education and globalization 2

8/3/2019 Education and Globalization 2

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Vol. XVI, No. 2 APRIL-JUNE1998

IIEP reviews UNESCOsfourth World EducationReport on Teachers and

teaching in a changingworld.

3

UNESCO Report

A new interface of a DataEntry Manager softwaredesigned by IIEP is now

being used by IEA forTIMSS Surveys.

6

Inside

All articles may be reproduced without prior authorization, subject to the source being cited.

Education and globalization

Does partnership make itpossible to improve theefficiency of technical and

vocational training policy?An issue for discussion.

7

A tribute to Clarence Beeby,an intellectual architect ofmodern education and one

of the most influencialfounding partners of IIEP.

12

ObituarySoftware Research

In J anu ary 1998 at a conference organized by t he Un iversity of

Bristols Centre for Int ernational S tud ies in E du cation , 1 Jacques

Hallak p resented a paper on the following th em e:Educat ion

and g loba l i za t ion . Later, in M arch 1998, th e Director of IIEP

again debated this th em e with participants in IIEPs An nu alTra inin g Program m e. S om e of the ideas that arose du ring these

two conferences an d ensuin g d iscussions are outlined below.

According t o the definit ion given

by Jacques Hallak dur ing theconference on Educational

Reconstruction and Transformation

of Edu cation. Ch allenges for the 21st

C e n t u r y , g loba l i za t i on i s acombination of much freer trade in

goods an d ser vices combin ed with free

capital movement s. The phenomenondates far back in history with the

development of international trade.However, for th e past few years, we

ha ve observed a h igh acceleration in

this t rend due to a poli t ical andideological environment eminently

favourable to its development andrapid advances in technologica l

innovation, especially in the area ofte lecommunica t ions . Educa t iona l

plann ers wher ever they come from

m u s t t h i n k s e r i o u s l y a b o u t t h econsequen ces of such a phenomenon,

particularly in terms of shifts in the job market, in order to better adapt

th eir countr ys tra ining system.

Implications ofglobalization ontraining needs

Internat ional scope is not total ly

absent from current education sys-tems. F or example, at u niversity level,

an d especially in th e ar eas of science,techn ology an d resear ch, th e flow of

fore ign s tudents has not ceased

initiative-taking is more important

th an obedience, an d where stra tegies

ar e especially complex becau se of th eexpansion of ma rket s beyond n at ional

borders. Therefore, education musthelp individuals t o perform t asks for

which they were not origina lly tr ained,

to prepare for a non-linear career path ,

to improve their team skills, to useinform at ion ind ependen tly, to developth eir capacity for im provisat ion a s well

as t heir creat ivity, and finally to layth e basis of complex th inkin g link ed to

th e ha rsh realities of pra ctical life.

Adapting educationsystems to deal withthe changes

In t he booklet based on th e speech h e

delivered at th e Brist ol conference,2

Mr. Hallak drew a distinction between

th e var ious fields of educat iona l activitywhere r eforms could be carr ied out , so

as to take in to account changesinvolved in t he t rend towards globali-

zation. Adapting edu cation system s to

growing over th e past thr ee decades. It

is estimated today at over a million

individuals. All the sa me, in most cases,th e teaching pr ovided does not m eet

the new demands being created byglobalization.

Thus, as Mr. Hallak empha sized

dur ing his two present at ions, the aim

of most existing educat iona l systems,which consists in serving a nationaleconomy by training an adequate

workforce for defini te tasks andallowing a limited elite to acquire

managemen t and admin i s t r a t i on

responsibilities, appear s somewhat out

of step wit h cha nges a ffecting cont em-

porary society. This is confirmed bynew forms of illiteracy observed in

some of th e most developed count ries.

To meet th e challenges of globaliza-

tion, it would in fact a ppear necessary

to prepar e individuals for a workpla ce

where r esponsibilities are const an tlychan ging, where vertical man agement

is replaced by networking, where

information passes through multiple

a n d i n f o r m a l c h a n n e l s , w h e r e


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2 IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998

In this issue:

The IIEP Newsletter is publishedquarterly in English, French,

Portuguese, Spanish and Russian.

All correspondence should beaddressed to:

The Editor,IIEP Newsletter,

International Institute forEducational Planning

7-9, rue Eugne-Delacroix,75116 Paris.

Telephone:+33.1.45.03.77.00Fax: +33.1.40.72.83.66

E-mail: [email protected]

IIEP web site:http://www.education.unesco.org/iiep

Education and globalization main issues discussed at arecent conference at Bristol

University, UK. 1

Changing teachers for achanging world Review of

UNESCOs fourth WorldEducation Report. 3

A success story A new

interface of a Data EntryManager (DEM) softwaredeveloped by IIEP . 6

Partnership in training policy An analysis of the role ofparternship in technical and

vocational training. 7

Seminars on Current Issuesin Educational Planning. 9

Designing development

projects in basic education An intensive training coursefor Caribbean countries. 10

Creating space for women Review of a new IIEP

publication on gender-linkedissues in management. 11

Obituary of Dr. Clarence

Beeby. 12

IIEP Activities. 13

Reducing repetition issues

and strategies. Review of anew IIEP Fundamental. 14

new tr aining needs is not the only pat h

available, as shown in the threeexamples

wh ich follow:

Modify th e role of teachers : in order t otra in independent individuals who are

capable of tr acking down inform at ion,

processing it an d interpr eting it, teachers

should review their teaching methods,an d move from th e role of speaker t o therole of guide. To accomplish t his it would

be importa nt to draw on new informa tion

an d comm un icat ions t echn ologies whichthey should both t each a nd use in t he

classroom. This evolution specifically

implies that: (i) they have a certain

freedom in var ious a reas like teachingmethods, the organization of classroom

space and th e timeta ble, th e possibility

of ada ptin g teaching to individua l needs,

e t c . (i i ) t h e y b e t r a i n e d i n n e winform at ion technologies, and t ha t th eyhave the necessary equipment a t ha nd,

a n d (ii i) the i r sa la r ies be indexedaccordin g to performa nce crit eria a nd on

th e basis of regular evaluat ions.

Review certification procedures:

cer t i f ica t ion procedures should be

modified so as t o indicat e an individua lscapacity to adapt to a ra pidly changing

job market. Criteria should take into

account non-cognitive sk ills (like a ta lent

for teamwork), as well as expertiseacquired during a professional career.

Moreover, certification should be stan-

dardized so as to be widely applicable,and thus faci l i tate the mobil i ty of

stu dent s, as well as worker s. A certifying

body, workin g either at th e regiona l orint ern at iona l level (which would include

representat ives from both t he supply anddemand side of education, as well as

evaluat ion expert s) could be creat ed to

achieve these goals.

Reth ink t he objectives of each level of

education : the modernization of educa-

tion systems in volves a redistr ibution of

responsibilities among th e various levelsof education: (i) the accent should be

placed on a ba sic education for everyone,

so as to build a society of productive,involved and respons ib le c i t i zens ,

capab l e o f r eac t i ng and t h ink ingindependent ly on contemporar y trends;

(ii) higher edu cation sh ould set objectives

for training managers, engineers andtechnicians ski l led in deal ing with

change an d an alyzing ur gent economic

and social problems, so as to provide

relevant guidel ines for the various

par ticipant s who ma ke u p society; (iii)the

role of secondary teaching in thisframework ra ises a problem: should this

level of teaching be progressively

aba ndoned, or sh ould it become part of

basic education?

Debate on globalization

Among th e various questions raised by

the trainees in the Annual TrainingPr ogra mm e during Mr Hallaks presen-

tation given at the IIEP on 5 March

1998, tw o comm ent s especially claim our

attention:

To wh at d egree is Africa inv olved in

the globalization process? In other words,

is it relevant to try and adapt African

education systems t o globalizat ion in th at

African part icipat ion is low in the

financial and commercial movementstha t a re at the source of this phenomenon

and the changes which result from it?Also, it should be borne in mind that

only the African elite h ave access t o the

new information and communication

tools which a llow economic developmen t.

Does globalization pose a threat to

continu ing cultural d iversity? Are notth e new pat tern s of behaviour requiredfor a dap tin g to globalizat ion (an d which

are available only through education)

based on a western model, i.e. a m odel

which is foreign t o the u nique values of

other regions of th e world?These two questions give rise to ma ny

others, including: should one consider

globalization a s a n in evita ble process t owhich a ll count ries must a dapt in t he

end, or is it a passing fad with a limited

lifespan ? It is impossible to answer th esevar ious objec t ions here . However ,drawing on Mr. Hallaks remarks, it

should be born e in mind th at (i) failing

to take into account the t rend towards

globalization r un s th e risk of ma rginali-

zing, even more than at present, somecountr ies excluded from the trans-

na tiona l world economy; (ii) apar t froman y inter nal reform, most education and

vocationa l tra ining systems ar e directly

affected by t he t rend towards globaliza-

tion to the degree that it favours the

continued on p. 6


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3IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998

Changing teachers for achanging world

UN ES COs fourth World Ed ucation Report, entitledTeachers

a nd t e a c h ing in a c ha ng ing w o r ld , focuses on th e role and

statu s of teachers in a w orld, un dergoing rapid transform ation,

not least in th e field of comm un ications and informa tion, an

issue wh ich obviously h as an im pact on teachers. The report

examin es in som e detail the validity of the frequently h eard

statem ent tha t teachers have lost statu s. It argues convincingly

that wh at society curren tly expects from teachers in m ost

coun tries could be out of proportion to the reward s it is prepared

to accord to teachers an d t he m eans typically put at their

disposal. It a lso points to the detrim enta l im pact tha t som e verypopular, and seemin gly inn ocent, education policies h ave had on

teachers sta tu s.

TEACHING might n ot be th e most

popular p rofession in th e world,but it is un doubtedly th e most

populated: there a re indeed some 57

million teachers in the world, about

two-thirds of whom work in the

developing world. The irony in thissta temen t hides a preoccupying trut h.

Teachers ar e an importa nt force in oursocieties, not only because of their

s h e e r n u m b e r s , b u t m u c h m o r e

because they are theguaran tors of the edu-

cation of futur e gene-rations, especially in

developing countries,

w h e r e f e w o t h e r

resources a re made

ava ilable t o schools. Atthe sam e time, teachers

f e e l w e a k e n e d a n dcomp lain a bout loss of

their statu s and dimi-

n i s h i n g r e s p e c t . Acomplaint reflected in

par ents criticism th atteachers and schools

are offering an irrele-

v a n t a n d m e d i o c r e

education.

A l t h o u g h s t a t e -

ments about teachingar e easily made, by bothteachers and policy-

ma kers, th ose relat ing to concepts a s

sta tu s or qua lity are d ifficult to verify.Th e World Education Report 1998inves t iga tes how changes in the

demographic, economic and techno-

logical environment have affected

teachers an d as ks if education policiesha ve successfully drawn ben efit from

these changes to improve teachers

motivation and perform an ce.The r ecent economic environment

has taken its toll on the teaching

p ro fe s s ion . H igh unemploymen tlevels, which seem en demic in mu ch

of the developed and the developing

world, are r ightly or wrongly link ed

to weaknesses in the educat ion system,

which reflects badly on teachers. Atth e same time, some people ent er th e

teaching profession as a s topgap

measure, in the absence of anythingbetter. This has resulted in a lack of

Trends in the number of Internet hostsin the world, 1990-97

The Internet is experiencing an exponential expan sion, whi ch, however, has so far benefited m ain ly

developed coun tries. Its im pact on education an d on teaching in parti cular is potent ially great, butso far of little use to the m ajority of teachers.

S o u r c e: N e t w o r k Wi z a r d s ( h t t p : / / www.nw.com/) quoted in UNESCO 1998World Edu cation Report.

REPORT

REPORT

Box 1

Source : Net work Wizar ds (htt p://www.nw.com/) quot ed inThe Eonomist, Vol. 346, No. 8056, 21-27 Febr ua ry 1998.

Wired upInternet hosts per 1,000 population, January 1998


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faith in education, a feeling pr obably

str engthen ed by t he ideological m ood

of the moment, which has turned

opinion against th e public service an din favour of th e intr oduction of mar ket

forces in education. Pa rt ly as a resu lt

of th is, theReportclaims, t eachers are

cons idered t o be carr iers of light in todar k places, be it toleran ce, int erna -tional understanding or respect for

hum an r ights, and, on th e other ha nd,

as costly factors of production in anenter prise which absorbs a significan t

proportion of public budgets. In a

nu mber of coun tr ies, th is pro-ma rket

mood has led t o breakin g down some ofth e har dearn ed privileges of teachers

an d, as we will see furt her on, to several

other stra tegies with an a dverse impact

on the t eaching profession. At the sa metime, public auth orities and teachers are requested to work harder towards

Edu cation For All, or EF A.In the least developed countries

especially, achieving E FA is becomin g

every year m ore cha llenging, becau se

of the continued rapid population

growth. Combine th is with t he fina n-cial squ eeze, in which th ese coun tr ies

find themselves, and it is easy to

imagine the headaches with which

educational planners wake up. Thetempta tion t o save on wha t is th e largest

budget item (teachers) is difficult to

r e s i s t , i n pa r t i cu l a r when someresearch seems to show that such

savings can be obtained without

sacrificing qua lity.Before looking in some detail at

how educat ion policies have rea cted toth is complex environment , the ques-

tion need s to be asked if techn ological

changes, and t he inform at ion r evolu-tion in particular, could not help

improve both the access to and the

qua lity of education. TheReportbriefly

touches on the potent ial of for insta ncethe In t e rne t t o r ende r t e ach ing

met hodology more creat ive, int era ctive

an d individualised. However, it alsostresses a number of sobering facts.

Firstly, this revolution has so farbene f i t ed ma in ly t he deve loped

coun tr ies an d the more affluent groups

(cf. Box 1). The Report notes in thisrega rd t ha t all of Africa, for exa mple,

has bar ely more telephones tha n th e

city of Tokyo, an d t ha t a ma jorit y of

the worlds schools still do not haveelectr ici ty. Secondly, and more

worr yingly, teaching has seldom madeuse of, or demanded, technological

innovations (the exam ples of ra dio an d

television ar e quoted). One rea son for

th is, beyond t he obvious finan cial one,

probably lies in the nature of thesectors work: an a ctivity which ha s at

its heart h uma n intera ction an d whichrelies for its s uccess on t he qu ality of

th at in tera ction. Relucta nce to inn o-

vate what is felt to be at the core ofteaching is t herefore t o be expected.

On the other ha nd, it is true that t hecompu ter is probably the most child-

friendly (an d hence the m ost teacher-

th rea ten ing?) of th ese recent ly

developed tools.

It could be argued tha t t he informa -tion age has, to date, had a detr imental

impact on teachers status. Whileteachers used to be one of the few

voices of aut horit y for an y child, now

with t he expansion of inform al learn ingopportunities they have merely

become one of ma ny referen ces and , inman y cases, one th at is ra ther out of

step with reality.

Depending on the context and

especially the financial room for

manoeuvre, policy-makers have res-ponded in d i f fe ren t ways to the

challenges described above. In t he lessdeveloped countr ies, spending on th e

ma in input , nam ely the tea chers, has

been cut in thr ee main ways by: hir ing teachers on specific cont ra cts

with lower remuneration and fewerrights;

employing teachers wi th less

qualifications;

increasing pupil/teacher r atios and

introducing staff saving modes oftea ching, e.g. double-shift schools an d

multigrade classes.The two last st ra tegies in par ticular

ha ve been promoted by, for insta nce,the World Bank, which refers to a

num ber of studies showing that the

quality of education does not sufferfrom these measures. The Reportusefully cha llenges t his pictur e. With

regar d to pupil/teacher r at ios, it n otes

for insta nce that the debate so far has

focused on cognitive outcomes, andtha t little is known a bout the a cquisi-

tion of personal a nd social skills an datt i tudes, especial ly among poor

learner s. Large classes, moreover, ar eboun d to have an impa ct on tea chers

motivation and stress. In addition,

when pleas are m ade to raise pupil/teacher ra tios to 45 or 50 t o one, little

att ention is given to the fact th at t hese

are averages, which naturally hide

extremes, within the country and

between gra des. The ear ly school yearswi l l be par t icu lar ly over loaded ,

becau se of th e high drop-out ra tes (cf.Box 2). The fact finally tha t t he m ore

Averages hid e disparities and t his is particularly true for pupil/ teacher ratios,

as the following exam ple from Benin sh ows.

Th e overall primary-school pupil/ teacher ratio in Benin in 1995/ 96 was

high , but accordin g to som e stud ies not u nacceptably so: 52 pu pils per

teacher. One school in Atacora departm ent has a ratio, somewhat higher than

th e average: 414 pup ils for seven teachers, inclu din g the head teacher, or a rat io

of 59 to one.What this actually m eans for the total num ber of pupils in each classroom,

is shown in t he following t able:

Box 2

Grades one, two and th ree are obviously overcrowded. On e solut ion would be to

empl oy one add itional t eacher for each of these grades. However, thi s would

bring the pupil/ teacher ratio to 41 to one and would im ply significant ad ditional

expend itu re. Another solution would be to lower the high dr op-out rates, but to

do this one arguably needs to decrease pup il/ teacher ratios.

Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6

Classes/Teachers 1 1 1 1 1 1

Pupils 128 75 92 35 45 39


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developed countr ies have almost

systematically tried to increase thequa lifications of tea chers a nd t o lower

th e pupil/teacher r at ios seems to show

that these options, when affordable,

ar e prefera ble (cf. Box 3).These teacher-cost-saving poli-

cies, th eReportstr esses, are fed by anundiscriminating use of the cost-

effectiveness approach to education,

which views teachers as an inputra ther than a c rea t ive par tner .

Interestingly, what seem to be more

innocent policies have also led togreater deman ds on t eachers, in part

because of a poor understanding of

their needs and situation. The empha-

sis on creat ing competit ion betweenschools, for inst an ce, is just ified by th e

belief th at such compet ition will almost

aut omatically lead to impr oved teacheran d school perform an ce. However, so

far, litt le is known about th e ways in

which t eachers change th eir practice

and how to motivate them to do so,except for the fact that it is not

sufficient t o point out t ha t t hey are n otdoing well . Moreover, improving

education quality might well need m ore

co-operation between schools andteachers rat her th an m ore competition.

Th eReportcomments in the sam e

vein on the present concern withimproving quali ty and set t ing up

mechanisms to moni tor learn ing

achievement. Teachers ar e aware tha t

th is concern has n ot genera lly beenmatched up to now by a greater

willingness in n at iona l development

policies t o provide more resour ces for

education. This ha s led to an increa-

sed sense of isolation am ong teachers.The above should not be read as a n

indication that all countries have

disregarded teachers needs. Several,

such as Sri Lanka and Namibia forexample, recently increased theirsalaries significantly. Surprisingly

enough, this has apparent ly not led to

a visible improvement in t heir efficien-cy or perform an ce. Perh aps t his is not

so start ling: it confirms th at to cha nge

teachers, it is not sufficient just to

raise their salaries, but that morecompr ehen sive policies are n ecessary.

Th e World Education Report 1998gives few indicat ions on h ow teacher

policies should be changed. Recentresearch shows tha t such pol icypackages should include stra tegies to

improve their workin g conditions, to

strengthen feedback and support ,including through practice-oriented

an d school-based in-service tr aining,

to set up str uctur es which allow more

inter action an d co-operat ion betweenteachers, to develop motivational

career ladders , to get comm un ities to

show an interest in t heir teachers. It is

only by giving t eachers m ore supportand m ore aut hority tha t more can be

expected from th em.

ANTONDE GRAUWE

Box 3

GNP per capita and pupil-teacher ratio in primary education, by region.1 1995.

1. Individual countries within each region are represented by dots, diamonds and squares.

Source: 1998 UNESCO Education Report. Paris: UNESCO, 1998.

Two IIEP programmes give specificatten tion to teachers issues and severalrecent or for thcoming publicat ions

examine in par ticular teacher ma nage-ment a nd su pervision.

The following publications wereprepa red in t he fram ework of th e projecton The mana gement o f teachers:

The uti l ization, deployment and

management of teachers in Botswana,

Malawi, South Africa and Uganda.

Synthesis report on a sub-regionalworksh op and four countr y monograp hs.(forth coming) Paris: UNESCO/Inter na -tional In stitute for E ducational P lanning.

La gestion des ensignant s dans qu atre

pays dAfriqu e francophone (Bnin,Burkina Faso, Mali, Sngal). Rapportde synth se sur un at elier sous-rgional et

quatr e m onographies n ationales. (forth -coming) Paris: UNESCO/InternationalInstitute for Educational P lanning.

A. Traor. 1997.La gestion du personn elenseignan t en Afriqu e francophone. Paris:U N E S CO / I n t e r na t i ona l I ns t i t u t e f o rEducational Planning.

The programm e onImp roving teacher superv is ion and support has so farp r e pa r e d t he f o l l ow i ng s t ud i e s a ndmonographs:

Carron, G.; De Grauwe, A. 1997.Current issues in supervision: a literature

review . Par is: UNESCO/InternationalInstitute for Educational P lanning.

Perera,W. J .1997. Chan ging schools

from within: a management intervention for improving school functioning in Sri

Lanka . Paris: UNESCO/IIEP.

Kha niya, T. R. 1997. Teacher supportthrough resource cent res: the Nepalese case.Par is: UNESCO/IIEP.

A l i , Me hr unn i sa A hma d . 1998 .Supervision for teacher development: a

proposal for Pakistan . Paris: UNESCO/I IEP.

Improving teacher supervision an d

support in Asia: a comparat ive analysis

of the experiences of five countries:

Bangladesh, India, Korea, Nepal and S ri

Lanka . (forthcoming) Par is: UNESCO/I IEP.

Fergusson, V. Reforming schoolsupervision an d qu ality control in a context

of school based management: the New

Zealand experience. (forthcoming) Pa ris:

UNESCO/IIEP.

FORFURTHERREADING ...


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continued from p. 2

1 Conference on Educational Reconstruc-

tion and Transformation. Challenges for

the 21st Century, organized between

5-7 January 1998 by the Centre for Inter-

national Studies in Education, University of

Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

2 Jacques Hallak. 1998.Education and

globalization. IIEP Contributions No. 26.

Paris: UNESCO/International Institute for

Educational Planning, 1998.

e m e r g e n c e o f n e w e d u c a t i o n a l

resources (especially from t he privatesector) and novel approaches (e.g.

consu mer-driven) within th e field of

edu cation; (ii i) fina lly, if globaliza tioninevitably involves t he r isk of cultu ral

and technological colonization, it

should not be assumed th at at temptsto adapt to this phen omenon pose an

actua l thr eat t o local identities.

To conclude, it is regrett able th at

the theme of regionalism was notmentioned at any point during the

debate, s ince i t would al low the

p rob l em o f g loba l i za t i on t o beappr oached from a slight ly different

angle , perhaps one tha t i s more

acceptable to most of the countriesaffected.

MURIEL P OISSON

IN February 1998, the Director ofthe Internat ional Inst i tute forEducational Planning received a

letter from t he E xecut ive Director of

the International Association forEvalua tion of Educat iona l Achieve-

ment (IEA). The letter indicated th atth e IIEP version of th e new inter face

to the Data E ntr y Manager (DEM)

software has been contributing tothe success of the IEAs Thi rd In ternat ional Mathemat ics and

S cience S tud ies (TIMSS) both for

th e 1996 stu dy involving 41 count riesan d for t he 1998 TIMSS replication

study.

What is DEM?

In order t o monitor th e quality of an

education system, one of the most

crucial steps is the collection andprocessing of dat a n eeded for in for-med decision ma king. This can be a

problem in ma ny educational plan-ning offices because insufficient

att ention is paid t o the prepara tion

of data prior to analysis on thecompu ter. Da ta of poor quality can

cause extensive delays in t he su bse-quent survey implementation. The

Data En try Manager interface has

been developed in order t o address

this problem. It helps to minimize

errors at the dat a prepara tion pha se of

th e resea rch cycle.

How was it developed?

The original DE M softwa re, developed

by the IEA in 1989 and used for its

Reading Literacy Study undert aken

in 32 countr ies, ma inly targeted h igh-

level computer experts. Recognizingthe softwares importance in large-

scale educational research, the IIEP ,in co-operat ion with th e IEA, start ed

to deve lop a new user in te r face

(DEM008.OVL) which provided aneasy-to-use dat a ent ry editor enabling

educational planner s to set up simplestr uctur e files which could be used to

enter an d clean dat a without the a id of

professional statisticians. This newinterface u nderwen t var ious trials in

several training workshops in 1994,an d th e finalized version was used in

IIEPs research programmes during1995. A Fr ench version of the DEM

was pr oduced in 1997, an d since then

both versions have been used by

part icipant s in the IIEP s Annu al

Training Program me.

Special features

One of th e most import an t featur es of

this new interface is its multi-level

cont rols for th e quality of the dat a

being prepared. For each varia ble,t h e r e a r e w a y s t o e s t a b l i s h

specificat ions in order t o ensu re th at :

i) correct identification codes areassigned, ii) unadministered or

unanswered questions, incompre-hensive or out-of-ra nge r esponses,

and invalid entries are a ll handled

properly, and iii) inconsistenciesbetween questions, within a group

of respondents, and between files

ar e also inter cepted. Secondly, the

softwa re provides au toma tic saving,smooth swi tch ing be tween the

different modes of data prepa ra tion

(data entry, data cleaning, dataverification, data repair), and is

compatible with popular da ta ana ly-sis software. The th ird factor in its

favour is th at t he softwar e is easy to

use and does not require sophisti-cated h ardware.

How to obtain your copy

The Data E ntr y Manager software is

distributed free-of-charge to allparticipants in IIEP training pro-

gramm es. All other external r equestsshould be made directly in writ ing

to the Director of th e IIEP .

MIOKO SAITO

A success storyA new in terface to the data ent ry m anager, or DEM ,

softw are developed by IIE P is now being used by th e

IEA for the TIMS S S urveys.NE

WS

INBRIEF

NE

WSI N

BRIEF


7/14


Partnership intraining policy

Does partn ership m ake it possible to improve the efficiency of

techn ical and vocational train ing policy? The frequent

appearance of th is term in specialized literature and also its

in fluence on governm ent policies lead s one quit e na turally to ask

the question. Unfortu na tely, a lack of perspective and especially of

relevant d ata m ake it im possible to accurat ely gauge the im pact of

this new k ind of governm ent practice. All th e sam e, one can

perhaps prepare the groun d by attem pting t o probe the real

m eaning of the term and pass in review some concrete exam ples.

Ind eed, policy docum ents rarely provide any precise explana tionon the rationa le of partnership and how it w orks. T he article

below a ttemp ts to discuss th is issue furth er ...

IN t e c h n i c a l e d u c a t i o n a n d

vocational training, partnership

aims principally at mobilizing

collective effort so as t o impr ove t he

eff iciency of the system and i tscontribution to the economic and

social goals wh ich a re a ssigned t o it. Inother words , by involving th e relevant

sta keholders, especially the businesscomm un ity, it strives to ma ke voca-

tional tra ining more responsive to th e

job market which is t oday under goingma ssive tr an sform at ion everywhere.

Partnership thus appears at f i rs t

glance as a mean s of achieving a higherdegree of efficiency in th e u se of public

money. It must also contribute tomobilizing outside resources in the

form of expertise an d privat e invest-ment. In addition to this technical

dimension, part ners hip also involvesa p olitical vision. The m obilizat ion of

key players, concerted effort, and

dialogue ar e also considered as a wayof regula t ing t ra in ing resources

democrat ical ly and through con-

s e n s u s . P a r t n e r s h i p i s n o t j u s tconcerned with initiative-ta king an d

ma na gement, it is also a value systeman d a goal. In t his respect, there is an

evident connection in several coun-tries between democratization and

par tn ership initiat ives (Sout h Africa,

Mali, Hu ngar y, etc.).

Fr om the resea rch viewpoint , recent

th eoretical development influencing

public action ten ds to support a tr end

in favour of par tn ership. For example,

instit ut iona l economics, rejecting bothth e ort hodoxies of tradit iona l plannin g

and pur e market m echan isms, seek toun dersta nd t he m otivat ion of economic

agents in order t o improve governan cet h r o u g h p a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d c o -

ordinat ion. Sociologist s specializing in

organizat ion theory draw similarconclus ions in the i r ana lys i s of

collective a ction an d t he negotiating

process conducted a mong key players.Those on the front line intuitively

underst and the need for co-ordinat ion,as t hey ar e faced with th e complexity

and variety of partners involved intechnical and vocat iona l tra ining. In

the absence of clear proof that part ner-ship is a source of efficiency, theory

and experience thus tend to support

the idea that , in th e medium term, itcan ma ke a significant cont ribut ion to

policy re form .

Encouraging employersto get more involved

It seems obvious th at t he state a nd the

bus ine s s communi ty a r e na tu r a lpartn ers in the a rea of education and

tr ainin g for th e working life. However,

the s tructure of partnership must

extend beyond t hem t o include tr ade

unions, parent/teacher associations

(PTAs), vocational institutions, and

NGOs, all of which ar e key players.Their degree of involvement varies

according to th e area , whether init ialor contin uin g education, or according

to the level of decision making:national, regional or local. As for

c o n t i n u i n g e d u c a t i o n , t h e

participation of both employers andemployees seems s elf-evident . This is

an im porta nt t hem e for social dialogue

and collective negotiations at thenat ional level , as well as at the

indust rial or corpora te level. Thus, inFra nce, a stu dy done by the Depart-

ment of Labour and Social Affairsconcern ing co l lec t ive barga in ing

among industries revealed that, in1996, vocational tr aining and appr en-

ticeship were a prime concern for

salaried workers, after salaries andbonuses.

The par ticipation of social part ner s

in the m ana gement and m onitoring oftechnical education an d initial voca-

tional tr aining is often less evident. Infact, th eir degree of involvement varies

according to tradition and the struc-ture of the technical and vocational

education and training system. For

example, it is evident that in many

RESEARCH

RESEARCH


8/14


German-speaking countries, where

apprenticeship is a highly favoured

pat h for obtaining pr ofessiona l qua lifi-

cations, the social partners have astructurally important role to play.1

But in most other countries, getting

businesses to commit themselves to

training young people is hard toachieve. This difficulty is compoundedin periods of cr is is or economic

uncertainty. The problems that the

dual German system is encount eringtoday, and the t emptat ion to

introduce compulsory legis-

lat ion to obtain what was

traditionally granted volun-tar ily illustrat es th is pheno-

menon perfectly.

Ironically, it is precisely

when an economic downturnforces business to opt out oftra ining program mes tha t in

many countr ies the publicauthori t ies want to saddle

th em with extended responsi-

bilities, especially for helpin g

young people to fit int o the job

ma rket . In fact, th ey are often consi-dered t o be the best placed to provide

th e right kind of tr aining, and also to

teach the values and at titudes appli-

cable to working l i fe . This wishsometimes also coincides with a

political idea which assigns bu siness a

social role alongside their economicone. Such thinking also implicitly

assu mes th at th is social mission goes

ha nd in h an d with economic efficiency.Here a gain, structur al conditions play

a key role and countries which givehigh priority to social dialogue and

collective negotiations find it much

easier to mobilize employers concer-ning youth-employment schemes. This

is how business is ind uced to contri-

bute to active labour market pro-

gram mes for young people in severa lEuropean countries. Similar youth

employment schemes can be found in

other parts of the world as well,especially in Lat in America, where th e

organization of th e job ma rket oftenfollows m odels derived from contin en-

tal E urope. In Argentina a nd Chile,

businesses are closely involved in anam bitious yout h tra ining program me,

called Proyecto J oven (the Youth

Project).2

Countries in transition offer a

ra dically different pat tern , for it is n ot

so mu ch a lack of involvement of socialpartners which is deplored but their

non-existence. 3 Thus, stakeholders

must pass through a phase of social

const ru ction, durin g which th e mainprota gonist s coalesce, often a s pa rt of atr ipart ite organ ization. These mecha-

n i sms and s t ruc tu r e s fo r soc i a l

dialogue which ar e gradua lly put in toplace with the sup-

port of the govern-

ment, clearly illus-

tra te a tra nsition fromadministra ted regula-

tion t o a co-opera tive

approach. Thus, in

Hun gary, the creat ionin 1991 of a na tionaltr aining coun cil laid

the basis for incor-p o r a t i n g t r a i n i n g

within a wider social

dialogue.

Despite its rapid

progress, the theme of partnershipseems, at first sight , to have limited

appl icabi l i ty to many count r ies ,

especially in Africa where the major

portion of the active population livesoutside the formal sector. However,

the experience of some countries

wh ich a r e c r ea t i ng genu ine co -opera t ion be tween the s ta te and

representatives from the informal

sector ha s shown th at th e concept ofpart nersh ip can be applied beyond the

limits of th e modern economy. In Ma li,the dialogue launched between the

N a t i o n a l F e d e r a t i o n o f M a l i a n

Craftsmen an d th e public auth oritiesallowed appr enticeship to be organi-

zed, and gave micro entrepreneurs

access to tra ining. This example shows

that under certain conditions par tner-ship can express a prin ciple of economic

an d social democra cy which can a pply

to all sectors, without neglecting t hemost d i sadvantaged members of

society.

Incentive mechanisms

When the culture an d the structuralconditions do not n at ur ally lead to co-

operation in the definition and the

setting up of training policies, the

pub l i c au tho r i t i e s mus t p rov ide

adequate means for encouraging thevar ious pa rt ies concerned. Redefining

the legal framework is a necessary

condition for setting up par tn ersh ips

and making them work. In manycoun tr ies, th e establishm ent of payr olltax to finance training has provided

the stimulus for sha red man agement

be tween the s ta te and i t s soc ia lpartners.4 However, far m ore effective

th an forced part icipation is volun ta ry

adhesion, which best expresses the

spirit of par tn ersh ip. In th is respect,incentives such as ta x rebates play an

importa nt role in encoura ging t raining

investment . The contra ctual approach,

whe reby pub l i c au tho r i t i e s andbusinesses commit themselves to anegotiated p roject for th e developmen t

of tr aining pr ogra mm es, also expressesthe willingness to use part nersh ip as a

form of public action. As for finan cing,

fiscal incent ives a nd cont ra cts do not

necessa rily exclude legal obligat ions.

On t he cont ra ry, th ey allow scope form a noeuvre by creat ing zones for

initiative ta king, and dia logue which

can lead t o mixed form s of regu lat ion.

Besides th e finan cial aspects, partn er-ship a t t he centr al level often involves

other key concerns like the drawing

up of curricula and pathways, andincreas ingly, certificat ion procedur es.5

Partnership at

the local level

However, it is certainly at the local

level that part nership finds its clearest

express ion through co-opera t ionbetween bus inesses and t ra in ing

institu tions. These links ar e most often

designed t o allow for periodic tr ain ingperiods, or indust ry-tailored cour ses.

But they a l so f requent ly a im a tproviding guida nce for youn g people,

retra ining teachers, or even th e setting

up of programmes to meet specificneeds of the local economy. The t ren d

towards decentralization moreover

mu l t i p l i e s oppo r tun i t i e s f o r co -

opera tion at th e local level. Neverth e-less, tran sform ing public institu tions

into stakeholders on the local scene

Ironically, it is

precisely when an

economic downturn

forces business to

opt out of training

programmes that in

many countries the

public authorities

want to saddle them

with extended

responsibilities.


9/14


10/14


An in tensive tw o-week train ing course on The des ign of

deve lopm ent p rogram mes /pro jec t s in bas ic edu ca t ion for

selected coun tries of the E nglish-speak ing Caribbean w as h eld in

Castries, S t. Lu cia, from 9 to 21 February 1998. Th e course was

organ ized by th e IIEP in co-operation with the Ministry of

Edu cation, Hu m an R esource Developm ent, Y outh and S ports,

S aint Lucia.

Designing developmentprojects in basic

educationTRAINI N

G

TRAI N

ING

T

HE overall objective of th e cour sewas to intr oduce the par ticipants

to issues involved, and m ethods used,

in the identification of educationalprojects, within a specific national

policy context and to provide them

with an opportunity for hands-on

experience in project elaborat ion.Course participants came from

eight English-speaking countries in

th e Caribbean i.e. Bar bados, Dominica,Grenada, J ama ica, St. Kitts and Nevis,

Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and TheGrena dines, and Trinidad an d Tobago.

They included experienced practi-

tioners, with a ra nge of professiona lpr ofiles, some of whom hold high - and

middle-level ma na gement positions in

ministr ies of educat ion. Other s came

from a ministry of finance and a tertiar ylevel institution. Although several

pa r t i c i pan t s had p r io r p r ac t i c a l

exper ience in pro jec t des ign ormanagement, the majority had no

previous form al tr aining in t he subject.

The course had an applied, practicalorientat ion. A first da y was spent onthe presentation and discussion of

na tional experiences with education

development projects, which a re eith er

completed or still under implemen-

ta t ion . The prepara t ion of thesepresentations by the different teams

had been pa rt of the pr epara tory work,

requested from participants who hadbeen admit ted to the cour se.

During th e rema inder of th e course,

l e c tu r e and d i s cus s ion s e s s ionsalter na ted with case-study exercises.Lec tures in p lenary focus ing on

th eories an d concepts, were illustr at edby examples drawn from intern ational

and regional experiences. Practical

exercises in workin g groups wer e builtaround the elaboration of project

docum ents , based on the case st udy of

a f i c t i t i o u s C a r i b b e a n c o u n t r y ,

C a r i b b a .The course benefited from the

experience gained in previous similar

courses held in other regions. How-ever, this time, ther e was a complete

integra tion in th e pra ctical exercisesof the problem tree and objective

tree analysis as well as the Logical

Framework approach; furthermore,th e use of special compu ter softwar e

for preparing and revising the main

tables of the project design i.e. work

plan, staff recruitment and tra ining,yearly and total costs , addit ional

an t ic ipa ted recur ren t cos t s a f te r

project completion and the LogicalFra mework chart.

The dispersion of participants in

th e different working groups wa s donein such a way as to ensure an equit able

composition both in terms of natio-na lity and professiona l experience. The

part icipants ful ly adhered to the

simulat ion activities of th e pra ctical

exercise. The pragm at ic work organi-zation adopted, allowed the groups t o

progress very ra pidly an d the working

clima te wa s very good.The development projects iden-

t i f ied and prepared by the three

working groups all focussed on thecompetency and motivation of theprimary school teachers as a means to

improve the quality of education.There were interesting differences

between the projects an d the stra tegies

elabora ted, testifying to the r ich a ndvaried professional experience and

creativity of the participants. The

discussion in working groups a nd t he

project documents prepared by theparticipants illustra ted that the main

points of the course had been well

assimilat ed, namely to:

ana lyse an d discuss as realistically

as possible th e educational situa tionan d policy prior to defining a str at egy

and subsequently elabora ting a project;

anticipate likely implementationdifficulties;

carefully examine the sustaina-

bility of th e pr oject.

The half-day presentat ion anddiscussion devoted to negotiation of

education development projects , tur-

ned out to be both passionate andinstructive. The focus was less on

negotiations with donors than the

process of preparing, negotiating a ndfollowing-up projects between the

Ministry of Edu cation an d the Ministr yof Finance on the one hand, and

between various departm ents within

the Ministry of Education on t he other.

The last course session consisted inth e present at ion of projects pr epared

by the three working groups each of

which had t o advocate th eir proposal,applying a n um ber of comm on criter ia.

This combina tion of approaches was

highly appr eciated by th e participants .Those who felt less confident with

assimilating th e more theoretical par ts


11/14


of the course, presented during the

lectur es, felt th at applying the concepts

dur ing pra ctical exercises helped th em

to mast er cour se cont ents well.Inform al feedback received du ring

the course and the f ina l course

evaluation showed that the partici-

pants perceived the course as veryimporta nt for th eir work, and th at t heyappreciated the combination of ap-

proaches and applied orientation of

th e course.The ped agogical a nd s ocial condi-

tions in Cast ries were excellent. The

only complaint made concerned the

lack of tim e given to discuss ion of all

aspects of the pract ical exercise,equally in-depth during the working

group sessions. Contacts made with

officials from other countries of the

region, during the two weeks of tr aining, were seen a s very beneficial.

Several part icipants st ressed the

impor tance of main ta in ing l inks

be tween pa r t i c i pan t s and , moregenerally, between educational plan -

ners and administrators of the sub-

region to enable them to exchange

experiences, through networking.

Some participants will immediatelyapply what th ey have learn ed to their

na t i ona l con t ex t s . Fo r i n s t ance ,

Dominican pa rt icipant s ar e developing

an in-service tea cher edu cation projectt o mee t t he needs o f un t r a inedteachers, tr ained teachers a nd school

principals.

DOMINIQUE ALTNER, LARS O. MHLCK

AND P IERRE RUNNER

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Creating space for women

HISTORICALLY, women played littlerole in the conceptualizationand organization of the university.

The fact tha t increasing numbers ofwomen a re working in higher educa-

tion institu tions m akes it essential

for m an agers t o reflect on th e impact

of th e ma sculine bias which prevailsin some organizations, on both m ale

an d female staff, and its imp act on

organizational efficiency. In thecont ext of increa sing and increasingly

varied deman ds on higher edu cation

institutions under budget constr aint,

th e efficient an d effective ma na ge-

ment of resources is essential if theun iversity is to maint ain its r ole in

society an d evolve to meet new n eeds.This booklet by Anna S mu lders,

Educational Consultant, sets out toshow why gender a nd gender-related

man agement issues are an importa nt

asp ect of efficient st aff ma na gement .T h e r e s e a r c h b e h i n d i t w a s

underta ken th rough a series of in-

depth interviews with a num ber of

ma le and female academic staff an d

career adm inistra tors in an Indianuniversity. The concept of gender,

w h i c h r e l a t e s t o t h e s o c i a l l ydeterm ined role and responsibilities

of th e individua l, was th e key tool of

ana ly s i s . The ob j ec t i ve o f t heinterview process was to identify any

gender-related aspects of practices t hatcould ha ve an impact upon th e car eer

progress of sta ff.

The findings of the stu dy point t othe fact tha t th e intern al structure of

th e un iversity a nd da y-to-day pr actices

lead to differences in career pa tt erns

tha t are related to gender. They

highlight t hat : th e problems faced by professional

women are str uctural in natur e,

female responsibilities a nd images

are incompatible with the existing

(masculine) organization.

Creating space for women : Gender-linked factors in managing staff in

higher education institutions, by AnnaE.M. Smulders. IIEP research andstudies programme series. Paris:

UNESCO/IIEP, 1998. 64p.Price US$3/FF15

According t o the a ut hor, it is th isincompa tibility wh ich explains th e

different impa ct that organ izationa l

structure, culture, and mana gementpra ctices have on men an d women.

Ms Smu lders findin gs are imp or-

tant to the objective of ensuring

optimal human resource manage-ment . Over the years, attem pts have

been made in many set t ings to

increase the n um ber of fema le staffmembers . With a chan ge in the sta ff

profile, it may be necessary to re-

eva lua te , and poss ib ly modi fy ,

existing institutional policies and

procedures in order to ensure theprofessional well-being of all sta ff.

Intended to raise awareness withregard t o problems th at are n ot often

recognized, an d th erefore n ot addr es-sed, th e booklet offers a nu mber of

possible ar eas for reflection th at could

be useful to th ose in charge of highereducation institu tions.

SUSANDANTONI


12/14


Dr. Clarence Beeby, one of th e worlds lead ing exponents of

20th centu ry edu cationa l principles, died in N ew Z ealand

on 10 March 1998, aged 95.

Beeb an intellectualarchitect of modern

educationOBI TU

AR

Y

OBITUARY

Be eb , as he was affect ionately

known, was N ew Zealan ds Assistant

Director of Education in 1939 when

he added a few senten ces to the dr aft

of th e Annua l Report of th e Ministryof Edu cation. What Beeb wrote,

expressin g his own deep-rooted beliefs,ha d a pr ofound effect on th e develop-

ment of education, not only in h is owncoun tr y but worldwide.

He wrote: The Governments

objective, broadly expressed, is thatevery person, whatever his level of

academic ability, wheth er h e be rich

or poor, whether he live in town or

coun tr y, has a r ight, as a citizen, to a

free educat ion of the kin d for wh ich h eis best fitt ed an d to the fullest extent

of his powers.Formal education beyond pri-

ma ry level is no longer t o be a sp ecial

privilege ... but a right to be claim ed by

all who want it to the fullest extent

th at t he Sta te can pr ovide.It is not enough to provide more

places in schools of the older a cademictype t ha t were devised originally for

th e educat ion of the gifted few. Schools

tha t a r e t o ca t e r f o r t he who lepopulation mu st offer courses t ha t a re

as rich an d varied as a re the n eeds andabilities of the children who enter

them.

Here was a bluepr int for a m odern

education system and with t he publi-

cation of the report a nd a ccepta nce byparliament, New Zealand became

perha ps the first countr y to implementth e ideals of equa lity and edu cation

for all. Fifty years on, the WorldConference on Edu cat ion for All ,

convened joint ly by the executive hea dsof UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, andthe World Bank, was held at J omtien,

Tha iland, 5-9 March 1990. The

conferences World Decla-

ration, signed by representa-

t ives of 155 governments ,

echoed closely th e sen timent searlier expressed by Beeb.

Beeb was New Zea l and sDirector-General of Education from

1940 to 1960, with a lea ve of absencein 1948-49 when he was appointed

Director of UNES COs Depa rt ment of

Edu cation. He was leader of th e NewZealand delegation to all UNESCO

General Conferences from the foun-

ding of the Organ ization in 1947 un til

1960 , becoming New Zea l and s

Perma nent Delegate to UNESCO from1960 to 1963 (coinciding with his

a p p o i n t m e n t a s N e w Z e a l a n d sAmbassador to Fr an ce). Beeb was to

ackn owledge (in his biogra ph y publi-

shed in 1992) that UNE SCO played a

vital part in the development of my

un dersta nding of educat ion in develo-ping countries.

I n t h e e a r l y y e a r s o f t h eInternat ional Institute for Educational

Plan ning, Beeb played a key role. He

was appointed General Editor of theFu nda ment als of Edu cationa l Plan-

ning series and was responsible forth e early booklets in t he ser ies which

cont inues un til th is day. He also

co-organized and chaired an inter-

national symposium for IIEP on the

The qu alita tive aspects of educationalplann ing with par ticular reference to

developing coun tr ies. Afterwa rds , headm itted: In helping to prepa re for

this symposium I took comfort from

th e fact th at m ost of the writers of th e

working pa pers pr ofessed to find th etopic as elusive as I did. Very litt le hadpreviously been wr itten on th eories of

quality of education in developing

coun tr ies, an d every man h ad t o find asta rt ing-place for hims elf.

He concluded his report on the

seminar in a typical down-to-earth

ma nn er: Quality in edu cation is n ot

an absolute. It can only be evaluated int e rms o f a rb i t r a r i l y de t e rmined

standa rds, and these in turn dependpar tly on su bjectively form ulat ed aims

and partly on objective statistical

procedur es. Fr om an y scientific pointof view, to ar gue other wise is to van ish

int o a cloud-cuckoo-land.As it tu rned out, the r eport on t he

semina r was one of th e most influentia l

(and m ost widely quoted) publications

ever issued by the Institute.

Afterwards, during the period1972-88, he ga ve invalu able a dvice on

the Institutes future directions as amember of the I IEP Counci l o f

Consu ltan t Fellows.

In a tribute to Beeb, the presentEdu cation Secreta ry of New Zealand,

Howard Fancy sa id : For sevendecades, he was a tea cher, researcher,

writer and educational administr ator.

He was t he intellectua l architect a nd

inspirat ion of th e foun dat ions of our

education system a s we know it today.Both at h ome and overseas, he initiated

policies tha t sought to achieve equa lityof educat iona l opport un ity. His

probing intelligence was combined

with the practical ability to devisepolicies tha t gave expression to abstr act


13/14


ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

An institution in

touch with its

environment

uuuuu Study visit of IIEP Trainees toIceland(15-23 April 1998)

At the in vitation of th e Icelan dic

governmen t, th e group of 38 tra ineespar ticipat ing in IIEP s 1997/1998

Annu al Training Program meun dertook an eight-day visit to

Iceland to stu dy th e coun tr ys

education system. The visit was bothinter esting an d beneficial, as well as

enjoyable. Iceland is in ma ny respectsa u nique coun tr y, cha ra cterized by a

hostile natu ral environment , a

cultura l and eth nical homogeneity, a

well developed economy with a

spar se populat ion a nd a p eople proudof its cultur e. However, the coun tr y

is very mu ch par t of th e globalizationprocess, and sever al of its edu cation

policies ar e influenced by cha nges

ta king place in other coun tr ies.Undoubtedly the most importa nt

recent r eform in edu cation concernsth e decentra lizat ion of responsi-

bilities for compu lsory schools, from

th e Ministr y of Edu cation to local

au th orities, closer t o the schools an d

the par ents. The strat egies used, theproblems encountered and results

achieved const itut ed one of the th reetopics reviewed by th e IIEP tr ainees

dur ing the stu dy visit. The other two

topics concerned, r espectively,Teacher support, m anagement an d

evaluation andDiversifyin g secon-

dary education an d expanding

access to higher education .

ideas and convictions. And he had th e

gift of communicating his vision toothers.

In all of this story of professional

success, Beeb was also a wonderfulhuman being who never lost touch

with his roots. He tra nslat ed his ideas

into policies and never hesitated to

practice what h e preached. E ven today,it is still recalled in New Zealan d th at ,

for exa mple, h e was one of the longest

serving students at his local poly-techn ic in nigh t-clas s woodwork he

would pack up after a day as the

Director-General of Education and

hea d off to woodwork clas ses!IIEP, UNESCO and the world of

education as a wh ole will, for ma ny a

long year , s tand indebted to thisin te l lec tua l a rch i tec t o f modern

education.

Visits were organized to prima ry

an d seconda ry schools, to the

Un iversit y College of Edu cation an d

th e Univer sity of Akur eyri, Icelan dssecond most importa nt town. All

th ese inst itut ions provided tra inees

with an opportu nity to meet a nd

discuss inform ally with bothteachers and student s to gain adeeper insight int o Icelandic

educat ion policies.

The visit a lso helped tra inees toun dersta nd t he Icelan dic people, to

appreciate th eir history an d culture

as well as t he coun tr ys un ique

nat ura l beauty. A cultura l eveningtook place at th e Nat iona l Gallery of

Iceland an d another evening was set

aside dur ing which a ll members of

th e study tour were invited to dinewith families in th eir homes.

Among the a spects of Iceland ic

education which par ticularlyimpressed t he group were: the child-

par ticipat ory pedagogy and th e

creative school architectu re, th e

accent on n egotiation r ath er th an

confrontat ion in educationaldecision m aking a nd t he su ccess of

th e decentr alizat ion policy, which

ha s given fina ncial power t o those

ta king th e pedagogical decisions.Iceland will un doubtedly bring

back fond m emories t o this year s

trainees.

uuuuu Distance Education Course onStrategic financial manage-ment in institutions ofhigher education

(Southern African Countries

4 May to 31 July1998)

Building on th e experience gained ina similar dist an ce education courseorganized for un iversities in t he

Russian Federa tion, over a p eriod of

ten weeks from May to July, the

IIEP will be organ izing a new

distan ce education activity on t he

topic of stra tegic finan cial m an age-

ment for a round 70 part icipantsfrom 15 higher education institu -

tions in English-speaking South ern

Africa the t ar get group being

senior- and m iddle-level fina ncialma na gers of higher edu cationinst itu tions. The cour se will cover

trends and internat ional experiences

in higher education institu tions,issues an d appr oaches to finan cial

ma na gement, as well as a scenario-

building exercise to explore alter -

nat ive stra tegies. The trainingma teria ls and exercises will be

delivered by e-mail to clust ers of

par ticipan ts locat ed in th e selected

un iversities. These clusters willdiscuss issues, t echn iques, exercisesan d stra tegies for impr ovement

before inter acting, th rough elec-tr onic ma il, with other par ticipan ts

and th e tutors in Par is.

uuuuu Sub-regional intensive course onUsing indicators in planningbasic education: methodologicalaspects and technical tools

(Maputo, Mozambique6-17 July1998)

Organ ized by the IIE P in co-

opera tion with th e Ministry of

Edu cation in Mozambique, thiscour se will tar get ar ound 20 par tici-

pan ts from m inistries of education inAngola, Cape Verde, Guinea -Bissau,

Mozambique an d So Tome an d

Pr incipe. Fourth in th is series ofcour ses, an d second of its k ind in

Africa, the pu rpose of th is tr aining is

to strengthen par ticipants

kn owledge of th e concepts, met hodsan d techniques required to produce

an an nu al report of key indicat ors on

the functioning of their countryseducation system.


14/14

14 IIEP N / A J 1998

The IIEP Newsletter is available on Internet: http://www.education.unesco.org/educprog/iiep/news/newslist.htm

Composition and printing: IIEP Publications.

FUNDAMENTALS OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Reducing repetition: issuesand strategies

Repetition rates are a powerfu l m easure of edu cational efficiency.

In this new booklet in th e IIE P Fund am entals S eries, the aut hor,Th omas O. Eisem on of the World B ank , reviews the causes and

consequences of high repetition, highligh ts how global trends

often conceal regional an d even su b-regional cult ures of

repetition, an d illustrates how d ifficult it is, d espite a pan acea of

policy prescriptions, to ta rget effective int ervent ion ...

REPETITION rat es can reach veryhigh levels in some coun tr ies.According to the 1995 UNESCO

World Ed ucation R eport, the propor-

tion of repeat ers in prima ry educa-tion was h igher t han 20 per cent in

some 22 count r ies , and in s ixcoun tr ies more tha n one pupil out of

th ree was actu ally repeating. If one

considers th at m an y of th ose repea-

t ing f inal ly drop out , one can

understa nd th e extent of the prob-lem. Considera ble amount s of money

are spent in different countries,forcing pupils to repeat their grades,

and both planner s an d policy-mak ers

need t o find wa ys of reducing th isphenomenon. However, the issue is

not as simple as it looks: policymeasures to reduce or eliminate

repetition cannot be successfully

designed unless th e causes for h igh

repetition are clear .

Repeating is a mu lti-dimensionalissue and keen subject of debate

among educa t i ona l i s t s . Econo-mically, askin g 20 to 40 per cent of

pupils to repeat a year is very

expensive how ma ny more pupilscould be enrolled within the same

budget fram ework if repetition wereabolished? Pedagogically , pupils

repeat because they have been

absen t t oo often for different rea sons

an d/or a re not considered as h aving

reached t he r equired level to moveup to a higher grade, but a n umber

of studies prove that repeating is n otthe answer to low educa t iona l

achievement. However, teachers

unable to handle heterogeneousclasses are reluctant to reduce

repetition. Psychologically, repetit ion

put s the r esponsibility of failur e ont o

the pupil rather t han onto the teacher,the school or the system. In certain

coun tr ies, but n ot all, there is a h ighcorrelation between repetition and

drop-out. Politically , in countr ieswhich cannot afford to provide open

access to secondary or higher edu-

cation, repetit ion is used t o regulate

student flows: those who fail the

extrance exam are given a secondchance and r estricting this possibility

would be badly received by both pa ren ts

and students .R e p e t i t i o n r a t e s a r e

mu ch higher in some coun -tries than others. For instan -

ce, in South ern E ur ope an ddeveloping countries with

Fr an co-, Hispan o- an d Luso-

phone tr aditions, repetition

i s common , whe rea s i n

North ern Eur opean coun-tr ies, and developing coun-

tries influenced by their

tr adition, th e tendency is toopt for au tomat ic promotion.

Once aga in , there i s noevidence that pupils in the

first group of coun tr ies ha vea h igher achievement level

th an th ose in the second group.

Thomas Eisemons monograph

reviews th e ma gnitude of repetition in

different countries. The causes areanalyzed some linked to the child

and family characteristics, others toth e teaching/learn ing conditions in th e

school an d teaching practices, an d

others to the system itself and topolicies implem ent ed. Girls, children

of cultural minorities and all those

who have to work a nd cont ribut e to

family incomes, repeat more thanothers. The a uth or underlines how

repetition is cultivated in somecountries and advocates systemic

measu res to reduce the phenomenon.In t he last chapter , the focus is on

policy options a nd count ry experien ce.

Different countries have different

characteristics and causes of high

repe t i t ion which need d i f fe ren tremedies to be identified and im-

plemented.

The str ength s of Mr Eisemonsbooklet lie in th e very

c l ea r and s t r a igh t -forward manner in

which the ar gumentsare presented. He uses

e x a m p l e s f r o m a

variety of developing

coun tr ies, each with a

different history, andth is allows him to have

a very balan ced view.

He demonstrat es howhigh repetition rates

often reflect poor lea r-n ing env i ronmen t s

and structural weak-nesses which cannot

easi ly be changed through stan-

dar dized policy rem edies or th rough

au tomat ic promotion.

F RANOISE CAILLODS

Reducing repetition: issuesand stragegies

by T.O. Eisemon. IIEPFundamentals No. 55.Paris: UNESCO/IIEP,

1997. Price: FF50/US$10.

We wish to inform our r eaders th at,

at the t ime of printing this issue, we

learn ed th e sad n ews of Mr Eisem ons

sudden dea th , lat e April 1998.

education and globalization 2

Documents