primarily through a development lens in terms of inequalities, challenges and responses. However, the development of modern institutions of education and the challenges that it faces requires cultural and historical understanding of indigenous traditions as well as indigenous modern thinkers and education movements. Therefore, this encompassing referenc e work covers indigenous education traditions, formal education systems, including school and preschool education, higher and professional education, education financing systems and structures, teacher education systems, addressing huge linguistic and other diversities, and marginalization within the formal education system, and pedagogy and curricula. All the countries in this region have their own unique geographical, cultural, economic and political character and histories of interest and significance, and have responded to common issues such as overcoming the colonial legacy, language diversity, or girls’ education, or minority rights in education, in uniquely different ways. The sections therefore include country-specific perspectives as far as possible to highlight these issues. Internationally renowned specialists of South Asian education systems have contributed to this important reference work, making it an invaluable resource for researchers and students of education interested in South Asia.

With the exception of Sri Lanka, South Asian countries have not achieved quality basic education – an essential measure for escaping poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. In The Political Economy of Education in South Asia, John Richards, Manzoor Ahmed, and Shahidul Islam emphasize the importance of a dynamic system for education policy. The Political Economy of Education in South Asia documents the weak core competency (reading and math) outcomes in government primary schools in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, and the consequent rapid growth of non-government schools over the last two decades. It compares the training, hiring, and management of teachers in South Asian schools to successful national systems ranging from Singapore to Finland. Discussing reform options, it makes the case public good and public priorities are better served when both public and non-government providers come under a strong public policy and accountability framework. The Political Economy of Education in South Asia draws on the authors' broad engagement in education research and practice in South Asia, as well as analysis by prominent professors of education and NGO leaders, to place basic education in a broad context and make the case that universal literacy and numeracy are necessary foundations for economic growth.

Exploring contemporary issues and challenges facing education in South-East Asia, this Handbook covers the 10 member states of the ASEAN and Timor-Leste.

Spanning scholarly contributions from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, this edited volume seeks to capture and elucidate the distinct challenges, approaches and possible solutions associated with interpreting, adapting and applying language-in-education policies in a range of linguistically complex teaching and learning environments across South Asia. Centring on-the-ground perspectives of scholars, practitioners, pupils, parents and the larger community, the volume offers new insights into one of the most complex, populous, and diverse multilingual educational contexts in the world. Language-in-education policies and practices within this setting represent particularly high stakes issues, playing a pivotal role in determining access to literacy, thereby forming a critical pivot in the reproduction of educational inequality. The broad aim of the collection is thus to highlight the pedagogical, practical, ideological and identity-related implications arising from current language-in-education policies in this region, with the aim of illustrating how systemic inequality is intertwined with such policies and their associated interpretations. Aimed at both academics and practitioners - whether researchers and students in the fields of education, linguistics, sociology, anthropology or South Asian studies, on the one hand, or language policy advisors, curriculum developers, teacher educators, teachers, and members of funding bodies, aid providers or NGOs, on the other - it is anticipated that the accounts in this volume will offer their readership opportunities to consider their wider implications and applications across other rich multilingual settings – be these local, regional, national or global.

Education is one of the fundamental factors of growth in every context. Education is a crucial investment in human and sustainable development and is impacted by the situation within which it occurs. Without considerable investment in human capital, no country can achieve sustainable economic growth. Student-centered learning environments need to add more active learning approaches to classroom teaching. The current education system in South Asia is characterized by limited access; poor quality and low standards; gender, social and economic inequities; and low levels of public investment. The demands of the twenty-first century are a status symbol, ingenuity, and incorporation of expertise at the global level, research, and logical and analytical thought.This book contains eleven chapters compiling state of the art studies on education systems and policies in south Asian countries. The first chapter presents a study that aims to compare the impact of flipped mode and the traditional mode of instruction. The second chapter is about a professional development program for beginning high school teachers. The program was designed after identifying, characterizing, and evaluating the professional training needs of beginning teachers, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies via interviews and surveys. Moreover, It emphasizes on engineering education in India: preparation of professional engineering educators; effective education in a college in Bangladesh; a different kind of teacher for a different kind of school; the issues and challenges of using multimedia at a district level, specialized girls' college in Bangladesh; continuing education for professional development in higher education teaching; remittances, school quality, and household education expenditures in Nepal; and assessment of clinical learning environment, supervision among nursing students, Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. Lack of awareness and education regarding sustainability among students can impact their competence to incorporate sustainability into technology development. Thus, the development of student competence across the curriculum of technology education for sustainability is crucial. The book also aims to explore student competence development in technology education by investigating their awareness of sustainability and to investigate how much sustainability is infused across the technology education curriculum. Finally, the book investigates pathways from school to work in the developing world.

For the past decade, most South Asian countries have directed their efforts towards achieving universal access to elementary education. While these investments have led to more children being retained in school, they have not translated into better learning outcomes. This report comprehensively analyzes the performance of South Asian educational systems in terms of student learning. It attempts to answer three questions: How well do education systems in South Asia perform? What determines student learning outcomes? What policy options are effective in improving learning outcomes, especially given increasing demand and competition for public resources? Because learning outcomes and skill acquisition in the region are low in both absolute and relative terms, schooling does not translate, as it should, into better life chances, including escape from poverty for many more. Nor does schooling contribute to higher productivity and economic growth, so that countries in the region find it difficult to accelerate economic and social development. Governments in the region now fully realize that they need to direct their attention toward improving quality so that students can aspire to fuller lives as both individuals and labor market participants. Merely spending time in school is not enough; students need to register a significant gain in both noncognitive and cognitive skills if countries in the region are to reap full returns on their investments and generate gains in employment, job creation, and productivity. To examine what policies hold promise for improving student learning, the report reviews evidence from large-scale national learning assessments and findings from impact evaluations being conducted in the region. It identifies the following strategic priorities for improving learning outcomes in South Asia: (1) Make learning outcomes the central goal of education policy; (2) Invest in early childhood nutrition; (3) Improve teacher effectiveness and accountability; (4) Provide additional support to disadvantaged children in early grades; (5) Use financing effectively; (6) Leverage the contribution of the non-state sector; and (7) Build learning assessment systems. Each of these policy options will need to be integrated within a larger agenda of inclusive economic growth and governance reform to be truly effective.

Afghanistan is one of many South Asian countries appearing in daily headlines, as it attempts to rebuild its society, including its educational system, after decades of war. Sri Lanka, devastated by the tsunami of 2004, and parts of Pakistan and Northern India, coping with the aftereffects of a major earthquake, are also also struggling for teachers, classrooms, supplies, and a sense of normalcy for their students. This volume, part of the Schooling Around the World series, provides readers with a history and survey of education in eight of the region's countries. It examines the Primary, Secondary, and Postsecondary levels of education, identifying the types of education available (public, private, tutoring, etc), any race, gender or social class issues that impact education, and major reforms taking place. Readers will find discussions of curriculum and teaching methods most helpful, as well as a special day in the life feature, which gives a personal look at what it's like for students attending school in that country today.

Education in east Asia varies widely, due to the cultural and political histories of each country. The communist governments of China, North Korea, and Vietnam mandate schooling differently from the limited democracy of Hong Kong and the parliamentary government of Japan. The history of the educational philosophies, systems, and curricula of seventeen East Asian countries are described here, with a timeline highlighting educational developments, and a special day in the life feature, a personal account of what it is like for a student to attend school in that country.

This book examines medium of instruction in education and studies its social, economic, and political significance in the lives of people living in South Asia. It provides insight into the meaning of medium and what makes it so important to identity, aspiration, and inequality. It questions the ideologized associations between education and social and spatial mobility and discusses the gender- and class-based marginalization that comes with vernacular-medium education. The volume also considers how policy measures, such as the Right to Education (RTE) Act in India, have failed to address the inequalities brought by medium in schools, and investigates questions on language access, inclusion, and rights. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the book will be indispensable for students and scholars of anthropology, education studies, sociolinguistics, sociology, and South Asian studies. It will also appeal to those interested in language and education in South Asia, especially the role of language in the reproduction of inequality.