In India the 1986 National Policy of Education, which puts a particular emphasis on achieving universal elementary education, encourages decentralised educational planning and management as well as community participation, mainly for school management through Village Education Committees (VECs) and resource mobilisation. The government launched various primary education programmes since the 1990s, among them Lok Jumbish and the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). Both programmes aimed to achieve universal elementary education. Community participation and decentralisation were among the strategies used to achieve the objective. However, the meaning and reality of the two concepts differed significantly between the two programmes. This study investigates the relationship between community participation and educational development at the village level in the context of different types of decentralisation adopted by the two education programmes. The research is predominantly a qualitative case study but also uses quantitative data to supplement the qualitative data. The fieldwork was conducted in five villages in Rajasthan for Lok Jumbish, and five in Madhya Pradesh for DPEP.

  The analysis revealed that Lok Jumbish participation can be characterised as transformative with a wide range of villagers having opportunities for decision-making in educational planning. On the other hand, DPEP participation can be characterised as instrumental, directed at school management through the Village Education Committees. Community participation was mainly through the VEC, the majority of whose members were local government (panchayat) members or villagers nominated by panchayat members, particularly men of the dominant castes, in DPEP, lacking the potential breadth of Lok Jumbish VEC membership.

  In the villages studied, the analysis shows that community participation had generally contributed to greater educational improvements in Lok Jumbish villages than in DPEP villages, mainly as a result of the empowerment of Lok Jumbish villagers. In all Lok Jumbish villages, improvements were found in the access and enrolment of both boys and girls, school resources, school facilities, and transparency and accountability of school management. In DPEP, the effects of participation were limited to the more developed villages, where enrolment increased, the teachers’ work attendance improved to some extent, and there was greater transparency in spending the DPEP fund for school furniture.

  The research findings can contribute to improving community participation in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)–the elementary education programme currently conducted by the Indian government–necessary for improving educational provision. Particularly relevant is the clarification of the different nature of community participation and the issues of VEC representation and of the actual participation of participants. The major challenges in primary education remain particularly in the ‘difficult-to-reach’ areas in terms of geography and ethnic/social groups. SSA can learn from the Lok Jumbish approach to community participation in the less developed villages researched in this study.

  In India, globalization and urbanization have led to the rapid increase of so-called “English-medium” public schools. In general, private schools are considered schools for children of the elite or middle classes. However, this type of school is named an “unaided recognized school”, a school not aided but recognized by the government, which represents only a part of private education in India. The “English-medium” public schools prevalent among children of the poor warrant greater attention. These schools are the “unrecognized schools”, schools that are not recognized by the government, hence not under its control. Since the 1990’s, these unrecognized schools started to emerge throughout India. However, the Indian government has not concerned itself about these schools due to the fact that they were not officially recognized. Hence, the unrecognized schools were not accounted for in many of the educational reports prepared by the Indian government. A comprehensive understanding of student enrollment status, essential for achieving the goal of the Education for All (EFA), has therefore not been achieved.

  This paper examines how unrecognized schools in India have emerged and what the mechanism of unrecognized schools is. Participatory observation, structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted at unrecognized schools in Shahdara, Delhi from September to December, 2008. In the first section of the paper, the educational system in India is briefly discussed, providing a background for the situation of unrecognized schools within the system. Referring to data on unrecognized schools collected by the Delhi government, it is estimated that the percentage of unrecognized elementary level schools in Delhi approaches 20%. This percentage is considerably large to not be accounted for in official education reports. Next, reasons why schools are unrecognized are discussed, with reference to the conditions of recognized schools as outlined in the Delhi School Education Act, 1973. It is revealed that one of the most difficult conditions unrecognized schools face when seeking recognition is to acquire “adequate space” of land, since there is little or no space left for individuals or private societies to start new schools in authorized areas. Many unrecognized schools are established situated in unauthorized areas - those areas not recognized by government - and hence function without public service or public education. It is posited that the following elements have contributed to the unrecognized school phenomenon: 1) immigration from neighboring states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and so forth to unauthorized colonies in Delhi due to urbanization; 2) limited government capacity to provide enough schools to meet the demands of the citizens of Delhi in terms of both quantity and quality; 3) effort to promote the EFA in India since the 1990’s, which has led to an increase of poor people’s awareness toward the quality of education; 4) vagary of rules and regulations related to unrecognized schools as outlined in the Delhi School Education Act.

  In the second section, this paper explores the functioning of unrecognized schools by investigating the management status at nine unrecognized schools in Shahdara, Delhi. In so doing, the following points are investigated: year of school establishment; area where school is situated; status of school application for recognition; background of the founder and the level of education the school provides. Many target schools were established since 2000 and are either situated in unauthorized colonies or residential areas as are other unrecognized schools. It is argued that unrecognized schools in residential areas were “house-turned schools”, which use a house as a school due to the lack of space, and hence do not apply for recognition. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Parental and community participation through the school board system is a fundamental component of School-Based Management (SBM). However, it has been gradually recognized that parental and community participation sometimes undermines the achievement of equity in education due to unequal opportunities for the participation of community members. In the case that the social situation of parents and communities differs by school, the functions of school boards might also differ and tend to reinforce existing disparities.

  In Thailand, the 1999 National Education Act included a provision that educational organizations including schools providing basic education shall establish boards supervising, promoting, and supporting school management. In addition, ministerial ordinances and related regulations stipulated the composition of board members, measures to decide board members, and affairs requiring the approval of school boards in school management. Compared to former school board systems, the current system more clearly requires school boards to act as “councils” making proposals and giving approvals in school management, in addition playing their existing role as “coordinators” building partnerships between schools and communities and promoting resource mobilization.

  This study analyses the implementations of the school board system in Thailand and the difficulty inherent in their serving as “councils”. In so doing, it also discusses initial conditions where school boards function as “councils” and risks to reinforce existing disparities among schools. Firstly, the transition of school management system in Thailand is overviewed, comparing the case of primary and secondary education. The characteristics of the current school board system are then defined. Secondly, based on questionnaire and interview surveys conducted with school administrators in two provinces and members of selected school boards, this study analyzes efficiency and challenge of the school board system at “extended opportunity schools”, primary schools that continue to teach students up to lower-secondary level, and secondary schools, which provide lower and upper-secondary education.

  According survey results, school administrators of two school types appreciated the contributions of school boards to medium extent on the whole. Compared to answers of school administrators at secondary schools, more school administrators at extended opportunity schools marked items related to function of “coordinators” with “highly appreciate”; specifically, these were “board members hear problems and attend to parent and community education needs”, “board members promote resource mobilization and supports from various partners”, and “board members raise education awareness levels among parents and communities”. The item of “board members promote support for disadvantaged students” resulted in a great difference between two school types. For the reason that extended opportunity schools have had a long experience with parental and community participation, school boards effectively functioned as “coordinators”, especially at extended opportunity schools.

  However, school administrators of both school types held less favorable views regarding the contribution of school boards as “councils”, as reflected in responses to the items “board members make proposals for academic matters” and “board members make proposals for personnel matters”. Interestingly, 77％ of school administrators at extended opportunity schools and 81％ of those at secondary schools answered that they felt some difficulties related to school boards. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  It has been argued in Francophone West Africa that mother languages should be used for the medium of instruction or that bilingual education should be introduced in education system. To date much research has been done by the international organizations (UNICEF and UNESCO, for example), NGOs and other aid agencies. This research has supported the promotion of bilingual education in Francophone West Africa.

  In some West African regions, bilingual education has been put into practice a number of times on an experimental basis. In this kind of trial exercise, French and an African language have been used as the media of instruction. In cases where results are successful, bilingual programs are aimed to extend througout entire nations. While bilingual education programs have been introduced in numerous instance upon achieving independence from France, many of these efforts represented ‘short term projects’ or mere ‘experimental’ program. Many of the experiments have not brought the expected results that bilingual education would attract students to school and improve student test scores. Despite the efforts of international organizations and other agencies, experimental bilingual education rarely have the official approval of government, and have not been succesful in being introduced as a part of formal education policy. It can be inferred from this situation that there are specific contextual factors to prevent official bilingual education in the area.

  The purpose of this essay is to analyze and interpret the situation of bilingual education in Francophone West Africa, departing from the focus of previous studies by looking primarily at the discordance among advocate aid agencies and the small need for bilingual education within respective countries.

  This essay is composed of five parts. The first part introduces the diversity of languages and the multilingual situation in the Francophone West Africa. The languages in the area can be classified into three categories according to its role: official language (langue officielle), vehicular languages （langue[s] véhiculaire[s]), and gregarious languages（langues grégaires). Among these functions, vehicular languages tended to be used as media of instruction at the first step in experimental bilingual education.

  The second part focuses on ‘medium’ languages in education which were affected by French colonial policies. Medium languages had changed from African languages, which proceed by the catholic mission, to french language as the educational policies had changed to exclude religious education in France. The evolution of official language policies in education is therefore explained from a historical point of view.

  In the third part, official positions in regards to bilingual education are introduced by referring to arguments of administrators and the laws of each country. This part analyses from the following two points of view: the African elites aiming to continue the use of the French language, and the rivalries between African languages groups after independence.

  The fourth part explains the situation of bilingual education in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. In Niger, bilingual education started from 1973 in primary experimental schools. In these schools, African languages had been used as the media of instruction for the first three of six years. New programs which use African language for all six years started in 2001. However, this new program is also practiced in the experimental schools, and had not been introduced to all schools in Niger until very recently. In addition, the number of experimental schools does not show drastic growth. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)