The policy of the World Bank has been to focus on universal primary education, rather than supporting adult literacy programmes. But slow progress in Sub-Saharan Africa has convinced the Bank that adult literacy, especially amongst women, is a key factor in promoting economic and social development. This study of programmes in Uganda shows that adult literacy programmes can be more effective than was previously thought; that government run programmes can be as effective as those run by non-governmental organisations and that there is a large, unsatisfied demand among Ugandan adults for more education.

This book will help those who plan and develop literacy initiatives; using case studies from literacy programmes in many countries including Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mali, Nigeria, the Philippines and Uganda, it demonstrates the importance of literacy, its power to improve lives, and the role literacy plays in social and economic development.

Despite an estimated one billion adults who are illiterate in the world, adult literacy programmes in developing countries remain severely underfunded and with limited outcomes. Efforts to improve this situation have tended to focus on institutional and social issues, rather than research into cognitive and memory functions and studies regarding learning techniques. This publication explores cognitive research findings and applies this to the design of adult literacy programmes and acquisition of literacy by unschooled adults in lower-income countries.

This handbook provides a concise overview of special education services in countries across the world, using the Article on Education in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the analytical frame. The Praeger International Handbook of Special Education presents a concise and clear overview of special education services in more than 70 countries across the world using the Article on Education in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities as the analytical frame. Each chapter offers information about the country in general, followed by sections on the public education system, the private education system, the special education system, teacher training requirements, and barriers to and promising trends in inclusive and special education. The volumes and chapters are organized by the United Nations Geoscheme, with Volume 1 including an overview of the volumes and chapters on countries in the Americas, Volume 2 addressing countries from Europe and Africa, and Volume 3 focusing on countries in Asia and Oceania. This is the most complete exploration of the delivery of supports and services to children and youth with disabilities across the globe available. The volumes do not compare among or between countries, but rather provide a baseline for understanding current special education practices and their relationship with general education and inclusive practices across the globe. Readers will come away with an in-depth understanding of what is happening with regard to the implementation of special education services and Article 24 of the Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities. This valuable reference set serves researchers, graduate students, and policymakers in special and general education as well as professionals focused on issues of education worldwide and scholars focused on international special education. As such, this handbook will be an important reference source for university libraries, professional associations, and policy entities.

Adult education has been practised in Uganda in various forms, perhaps since humans first inhabited the land; but very little has been written about it. It is therefore difficult to find relevant materials to use in the study of education in Uganda. Makerere University has been engaged in adult education since 1953, and so celebrated fifty years of its existence and service in 2003. This book is published in commemoration of this achievement. Its objectives are to document the development of adult education in Uganda, establish a base for further specialised study on adult education, provide a teaching resource for the study of adult and community education and pave the way for future adult education work. As a critical review and reflection on salient aspects and issues of adult education, including on the relative merits and disadvantages of indigenous and colonial languages as media for adult education, it is the first publication of its kind in Uganda.

Independent African countries have faced many challenges on the road to economic and social development. The heritage of colonialism has weighed heavy on their shoulders, and the promises of post-colonialism have not always been fulfilled. The nature and trajectory of the development project is determined, in large part, by governments. Where they have been limited in - or neglectful of - their capacity to improve the lives of their people, non-government organizations have been quick to respond. Composing a New Song comprises portraits of five such NGOs, from Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Each was spurred by a moral concern for those sectors of society that were marginalized or ignored completely, by the march of mainstream development, but each has chosen its own route, its own tactics and its own methods. These stories, told by founders and senior managers of the organizations, offer a rare insight into personal motivations, social reactions and political choices - indeed, the real world of development, one that is too often glossed over by more orthodox texts.

This edited volume demonstrates how an educational linguistics approach to inquiry is well positioned to identify, examine, and theorize the language and literacy dimensions of refugee-background learners’ experiences. Contributions (from junior and senior scholars) explore and interrogate the policies, practices and ideologies of language and literacy in formal and informal educational settings as well as their implications for teaching and learning. Chapters in this collection will inform advances in the research base, future innovations in pedagogy, the professional development of teachers, and the educational opportunities that are made available to refugee-background children, youth and adults. The work showcased here will be of particular interest to teachers and teacher educators committed to inclusion, equity, and diversity; those developing curriculum and/or assessment; and researchers interested in the relationship between language practice, language policy and refugee education.