Equity and ‘No Fee’ Schools in South Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Despite almost 20 years of democratic governance in South Africa, there is growing evidence that equitable access to quality education remains elusive for the majority of its children. In 2007, the Department of Education declared 40 per cent of schools in the country to be ‘no fee’ schools and, by 2011, 60 per cent of all schools had been designated as such. This article examines the introduction and the effects to date of the no fee schools policy, and assesses the progress of South Africa's undoubtedly pro‐poor education policies towards promoting equality in education and, above all, achieving equity of access to resource allocation. It discusses the main challenges and issues relating to the implementation of the no fee policy at provincial and school levels while also considering the efficacy of existing equitable funding instruments, and concludes with suggestions for how more effective and equitable access to quality education can be realized.     

A flexible generalization of the skew normal distribution based on a weighted normal distribution

The skew normal distribution of Azzalini (Scand J Stat 12:171–178, 1985) has been found suitable for unimodal density but with some skewness present. Through this article, we introduce a flexible extension of the Azzalini (Scand J Stat 12:171–178, 1985) skew normal distribution based on a symmetric component normal distribution (Gui et al. in J Stat Theory Appl 12(1):55–66, 2013). The proposed model can efficiently capture the bimodality, skewness and kurtosis criteria and heavy-tail property. The paper presents various basic properties of this family of distributions and provides two stochastic representations which are useful for obtaining theoretical properties and to simulate from the distribution. Further, maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters is studied numerically by simulation and the distribution is investigated by carrying out comparative fitting of three real datasets.     

Multidimensional Almost Dominance: Child Wellbeing in Egypt

A major drawback of First Order Stochastic Dominance approach is dominance indetermination. Levy and Leshno in 2002 suggested Almost Stochastic Dominance as a remedy in the uni-dimensional case. We introduce a Generalization of Almost First and second Order Dominance (MAFOD and MASOD) to the multidimensional case with application on child wellbeing in Egypt. We perform a multidimensional (FOD) analysis on seven deprivation indicators for three age-groups of children from Egypt 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS14). This methodology allows the ordinal ranking of regions and governorates of Egypt in terms of their children wellbeing based on their probability of domination. To solve the dominance indetermination we apply MAFOD and MASOD.     

Improved attribute acceptance sampling plans based on maxima nomination sampling

This paper demonstrates the use of maxima nomination sampling (MNS) technique in design and evaluation of single AQL, LTPD, and EQL acceptance sampling plans for attributes. We exploit the effect of sample size and acceptance number on the performance of our proposed MNS plans using operating characteristic (OC) curve. Among other results, we show that MNS acceptance sampling plans with smaller sample size and bigger acceptance number perform better than commonly used acceptance sampling plans for attributes based on simple random sampling (SRS) technique. Indeed, MNS acceptance sampling plans result in OC curves which, compared to their SRS counterparts, are much closer to the ideal OC curve. A computer program is designed which can be used to specify the optimum MNS acceptance sampling plan and to show, visually, how the shape of the OC curve changes when parameters of the acceptance sampling plan vary. Theoretical results and numerical evaluations are given.     

Impact of competitive conditions on supplier evaluation: a construction supply chain case study

This research proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework and demonstrates the impact of competitive conditions on supplier evaluation process for construction supply chains. The paper focuses on the supply chain of a large-scale housing project in order to illustrate the role of competitive capability and suppliers’ profile and its influence on supplier evaluation based on prevailing supply/market conditions. Various scenarios are investigated to demonstrate the impact of competition on supplier evaluation. The contribution of the study lies in highlighting the impact of supply/market conditions on MCDM decisions causing supplier evaluation ‘imbalance’ and MCDM usage. It is expected that the study will be useful for project management, construction, supply chain management, sourcing professionals. The findings of the study are generalisable to projects-based situations such as petroleum refinery and ship building where bill of materials typically consists of thousands of items and a large number of suppliers are involved.     

Neo-colonial dynamics in global professional service firms: a periphery perspective

ABSTRACT

This article analyses neo-colonial dynamics at peripheral units of a Western global professional service firm. Drawing on postcolonial theory, an empirical study at global news agency Reuters’ subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bangalore shows how socio-ideological and technocratic control mechanisms allow subsidiary workers to elevate their status, while still cementing their role as dominated in the global hierarchy and silencing any resistance. Thus, on the one hand, it might appear that the global service firm provides periphery units the opportunity to become equals of core units, representing a ‘nurturing’ role achieved by instilling aspirational values and shaping imaginations. On the other hand, coercive and universalising routines such as performance assessments highlight the ambivalent nature of global firm initiatives to incorporate the periphery on an equal footing with core units, demonstrating the countervailing nature of contemporary power relations.     

A general location model with zero-inflated counts and skew normal outcomes

This paper proposes an extension of the general location model using a joint model for analyzing inflated counting outcomes and skew continuous outcomes. A zero-inflated binomial with batches of binomials or a zero-inflated Poisson with batches of Poissons is proposed for counting outcome and a skew normal distribution is assumed for continuous outcome. The EM algorithm is developed for estimation of parameters. The accuracy of estimations is evaluated using a simulation study. An application of our models for joint analysis of the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the weights of respondents for the American's Changing Lives study is enclosed.     

The Effect of Microcredit on Women Empowerment in Welfare and Decisions Making in Malaysia

Microcredit is perceived as an effective tool to empower women, especially those who are deprived of accessing financial services. However, the literature has arrived with contradictory evidence and demonstrates that the effect of microcredit may partially or not empower women. This study intends to examine whether the access to Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) affects several aspects of empowerment in urban Malaysia. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to 474 old and new clients to examine the effect of microcredit on women empowerment in decision-making process and resource controlling. Based on the propensity score matching, our result shows that the access to AIM microcredit affects positively women’s monthly income. In addition, microcredit empowers women borrowers in a set of household decisions making including mobility, daily expenditure, children school, health expenditure and loan order decision.     

An evaluation of the population and development program in Egypt

Previous rural surveys analyzing the impact of the Egyptian Population and Development Program on KAP variables (knowledge, attitudes, and practices of contraception) have produced mixed results. In 1982 a survey specifically designed to measure program impact contained refinements in questionnaire measurement, sampling, and analysis. Each refinement intensified the apparent program impact. Fertility itself still appears unresponsive, and attitudes toward family size have changed little, but marked differences between program and nonprogram areas in contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and practice suggest imminent fertility declines in program areas.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of sensitive proportion using repeated randomized response techniques

Randomized response techniques are designed to obtain usable data on sensitive issues while protecting the privacy of individuals. In this paper, based on repeating the randomized response technique, a new technique called repeated randomized response is introduced to increase the protection of privacy and efficiency of estimator for proportion of sensitive attribute. By using this technique, the proportion of academic cheating is estimated among students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.