Scaling-up Early Learning in Ethiopia: Exploring the Potential of O-Class

SDG Target 4.2 identifies ‘pre-primary education’ as a strategy to strengthen school readiness and contribute to the quality and outcomes of education, which is supported by the powerful evidence from evaluation research. The challenge faced by many countries is to deliver the proven potential of well-planned, quality programmes to scale. This working paper summarises Ethiopia’s growing commitment to pre-primary education and reports recent Young Lives engagement with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia and other partners to support scale-up. Ethiopia’s most recent ambitious targets for early learning have been set out in the Fifth Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP V 2015), with pre-primary classes (known as O-Class) within primary schools being seen as the most rapid route to scale-up. The paper reports on the progress and the challenges in delivering ambitious targets. We report key findings from exploratory fieldwork on two key themes, namely the response of Regional Education Bureaus in planning, financing, management and ensuring human capacity for scale-up; and the potential of Ethiopia’s Colleges of Teacher Education to supply sufficient trained teachers to work with young children, especially in the rapidly expanding O- Classes. The final section draws on parallel experiences of other countries, notably Grade R in South Africa, and reports on six key challenges for scale-up; equity; age-appropriateness; cross- sectoral coordination; capacity building; and research and evidence. Other key challenges go beyond the scope of this working paper, notably the models for governance and financing that can deliver quality early education for all. While Ethiopia’s initiative to scale-up O-Class is a welcome indicator of policy commitment to SDG Target 4.2, we conclude that there is a risk that low quality pre-primary programmes will not deliver on the potential of early childhood education and that children (especially poor children) will be the losers

Seronegative spondyloarthropathies : a review : part I: classification and differential diagnosis

The seronegative spondyloarthropathies comprise a group of non-rheumatoid disorders with similar clinical, laboratory and genetic features. Recognition of new clinical features has supported the notion that they all form part of a clinical spectrum. These features and the classification of the seronegative spondyloarthropathies are discussed in the review.peer-reviewe

Seronegative spondyloarthropathies : a review : part II: genetics and pathogenesis

In none of the spondyloarthropathies is the pathogenesis well understood. Much of the investigation into the aetio-pathogenesis of these diseases has focused on the association with HLA-B27 and the known triggering potential of certain infectious agents. In this article the author describes that the HLA linked genes which is subdivided into three groups, class I, class II and class III, which are structurally and functionally distinct from each other.peer-reviewe

The scope for simplified fare systems in urban bus operations

This thesis investigates the effects of introducing simplified fare systems in urban bus operations. Initially, a review of the fare systems employed by urban bus undertakings in Great Britain and Continental Western Europe is undertaken. Wide differences in policy were found to exist, with British operators tending to prefer "graduated" fares with several fare values, whilst on the European mainland simpler flat or zonal structures predominate. [Continues.

Calculating Potential Energy Curves with Fixed-Node Diffusion Monte Carlo: CO and N₂

This study reports on the prospect for the routine use of Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) for the electronic structure problem, applying fixed-node Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) to generate highly accurate Born-Oppenheimer potential energy curves (PECs) for small molecular systems. The singlet ground electronic states of CO and N2 were used as test cases. The PECs obtained by DMC employing multiconfigurational trial wavefunctions were compared with those obtained by conventional high-accuracy electronic structure methods such as multireference configuration interaction and/or the best available empirical spectroscopic curves. The goal was to test whether a straightforward procedure using available QMC codes could be applied robustly and reliably. Results obtained with DMC codes were found to be in close agreement with the benchmark PECs, and the n3 scaling with the number of electrons (compared with n7 or worse for conventional high-accuracy quantum chemistry) could be advantageous depending on the system size. Due to a large pre-factor in the scaling, for the small systems tested here, it is currently still much more computationally intensive to compute PECs with QMC. Nevertheless, QMC algorithms are particularly well-suited to large-scale parallelization and are therefore likely to become more relevant for future massively parallel hardware architectures

The Origins and Development of Association Football in Nottinghamshire c.1860-1915

Home to two of the oldest football clubs in the world, Nottinghamshire was a hub of the association game. Yet it barely receives a mention in scholarly studies of football. Based predominantly on original research in the local press, this thesis offers new knowledge with regards networks, professionalism, amateurism and identity through its study of the game’s formation and development in relation to the county between 1860 and 1915. Nottinghamshire was especially involved in networks with Sheffield and the London based FA early in soccer’s history. Games continued to be played with differing rules depending on the region with Nottingham also having its own rules. This thesis demonstrates how it was mainly the FA Cup, but also other national events such as the North-South game and England-Scotland game, which were major influences in ensuring that the game played under the FA's rules became the dominant football code. This study examines how the FA Cup fuelled professionalism too as sides sought advantage over others. Nottinghamshire clubs felt justified in using professional methods because of professionalism in cricket. This aided their stance in the debates on legalizing professionalism which Nottinghamshire helped influence. Amateurism, meanwhile, remained a strong feature of the local game and Nottinghamshire’s staunch amateurs certainly played a prominent role in the Amateur Football Association during its split from the FA. Football was part of the identity of Nottingham and its county. This was expressed especially with the slightly varying FA Cup celebrations in 1894 and 1898. Civic leaders were keen to associate themselves with football early in the game’s development as it became a respected part of the county’s culture. The Notts-Forest rivalry was intriguing too: for a period it was class based; there was always an element of town versus county to it; sometimes the clubs were friends; at other times they were bitter enemies. The local press reflected and reinforced enthusiasm for the game. And when those from the area travelled, they took the game with them aiding the game’s expansion through work links or tours either primarily for the love of the game or as promoters of the sport