Person:
Liang, Xiaoyan
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Education development
Degrees
Departments
East Asia and Pacific Region, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Xiaoyan Liang is a Senior Education Specialist in the World Bank’s Education Global Practice East Asia and Pacific Region. Ms. Liang has a Doctor of Education from Harvard University and has led policy dialogue, research, and managed education programs in Africa, Latin America, and East Asia Regions. Ms. Liang has wide-ranging education policy research interests and expertise including early childhood education, technical and vocational education and skills development, education finance, and teacher education. Currently, she leads the World Bank’s China and Malaysia education programs and coordinates the technical assistance partnership program between the World Bank and Korean Government on skills development and job creation in East Asian countries.
Publication Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
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Publication
Developing Skills for Economic Transformation and Social Harmony in China : A Study of Yunnan Province
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-10-25)It starts with a demand-side analysis in chapter two, examining historical trends in demand for skills, revealing the types of skills in demand, and projecting future demand for skills driven by economic growth and policy development. Chapter two also highlights the emerging skills shortages and mismatches in Yunnan. The rest of the report focuses on the access, quality, and relevance of Yunnan's education and training system and how effective it is in supplying the skills in demand. An overview of Yunnan's formal and non-formal education and training system is presented in chapter three. Chapter four focuses on the formal Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, examining its governance, industry participation, curriculum reforms, quality assurance, and finances. Analysis of the formal education and training system focuses mainly on secondary and tertiary TVET. Chapters five and six address two major training programs outside the formal education system: non-formal training for rural workers and work-based training for urban workers, both of strategic importance. Finally, chapter seven draws on lessons from the Shanghai Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA to demonstrate the role of schools in developing the cognitive skills of 15-year-olds. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a set of policy recommendations for meeting the skills challenges and improving the education and training system. -
Publication
Early Childhood Development in Sub-Saharan Africa : Issues and Strategies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1997-10)For many children in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), primary school interventions are already too late to prevent irreversible disability or to allow for the development of full adult capacity. Many of the same conditions of poverty that previously placed the under-five at risk of death later leave them at the risk of poor health, malnutrition and impaired mental, social and emotional development. This study, the condition of young children in Sub-Saharan Africa: the convergence of health, nutrition, and early education, describes the condition of young children in Africa and begins to explore strategies to address their condition. It is the first in a series of three studies: the second study is a review of Early Child Development (ECD) programs in SSA and the third will synthesize lessons drawn from the preceding second studies as well as country case studies in Kenya, South Africa, and Mauritius. -
Publication
How Shanghai Does It: Insights and Lessons from the Highest-Ranking Education System in the World
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-04-04)The Shanghai basic education system has garnered significant attention since its extraordinary performance in the 2009 and 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global assessment of 15-year-olds’ educational abilities. Among the 65 participating economies in 2012, Shanghai-China ranked first on all three major domains of PISA, i.e. mathematics, reading, and science. Shanghai also stands out for having the world’s highest percentage of “resilient students”, students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who emerge as top performers. Shanghai’s PISA story has generated intense discussions and diverse speculations in field of international educational development, and numerous studies have been done in the attempt to unravel the mystery. Missing from the picture however is a more comprehensive, systematic, in-depth, and objective rendition of the policies and practices of Shanghai basic education, benchmarked against others in key dimensions. This report presents an in-depth examination of how Shanghai scored highest in the areas of reading, science, and mathematics on PISA. It documents and benchmarks key policies in basic Shanghai education, provides evidence on the extent to which these policies have been implemented in schools, and explores how these policies have affected learning outcomes. The report uses PISA 2012 data to analyze Shanghai student achievement variation and to examine the extent school variables may be associated with the variation beyond family and student background. It also uses the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER), an existing systems diagnostic and benchmarking tool, as an organizing framework and for data collection. School-based surveys and other existing research shed further light on educational impact and implementation. While the report attempts to adopt a systems approach, particular emphasis is placed on teachers, education financing, balancing autonomy and accountability, and student assessment. -
Publication
National Qualification Framework and Competency Standards: Skills Promotion and Job Creation in East Asia and Pacific
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04-12)The World Bank’s East Asia-Pacific region received a trust fund from the Korean government to promote skills development and job creation in the region including in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar,Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam over a period of three years, starting in June2014. The three-year grant program has a broad objective to promote effective policies and programs in skills development and job creation. It aims to: 1) Develop a knowledge base on skills supply, demand and systems by conductinganalytical work with innovative methodological approaches; 2) Provide a forum on National Competency Standards as well as National and RegionalQualifications Frameworks within ASEAN+3 countries; and 3) Promote dissemination and learning exchanges on promising policies and programs inskills development and job creation within and beyond the East Asia-Pacific region,including examples of best practices.Specifically, in Component (2) of the program it was identified that there is aneed to take stock of the current country level progress and challenges with regard to development of national competency standards and national qualifications frameworks (NQF). Further, there is a need to understand the various types of standards currently being used in different countries and their definitions, comparability, and the process and stakeholders involved in the development of such standards. Finally, it is important toevaluate to what extent they truly reflect the requirements of today and tomorrow’s labour market demands.This synthesis report brings together research undertaken in 12 participating EAP countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines,Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) who responded to a survey related to national qualifications systems, including the barriers and issues facing implementation of quality assurance strategies such as NQF development, existence and implementation.