This report describes how tertiary education contributes to building up a country's capacity for participation in an increasingly knowledge-based world economy and investigates policy options for tertiary education that have the potential to enhance economic growth and reduce poverty. It...

The paper highlights that the education of children, and youth merits the highest priority in a world afflicted by HIV/AIDS, specifically because a good basic education ranks among the most effective - and cost-effective - means of HIV prevention. It also merits priority because the very...

This report compiles a rich set of previously unavailable data to define where the education sector in Albania has evolved, what key challenges remain, and the priority areas for action by the Albanian government. The report finds that four broad tasks must be tackled to improve education. The...

The Millennium Development Goals aim for universal primary education by 2015 and gender equality in enrolments at all levels of education. The Education for All (EFA) initiative lays out a strategy for achieving these goals. The Bank's own strategy stresses the school quality aspects of EFA,...

Peru has reached a crossroads for education policy at the beginning of the 21st century. The status quo reflects major accomplishments. One direction for policy would, therefore, involve useful but relatively limited improvements in the current situation. This direction, however, may prove...

Education is a major instrument for economic growth and poverty reduction. Rapid changes in technology, globalization and economic reforms are creating dramatic shifts in the structure of economies and labor markets throughout the world. The challenges of the future lie with confronting...

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia had a highly developed and expensive education system, matching the needs of the command economy. The country is now facing a challenge to sustain universal coverage and performance standards in primary-secondary education with a small fraction of...

The prospects for educational development are excellent in Madagascar, in light of the increasingly favorable, policy environment for the sector. Public spending for education, relative to the gross domestic product declined in the 90s, coinciding with a five-fold rise in the country's interest...

Starting in the fall of 1997, the World Bank Institute organized a learning program on Intergovernmental Roles in the Delivery of Education Services in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Bulgaria and Albania joined in 1998. The program aimed to help build analytical capacity to...