A view inside primary schools
A new publication by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics , A view inside primary schools: A World Education Indicators (WEI) cross-national study , presents new data on quality and equality in primary education. The data is from 11 countries in Asia, Latin America, and North Africa that participated in the Survey of Primary Schools by the World Education Indicators Programme in 2005 and 2006. For the survey, fourth grade teachers and principals from over 7,600 schools responded to questions about teaching and learning conditions. The countries in the study - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Malaysia, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Uruguay - are close to the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. However, the survey reveals large resource gaps between schools in urban and rural areas. Children in poorly equipped and maintained schools often come from poor families and these children are thus doubly disadvantaged. Other findings of the survey i...