The Political Economy of Educational Reforms and Capacity Development in Southeast Asia

Yasushi Hirosato and Yuto Kitamura Developing countries, including Southeast Asian countries, face an enormous challenge in ensuring equitable access to quality education in the context of deepening globalization and increasing international competition. They must simultaneously meet the goals of Education for All (EFA) at the basic education level and of developing a more sophisticated workforce required by the knowledge-based economy at the post-basic, especially tertiary, education level. To meet this challenge, developing countries need to reform/renovate their education systems and service deliveries as an integral part of national development. However, most of them have not yet fully developed the individual, institutional, and system capacities in undertaking necessary education reforms, especially under decentralization and privatization requiring new roles at various (central and local, or public and private) levels of administration and stakeholders. Provided that an ultimate vision of educational development and cooperation in the twenty-first century would be to develop indigenous capacity in engineering education reforms, this book analyzes the overall education reform context and capacity, including the status of sector program support using the sector-wide approach (SWAp)/program-based approach (PBA) in developing countries. We also address how different stakeholders have been interacting in order to promote equitable access to quality education, particularly from the perspectives of capacity development under the system of decentralization.

Yasushi Hirosato and Yuto Kitamura Developing countries, including Southeast Asian countries, face an enormous challenge in ensuring equitable access to quality education in the context of deepening globalization and increasing international competition. They must simultaneously meet the goals of Education for All (EFA) at the basic education level and of developing a more sophisticated workforce required by the knowledge-based economy at the post-basic, especially tertiary, education level. To meet this challenge, developing countries need to reform/renovate their education systems and service deliveries as an integral part of national development. However, most of them have not yet fully developed the individual, institutional, and system capacities in undertaking necessary education reforms, especially under decentralization and privatization requiring new roles at various (central and local, or public and private) levels of administration and stakeholders. Provided that an ultimate vision of educational development and cooperation in the twenty-first century would be to develop indigenous capacity in engineering education reforms, this book analyzes the overall education reform context and capacity, including the status of sector program support using the sector-wide approach (SWAp)/program-based approach (PBA) in developing countries. We also address how different stakeholders have been interacting in order to promote equitable access to quality education, particularly from the perspectives of capacity development under the system of decentralization.

Theoretical and Analytical Framework.- An Integrated Framework for Analyzing Education Reforms and Capacity Development in Developing Countries: Why, How, and for Whom?.- A Conceptual Model for “Indigenizing” Education Reforms and Capacity Development in Developing Countries.- An Analytical Framework of Educational Development and Reform in Developing Countries: Interaction Among Actors in the Context of Decentralization.- An Overview.- Capacity Building Strategies: East Asian Approaches.- Education Reforms and Capacity Development in Basic Education: Illustration from Indochina.- Education Reforms and Capacity Development in Higher Education.- Country Case Studies.- Education Reform Context and Process in Cambodia.- Basic Education in Cambodia: Quality and Equity.- Higher Education in Cambodia.- Education Reform Context and Process in Vietnam.- The Distribution of Education in Vietnam: Why Does Equality Matter?.- Education Reform in Lower Secondary Education in Vietnam.- Higher Education in Vietnam.- Education Reform Context and Process in Lao PDR: Focusing on Basic Education.- Higher Education in Lao PDR.- Conclusion: “Indigenization” of Education Reforms Through Capacity Development.