Educational Crisis and Reform: Perspectives from South Asia

More than a third of out-of-school children of the world live in South Asia. The promise of universal quality education for all children of this region has so far been elusive. The crises in education faced by different countries of the region differ in their nature as well as import. Notwithstanding the differences, there are also some common denominators, such as the burgeoning population and growth of private sector in mass education.

Along with the growing list of problems that South Asian countries must resolve, the pressure for delivering better quality education for all in the region is escalating, in line with the imperatives of a global knowledge economy. But reforming education is not just a technical issue. In order for education reforms to gain momentum, the media, the general populace, and members of the policy-making community need to be more informed about the various dimensions of the educational challenges faced by South Asian societies.

The book is a modest attempt to respond to this need. The contributions in this volume are research-based and strive at providing a deeper understanding of the various dimensions of the education crises as well as responses to them. Among the aims of this book are also to reach out to an audience outside of the academy. While it seeks to provide insights into country-specific initiatives, readers of this volume will also be able to help those concerned with and about education to think more clearly about the challenges of education reform in their own particular context.