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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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4 IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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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5IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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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6 IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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
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7IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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
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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.
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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
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11IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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
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12 IIEP NEWSLETTER / APRIL-JUNE 1998
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
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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.
8/3/2019 Education and Globalization 2
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.
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