The Lancaster mutual teaching model originated in late 18th century England and quickly spread to the American colonies after receiving positive responses in Europe. In the 1820s, renowned Spanish physician, educator, and publisher Manuel Codorniú Ferreras brought it to Mexico, making outstanding contributions to the newly independent nation in educational philosophy, system, and methods. In the mid-19th century, with the absence of a centralized institution for public education in Mexico, the Lancaster Company took on the significant responsibility of guiding the direction of national public education development. Although this function did not persist for too long due to political changes in Mexico, the educational system continued to play an important role in the Mexican education sector. The Lancaster Company and its teaching system exerted a positive and profound influence on the democratization and secularization of education in Mexico, laying important foundations for the modernization and reform of Mexican education.

Manual scavenging refers to the practice of manually cleaning, carrying, disposing or handling human excreta from dry latrines and sewers. It is one of the most dehumanizing and deplorable practices that violate basic human rights and dignity. This practice is linked to India’s caste system where so-called lower castes are expected to perform this job. Despite being outlawed in 1993, manual scavenging continues to exist in India due to socio-economic discrimination and lack of rehabilitation of manual scavengers. This paper attempts to provide an in-depth understanding. The harsh realities by qualitative systemic review of manual scavenging in India and how it negatively impacts human rights. It reviews relevant literature on the prevalence, causes, adverse effects, and laws against manual scavenging. The results indicate that manual scavenging is still practiced across many states in India. Manual scavengers face grave health hazards and socio-economic hardships. The laws against manual scavenging have failed to abolish this practice due to administrative apathy, lack of rehabilitation support for liberated scavengers, and continued prevalence of dry latrines necessitating manual disposal of excreta. The paper emphasizes the need for more concerted efforts by the government and civil society to end manual scavenging to uphold human rights, dignity, and justice for all. There is an urgent need for extensive awareness campaigns, social support, and proper rehabilitation of liberated scavengers into alternative professions.

The urgency of adapting urban areas to the increasing impacts of climate change has prompted the scientific community to seek new approaches in partnership with public entities and civil society organizations. In Malaysia, Penang Island has developed a nature-based urban climate adaptation program (PNBCAP) seeking to increase urban resilience, reduce urban heat and flooding, strengthening social resilience, and build institutional capacity. The project includes a strong knowledge transfer component focused on encouraging other cities in the country to develop and implement adaptation policies, projects, and initiatives. This research develops a model adopting the most efficient processes to accelerate the transfer of knowledge to promote urban adaptation based on the PNBCAP. The methodology is developed based on a review of literature focused on innovation systems and change theories. The integration of success strategies in adaptation contributes to informing the creation of solutions around the alliance of local, state, and national government agencies, scientific institutions, and civil society organizations, in a new framework designated the Malaysian Adaptation Sharing Hub (MASH). MASH is structured in 3-steps and will function as an accelerator for the implementation of urban climate adaptation policies, with the target of creating 2 new adaptation-related policies to be adopted annually by each city member, based on knowledge gathered in the PNBCAP. It is concluded that, to speed up urban adaptation, it is necessary to reinforce and promote the sharing of knowledge resulting from or associated with pilot projects.

This study employs a mixed-methods approach to explore the financial ramifications and perceived hurdles of adopting international accounting guidelines on asset value reduction in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Barranquilla, Colombia, over a recent multi-year timeframe. Through scrutiny of fiscal data and thorough dialogues with SME leaders and finance professionals, the investigation unveils significant industry-specific variations in the monetary impact of embracing these global standards. Manufacturing SMEs are found to shoulder a weightier burden compared to their counterparts in the service sector. The research underscores the pivotal role of perceived standard intricacy in molding the financial outcomes for SMEs, even when accounting for factors such as acquaintance with the guidelines and professional tenure. These discoveries augment our comprehension of global accounting standard adoption in emerging economies and accentuate the necessity for bespoke support mechanisms to assist SMEs in traversing the complexities of implementing these international norms. The insights gleaned from this inquiry can guide policymakers and accounting authorities in crafting sector-specific directives and resources. Such targeted assistance can aid SMEs in harmonizing with worldwide accounting practices while curtailing potential adverse effects on their fiscal performance.

The research addresses the importance of ethics in public administration, focusing on public servants in the municipality of Rionegro, Colombia. Ethics is presented as an essential element to promote transparency and combat corruption in public management. Despite the fact that the 1991 Constitution establishes ethical principles, their application in practice remains a challenge, with a high level of immorality in public service. The study highlights the diversity of professional profiles in public servants, which hinders consistent ethical management. In addition, it mentions that many civil servants lack political training and understanding of the importance of their role, which contributes to corruption. Ethics, according to the authors, is a key tool for strengthening institutions and regaining public trust. The research evaluated the impact of a professional ethics training program on public servants, finding significant improvements in their ethical knowledge and behavior. It concludes that, although ethics will not solve all corruption problems, it is an indispensable component for strengthening accountability and justice in public administration. It underscores the need to implement continuous training programs that promote ethical values as part of a strategy to improve efficiency and transparency in public institutions.