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This article presents the summary and main recommendations for companies, local partnerships and networks, primary schools, education authorities and initial teacher education institutions, of the RSA project “Industry Matters”.

Agricultural education and training (AET) institutions will play a strategic role in helping to prepare Africa’s rapidly growing youth populations for productive careers in agriculture and related agri-businesses. The purpose of this paper is to examine the magnitude of skills and youth employment needs emanating from high-population growth rates. It then explores how agricultural education institutions are responding to these challenges in four different countries at different levels of food system development: South Africa tier 1, Tanzania in tier 2 and Malawi and Uganda in tier 3.

Demographic and school enrollment data provide information on the magnitude of job market entrants at different levels of education while Living Standards Measurement Studies in the respective countries provide a snapshot of current skill requirements in different segments of the agri-food system. In order to evaluate AET responses, the authors have conducted country-level reviews of AET systems as well as in-depth assessments at key tertiary AET institutions in each of the four case study countries.

Growth rates in primary school enrollments are high in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, because of budgetary constraints, transition rates decline rapidly – about 40 percent from primary to secondary and 7 percent from secondary to tertiary. As a result, substantial numbers of primary and secondary school graduates seek jobs.

The case study countries are limited to four. Had more financial resources and time been available, researchers could have spread further afield and in so doing increasing the precision of the results.

Estimation of the number of primary and secondary school leavers seeking employment because of failure to proceed to the next level of education. Estimation of the level of education shares in the various components of the agri-food system.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 4.2 calls for all girls and boys to have access to high-quality early childhood education by 2030. This global mandate establishes a new framework of accountability to increase access to preprimary education in low- and middle-income countries through measurement and reporting. As with other global indicators, however, the measurement of preprimary education access is more complex and nuanced than may be supposed. This data-oriented chapter delves deeply into the measurement of SDG 4.2 and explores the accuracy of the indicator being used: the adjusted net enrollment ratio, one year before the official age of primary entry. The chapter analyzes data from both education management information systems (EMIS) and household surveys to triangulate information about children’s access to preprimary education before they begin primary school. The analysis concludes that the indicator used to measure SDG 4.2 is overestimating access to preprimary education, because it includes large numbers of children who enroll in primary school before the official age of entry. This suggests that parents “vote for preschool” by sending their under-age children to primary school when access to affordable preprimary is limited. Implications for SDG measurement and preprimary policy are discussed.

Girls’ access to education has improved in many of the world's developing countries. These countries are striving to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requiring them to provide gender equality, promote the empowerment of women, and establish universal primary education (UPE) by 2015. The success of UPE in achieving gender equality in enrollment in those countries able to institute it is encouraging. Where previously girls trailed boys in their ability to access education due to parent inability or reluctance to pay the costs, they are now entering primary schools in comparable numbers (UNESCO, 1999, 2006).

The primary school in any rural village is a significant and vivid institution. Its classrooms, playground, buses, staffroom, governing body, PTA committee, religious celebrations, educational visits and community events are a focus not just for village pride but for parental and social aspirations and tensions. Village schools are special local spaces, in which the bite is keenly felt of national education policies. They are sources and sites of friendships, rivalries and divisions amongst both children and adults; places where celebrations and disappointments occur on a daily basis; an important local employer and reliant on a range of committed volunteers. Village schools are genuinely lively and dramatic places.

But not in The Archers. The mostly invisible children of Ambridge simply board a bus to Loxley Barrett aged five, then mysteriously alight aged 11 at Borchester Green or the fee-paying Cathedral School. During those primary years Ambridge’s children, parents and listeners seem blissfully unaffected by tests, snow, bullying, crazes, curriculum change, poor teachers, brilliant teaching assistants, academisation, Ofsted inspections, fussy governors, budget crises or any other rural educational reality.

In this chapter we consider why primary education, a topic that dominates the lives and conversations of real village families from all backgrounds, seems to be of such insignificance to the inhabitants of Ambridge?

The bedrock of growth in education is at the primary/basic education level, hence there is need to ensure that the populace not only enrolls but complete their education as well as maintain gender balancing. Financial inclusion is essential in achieving financial development which if properly tailored should result in economic growth and development. Education is an important development parameter, therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess if financial inclusiveness enhances primary school enrolment, completion and gender balancing.

In order to ascertain if financial inclusion (financial penetration, access and usage) enhances primary school education (primary school enrolment and completion) and gender balancing (primary school female-to-male ratio), the study employed the vector error correction modeling (VECM) to capture both short- and long-run dynamics of cointegration equations and also, ascertain how the long-run deviations are deemed corrected in the short run.

The findings of financial inclusion showed a significant positive effect on primary school enrollment but regarding primary school completion rate and female-to-male ratio, the responses to financial inclusion measures showed a completely negative effect. From the foregoing, it is not just sufficient to enroll school children but that they complete their basic primary education, and equally ensure that the males are not favored over the females so as to achieve gender balance literacy in the country.

The study focuses on how financial inclusion engenders admission, graduation and gender balancing in primary school education as the bedrock to formal education in Nigeria.

A brief update on new developments in all spheres of education in Finland is provided. The qualitative and quantitative development has transformed the pre‐school kindergarten system, created a new comprehensive system and upgraded teacher training to university degree level. Vocational education and modular syllabuses are all aspects of the reformed nature of public education.

The purpose of this paper is to record Visual Arts education in Western Australia (WA) as it underwent significant change between 1967 and 1987, in administration, policy, curriculum and professional development.

A narrative inquiry approach was utilized to produce a collective recount of primary Visual Arts teacher education, based on 17 interviews with significant advocates and contributors to WA Visual Arts education during the aforementioned period.

This paper underscores the history of the role of Western Australian Superintendents of Art and Crafts and the emergence of Visual Arts specialist teachers in primary schools, from the successful establishment of a specialist secondary Visual Arts program at Applecross Senior High School, to the mentoring of generalist primary teachers into a specialist role, as well as the development and implementation of a new Kindergarten through to Year 7 Art and Crafts Syllabus. It also discusses the disestablishment of the WA Education Department’s Art and Crafts Branch (1987).

The history of primary Visual Arts specialists and advocacy for Visual Arts in WA has not been previously recorded. This history demonstrates the high quality of past Visual Arts education in WA, and questions current trends in pre-service teacher education and Visual Arts education in primary schools.

This article has arisen from a survey conducted in two Northern LEAs. First seeks to put enterprise education into context and gives Durham University Business School′s (DUBS) view of it. Then addresses the survey; this was carried out in 50 schools in Durham and Gateshead and aimed to discover what impact the DUBS “Primary Enterprise” resource material had made in primary schools and the training programme run in conjunction with this. It also sought to determine the influence made by this approach to teaching and learning and to identify ways in which an enterprising approach could be incorporated into the school curriculum. Discusses the results of the survey together with their implications. Recognizes that, while this research was generated at a regional level, the findings have more far‐reaching implications and are of benefit to a wider audience.