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Education in South Asia: equity, policy, pedagogy

According to the World Education Report 2000 (UNESCO, 2000a), South Asia comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The report also classifies this part of the world as a “less developed region”, just one notch above “least developed countries”, though some countries like Afghanistan and Bhutan also fall into the latter category. This special issue adopts the definition of South Asia as provided by UNESCO. This special issue provides an in-depth view of specific educational issues in some of the countries on UNESCO’s list, namely India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Why a special issue on education in South Asia? First, the socio-demographic profile of this part of the world demands attention. In 2000, UNESCO predicted that by 2005 the total world population would be 4160 million, and nearly a quarter would live in South Asia (UNESCO, 2000a). Furthermore, the average illiteracy rate amongst adults in South Asian countries stands at 45% (UNESCO, 2000a). This region has, in the past decade, caught the attention of the international academic community for economic, political and cultural reasons. An economic milestone for this region is the globalising of India’s previously socialist economy by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991. Equally important are the political forces of revolution, which may also be perceived as terrorism, located not only in the Muslim nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh but also within the island nation of Sri Lanka. Culturally this region is one of the most multilingual parts of the world, with around 3000 mother tongues within India itself. It is also the liminal space between Islam and Hinduism, and the origin of hybrid cultures like Sufism. This special issue forefronts education in South Asia in all its complexity. Although the countries in this region have only been carved out in the mid-twentieth century and are faced with similar challenges – poverty, illiteracy, poor access to education, and multilingual communities – they have followed different trajectories at the national level for education. In this issue, we revisit the problem areas in education for these regions: equity, policy and pedagogy.