Privatization in Education : Trends and Consequences

Privatization in education has been widely embraced by governments around the world and often supported by certain inter-governmental organizations, transnational corporations, and non-governmental organizations. However, the idea of privatization has been interpreted and translated into educational practice in many ways and the forms that privatization takes at different levels of education varies across systems, as do the rationales used to justify them. This paper provides an overview of the debates around the privatization of education; it presents the arguments that have historically been laid out for and against this process, and problematizes its effects on social inequality and the uneven distribution of educational opportunities. The paper concludes that, since education can no longer be entirely funded and provided by the state, the question is less about whether or not private engagement in education is commendable, but more about the extent to which the activities of private actors should be regulated by the state, how this should be, and to what end

Globalization and the Neoliberal Imaginary of Educational Reform

Most recent policies and programmes of educational reform have been framed, justified and promoted on a widely held belief that aligning educational policies and practices with the economic, political and cultural changes that globalization signifies is necessary. However, this signification has mostly been couched in neoliberal terms– the view that globalization is largely an economic phenomenon, in which markets play a fundamental role in reconfiguring the nature of social relations. So globally ubiquitous has this mode of thinking become that it can appropriately be referred to as a ‘social imaginary’. The neoliberal imaginary of globalization has re-cast the purposes and governance of education, viewing it in human capital terms while supporting individual self-interests in an increasingly competitive society. This paper suggests that the contemporary era demands new ways of interpreting global interconnectivity and interdependence beyond globalization’s economic possibilities, but also as underpinned by moral and intercultural concerns. Hence, the need to work towards global common goods is greater now than ever before, as a way of ensuring that the world does not continue to slide into everincreasing levels of inequalities, distrust and social conflict

La educación a lo largo de la vida : más allá del imaginario neo-liberal

En este artículo, se indica que en medio de la diversidad de definiciones, ha sido la concepción neo-liberal de la educación a lo largo de la vida la que, en los últimos años, ha logrado hacerse con una posición dominante, incluso hegemónica. Esta concepción es en gran medida una convención entre las organizaciones internacionales, como la OCDE, la Unión Europea, el Banco Mundial, la APEC y la UNESCO, que han obtenido un gran éxito al asignar un significado concreto a la idea de educación a lo largo de la vida. Este significado se basa en el concepto que las distintas organizaciones intergubernamentales poseen acerca de la globalización en general y de la economía mundial en particular. Dicha concepción de la educación a lo largo de la vida se encuentra dentro de un imaginario social según el cual el mundo laboral y las relaciones sociales se ven transformados por la globalización, y cómo, bajo ese prisma, la función de la educación debe ser revisada para satisfacer las necesidades de la economía mundial post-industrial basada en el conocimiento y la información, y orientada a los servicios.In this article, I want to suggest that amid this diversity of definitions, it has been the neo-liberal conception of lifelong learning that has, in recent years, become dominant, even hegemonic. This conception is largely a construction of international organizations(IGOs),such as the OECD,the European Union, the World Bank, APEC and UNESCO, who have been highly successful in attaching a particular meaning to the idea of lifelong learning. This meaning is based on a distinctive understanding the IGOs have of the educational requirements of globalization in general and of the global economy in particular. This conception of lifelong learning is located within a social imaginary about how the world of workand social relationsis becoming transformed by globalization, and how, in such a world, the function of education must be re-conceptualized, to meet the needs of the global economy characterized as informational,knowledge-based, post-industrial and service-orientated

Realizing the Benefits of Massification

This article suggests that the rapid growth in gross enrollment ratios within many systems of higher education has mostly failed to deliver the expected benefits of massification, due largely to inadequate planning with respect to issues of purpose, capacity, and quality.</p

Range for Normal Body Temperature in Hemodialysis Patients and Its Comparison with That of Healthy Individuals

Background/Aims: Patients with chronic kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis have an altered homeostasis leading to altered body temperatures. We aimed to determine the range for normal body temperature in hemodialysis Patients and compared it to healthy individuals. Also, we determined how much axillary temperatures differed from oral temperatures in both groups and whether axillary temperature is affected by the presence of an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in hemodialysis Patients. Methods: Oral and axillary (left & right) temperatures were recorded using an ordinary mercury-in-glass thermometer in 400 subjects (200 hemodialysis Patients, 200 healthy individuals) at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation from mid-May to mid-June 2006. Comparisons were made between the temperatures of both groups. Results: Mean oral temperature in hemodialysis Patients was higher than in healthy individuals [98.7 degrees F (37 degrees C) vs. 98.4 degrees F (36.8 degrees C), p \u3c 0.001], as was the mean average axillary temperature [97.7 degrees F (36.5 degrees C) vs. 97.5 degrees F (36.3 degrees C), p = 0.02] and mean left axillary temperature [97.9 degrees F (36.6 degrees C) vs. 97.6 degrees F (36.4 degrees C), p \u3c 0.001]. The fistula arm had higher axillary temperature in 77 (44%) hemodialysis Patients. The difference between oral and axillary temperatures varied widely, making it impossible to obtain an accurate correction factor in both groups. Conclusion: Hemodialysis Patients have higher normal body temperatures than healthy individuals. Axillary temperatures require cautious interpretation. In hemodialysis Patients, the non-fistula arm should be preferred for recording axillary temperatures, as the presence of AVF may cause discrepancies in temperature measurements

‘You can’t show impact with a new pair of shoes’: negotiating disadvantage through Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium policy was introduced in 2010 by the UK coalition government to tackle the attainment gap disproportionately affecting children from low-income families. Semi-structured interviews and policy documents are examined for the way the policy has been enacted in a single comprehensive secondary school in England. In 2014, this school had a lower population of Pupil Premium pupils (18%) compared to (29%) nationally and (25%) countywide. Despite this, the study provides evidence that the Pupil Premium has become invested within and gives rise to, a number of neoliberal techniques, technologies and practices. The study bridges insights from Mitchell Dean’s ‘analytics of government’ and Ball et al.’s work on policy enactment to provide an in-depth, grounded analysis of the way the policy plays out within this school’s context. It argues that the combination of national accountability measures used to show impact for Pupil Premium, and the school’s ongoing struggle to raise overall attainment, leads school leaders and staff members to rethink the concept of disadvantage for their school population. This results in disadvantage being reconceptualised to fit a matrix of moral/pastoral obligations and efficiency/economic competitiveness, in which the tensions between these two orientations are uncomfortable and unresolved

An Unbiased Lipid Phenotyping Approach To Study the Genetic Determinants of Lipids and Their Association with Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors.

Direct infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry (DIHRMS) is a novel, high-throughput approach to rapidly and accurately profile hundreds of lipids in human serum without prior chromatography, facilitating in-depth lipid phenotyping for large epidemiological studies to reveal the detailed associations of individual lipids with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. Intact lipid profiling by DIHRMS was performed on 5662 serum samples from healthy participants in the Pakistan Risk of Myocardial Infarction Study (PROMIS). We developed a novel semi-targeted peak-picking algorithm to detect mass-to-charge ratios in positive and negative ionization modes. We analyzed lipid partial correlations, assessed the association of lipid principal components with established CHD risk factors and genetic variants, and examined differences between lipids for a common genetic polymorphism. The DIHRMS method provided information on 360 lipids (including fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and sterol lipids), with a median coefficient of variation of 11.6% (range: 5.4-51.9). The lipids were highly correlated and exhibited a range of associations with clinical chemistry biomarkers and lifestyle factors. This platform can provide many novel insights into the effects of physiology and lifestyle on lipid metabolism, genetic determinants of lipids, and the relationship between individual lipids and CHD risk factors

Genome-wide analysis of blood lipid metabolites in over 5000 South Asians reveals biological insights at cardiometabolic disease loci.

Funder: PfizerFunder: NovartisFunder: National Institute for Health ResearchFunder: MerckBackgroundGenetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors can lead to perturbations in circulating lipid levels and increase the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, how changes in individual lipid species contribute to disease risk is often unclear. Moreover, little is known about the role of lipids on cardiovascular disease in Pakistan, a population historically underrepresented in cardiovascular studies.MethodsWe characterised the genetic architecture of the human blood lipidome in 5662 hospital controls from the Pakistan Risk of Myocardial Infarction Study (PROMIS) and 13,814 healthy British blood donors from the INTERVAL study. We applied a candidate causal gene prioritisation tool to link the genetic variants associated with each lipid to the most likely causal genes, and Gaussian Graphical Modelling network analysis to identify and illustrate relationships between lipids and genetic loci.ResultsWe identified 253 genetic associations with 181 lipids measured using direct infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry in PROMIS, and 502 genetic associations with 244 lipids in INTERVAL. Our analyses revealed new biological insights at genetic loci associated with cardiometabolic diseases, including novel lipid associations at the LPL, MBOAT7, LIPC, APOE-C1-C2-C4, SGPP1, and SPTLC3 loci.ConclusionsOur findings, generated using a distinctive lipidomics platform in an understudied South Asian population, strengthen and expand the knowledge base of the genetic determinants of lipids and their association with cardiometabolic disease-related loci

Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods: We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings: Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation: We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial