Many economists have confirmed the negative and direct relationship between economic growth and income inequality. Recent studies have tried to analyse the different transmission channels through which inequality may affect economic performance indirectly. In this paper, we are only referring to the education channels: public and private education expenditures and human capital, in order to evaluate the role of each in the explanation of this negative correlation. We noticed that a high level of inequality requires more public resources this may impede economic growth. Income inequality also discourages private financing in education and human capital accumulation which leads to a sluggish economic growth. These findings imply that private education expenditure is the most important channel which explains this negative relationship reported in the literature.

According to Dubai’s Design and Fashion Council’s (DDFC) Design Outlook Report 2016, the MENA region will require approximately 30,000 design graduates by the year 2019. This number is nine times the existing amount of design graduations currently produced annually (DDFC 2016). Therefore, the design education industry is continually growing and becoming very competitive. In the UAE, there are currently 11 institutes, which deliver a bachelor’s degree in interior design. The aim of this paper is to bring forth recommendations to innovate and enhance an existing interior design program at a leading university in Dubai to set it apart from the competition. Utilizing a positivists (realism) approach to be able to determine the necessary reform required for the interior design program through the content analysis of a) relevant literature review, b) review and analysis of two program accreditation bodies, and c) reviewing two of the top five programs of interior design. An analysis of the findings was formed followed by a comparison to the existing interior design program at the selected university then resulted in three conclusions: 1. Improvement of the learning environment and the collaborative project work both within the institution and internationally. 2. Incorporate effective teaching methodology to enhance the student’s visualization skills through converging and assimilating teaching methodologies. 3. Additional specialization courses to increase the percentage of design course output in the curriculum while additionally incorporating sustainable design within interior design program.

With the establishment of business English major in the universities in China, more and more kinds of the business English teaching materials have flooded into the market. However, the authors find that the business English teaching materials in the market can’t totally meet the demand of business English education. Based on the theory of Constructivism, the authors firstly do the research on the present market of business English textbooks, and then design questionnaire to investigate users’ opinion about textbook. The statistics indicates that the existing business English textbooks can’t effectively attract the university students for self-studying, and more group work and activities are desirable. Finally, the authors try to offer some suggestions for improvement of business English textbook to enhance effectiveness of business English teaching and learning.

This study is an assessment of the implementation of Lower Basic Education curriculum in Idah Education zone of Kogi State. The expost facto design study was guided by seven research questions and 5 hypotheses. A sample of 376 (208 from public schools and 168 from private schools) Lower Basic Education (LBE) teachers were used from Idah Education Zone comprising of Ibaji, Idah and Igalamela-Odolu LGAs. Two instruments were used in this study are (a) Availability and Adequacy of Infrastructural Facility Scale (AAIFS) and (b) Basic Education Implementation Variables Questionnaire (BEIVQ). The reliability coefficient of the AAIFS is 0.88 for availability and 0.91 for adequacy while that of the BEIVQ is 0.83. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Following data analysis the following findings were made: (1). It was found that only three infrastructural facilities out of 20 listed were available and they are play field, teachers’ book and First Aid Box. Those that were not available include Class Rooms, Admin blocks, Science corner/mini Lab, Wall charts, Staff Offices, Audio aids (eg radio, TV), Motion aids, Stores, Desks and chairs, Projector, Library, Computer/Lap tops, Internet facility, Source of Electricity, Studios, Toilet facilities and Water source. (2). It was also found that teacher preparation for implementation of LBE in Idah education zone of Kogi State is adequate. Specifically it was found that qualified teachers are engaged and adequate in number; teachers go on seminars and workshops regularly though mostly through self efforts, newly recruited teachers are mentored by older teachers at an informal level and recruitment of teachers is through rigorous interview. Teachers are motivated and evaluation for promotion of teachers involves some practical observation in class. (3). However, there is no significant difference between the mean level of teacher preparation for LBE curriculum in public and private schools (4). It was also found that funding is inadequate for implementation of LBE curriculum. Thus, there is no significant difference between the mean level of funding of LBE curriculum in public and private schools. (5). There is a significant difference between the mean level of supervision/ monitoring and availability of infrastructural facilities for curriculum implementation of LBE. Similarly, there is significant difference between the mean level of adequacy of supervision/monitoring of LBE curriculum in public and private schools. In general supervision of LBE curriculum in Idah Education zone of Kogi State is poor, haphazardly done and mostly handled by inexperienced teachers. (6). It is also found that the challenges to effective implementation of LBE curriculum in the study area are frequent strike action by teachers, poor teacher motivation, non regular payment of teachers’ salary, inadequate funding, outdated textbooks and inadequate teaching materials. It was recommended among others that provision of infrastructural facilities for LBE curriculum implementation should be improved by encouraging individuals and non-governmental organizations to partner with government in provision of essential materials.

School mediation (or peer mediation) is an effective practice for dealing with cases of in-school violence and bullying. According to the results of this retrospective research, conducted in High-Schools of the Municipality of Fyli (Athens metropolitan area, Greece), school mediation programmes contribute to: activating students wishing to help their classmates, taking responsibility and developing social/communication skills of the students involved. At the same time, it is important to point out the substantial gender differentiation in attitudes both towards incidents of in-school violence and bullying, but also to school mediation programmes. Finally, the positive response of students, who participate voluntarily beyond ordinary school hours in these programmes, is a demand for a school that responds to students’ needs.

A growing body of research shows that arts-based teaching and learning has the power to energize and promote student engagement by increasing opportunities for students to articulate their learning in many different ways. It is particularly effective for students who tend to struggle with the fast-paced and highly structured nature of mainstream education, which favours primarily cognitive and verbal forms of teaching and assessment. This study contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) by reporting on the learning experiences of third-year child and youth care (CYC) students involved in an arts-based self-portrait assignment.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of how administrators perceive the purpose and value of the performance management systems in state Universities of Cameroon; how the administrator assess the effectiveness of current performance management processes in the department; the different dimensions of how administrators perceive the impact of academic managers on their work performance; the extent to which administrators respond to the process, measure and outcomes involved in operating the performance management system. The study also analyzes what administrators think is an effective performance management system in the state Universities. The research adopted a qualitative case study approach by selecting 12 administrators from 6 state Universities with varied backgrounds in terms of years of service, seniority and gender. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and documentary sources. Among the major findings were that the participants found the meaning and purposes of performance management ambiguous; and that the many different processes contained within the system were perceived as fragmenting and confusing in achieving the intended outcomes. Compounding the concern was the lack of dedicated and able academics to manage the process.

The article proves the importance of boosting the level of trust in the interaction between small industrial businesses and banks. The problems in the relations between these economic entities in Russia have been identified and the ways of solving them by moving to a partnership-based model of cooperation of banks with small enterprises have been outlined. The defined model of cooperation is based on the adaptive credit and investment consulting (ACIC) method proposed by the authors. This method assumes mutual trust between the economic agents that appears while ensuring complete transparency of information among the participants of credit transaction. It also assumes their interest in long-term and sustainable relations and adaptation of the services provided by the bank to the certain economic condition of a small firm. It is shown that the implementation of ACIC in the practice of bank’s lending to small enterprises will ensure an increase in the level of mutual trust between them and boost their credit and investment activities. The work reviews and classifies methods for quantifying the level of trust between various economic entities; a synthetic index that measures the level of trust between banks and small industrial enterprises is developed; and a methodology for an approximate estimation of the economic effect of the ACIC application is proposed. The results of the study can be adapted for the conditions of other countries with similar problems in the interaction between banks and small firms.

In response to the policy of Ministry of Education, colleges in China revised their undergraduate degree curriculum to include entrepreneurship education. We conducted a research on 318 undergraduate students from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study the impact of seminar-based and traditional entrepreneurship education pedagogy on college student entrepreneurial intention, by hierarchical regression analysis. In addition, the article researched the moderation effect caused by the different education pedagogy on ‘entrepreneurial attitude affects entrepreneurial intention’ and ‘entrepreneurial confidence affects entrepreneurial intention’ by introducing the segmentation variables of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial confidence to the model. The findings of this research have important empirical implications toward future college education reformation.