Education

In 1984, two years after Brezhnev’s death, new reforms of general and vocational education were instituted. Teachers’ salaries, which had been lower than other professional incomes, were raised. The age at which children entered primary school was lowered from 7 to 6 years, thus extending the complete course of general-secondary schooling from 10 to 11 years. Vocational training in the upper grades of the general school was reinforced. To meet the requirements of computer literacy, appropriate courses were introduced into the curricula of the general school, even though most schools lacked sufficient equipment. The main emphasis, however, was placed on the development of a new integrated secondary vocational-technical school that would overcome the traditional barriers between general and vocational education. Perestroika and education

The 1984 reform of Soviet education was surpassed by the course of economic and structural reforms (perestroika) instituted from 1986 under the leadership of Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In February 1988 some earlier reforms were revoked, including the compulsory vocational training in the general school and the plans to create the integrated secondary school. Universal youth education was limited to a nine-year program of “basic education,” with subsequent secondary education divided into various academic and vocational tracks. The newly established State Committee of Public Education incorporated the three formerly independent administration systems for general schooling, vocational training, and higher education. Even more important was the rise of an educational reform movement led by educationists who favoured an “education of cooperation” (pedagogika sotrudnichestva) over the authoritarian and dogmatic principles of collective education that originated in the Stalin period. These theorists advocated individualizing the learning process, emphasizing creativity, making teaching programs and curricula more flexible, encouraging teacher and student participation, and introducing varying degrees of self-government in schools and universities as a part of the proclaimed “democratization” of Soviet society. Some of the proposals were approved by the State Committee; for example, the universities and other institutions of higher learning were granted some autonomy. Other proposals were tested by teachers in experimental groups.

In the non-Russian republics the language of instruction was a key issue. After the Revolution of 1917, education in native languages was promoted. In the 1970s, however, the number of Russian-language and bilingual schools grew steadily at the expense of schools offering instruction in the native languages, even in territories with a majority of non-Russian ethnic groups. This Russification provoked increasing opposition, and in the late 1980s the central government made some political and educational concessions to the union republics. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991–92, the future of education in the newly independent states and of what had been all-Soviet educational institutions became uncertain. Oskar Anweiler The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica China: from Confucianism to communism The modernization movement

The political and cultural decline of the Manchu dynasty was already evident before the 19th century, when mounting popular discontent crystallized into open revolts, the best known of which was the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64). The dynasty’s weakness was further exposed by its inability to cope with the aggressive Western powers during the 19th century. After the military defeats administered by the Western powers, even Chinese leaders who were not in favour of overthrowing the Manchus became convinced that change and reform were necessary.

Most of the proposals for reform provided for changes in the educational system. New schools began to appear. Missionary schools led the way in the introduction of the “new learning,” teaching foreign languages and knowledge about foreign countries. New schools established by the government fell under two categories: (1) foreign-language schools to produce interpreters and translators and (2) schools for military defense. Notable among the latter were the Foochow (Fuzhou) Navy Yard School to teach shipbuilding and navigation and a number of academies to teach naval and military sciences and tactics.

China’s defeat by Japan in 1894–95 gave impetus to the reform movement. A young progressive-minded emperor, Guangxu, who was accessible to liberal reformers, decided upon a fairly comprehensive program of reform, including reorganizing the army and navy, broadening the civil service examinations, establishing an imperial university in the national capital and modern schools in the provinces, and so on. The imperial edicts in the summer of 1898 spelled out a program that has been called the Hundred Days of Reform. Unfortunately for China and for the Manchu dynasty, conservative opposition was supported by the empress dowager Cixi, who took prompt and peremptory action to stop the reform movement. The edicts of the summer were reversed and the reforms nullified. Frustration and disappointment in the country led in 1900 to the emotional outburst of the Boxer Rebellion.

After the Boxer settlement, even the empress dowager had to accept the necessity of change. Belatedly, she now ordered that modern schools teaching modern subjects—such as Western history, politics, science, and technology, along with Chinese classics—be established on all levels. The civil service examinations were to be broadened to include Western subjects. A plan was ordered to send students abroad for study and recruit them for government service upon return from abroad. But these measures were not enough to meet the pressing demands now being presented with increasing forcefulness. Finally, an edict in 1905 abolished the examination system that had dominated Chinese education for centuries. The way was now cleared for the establishment of a modern school system.

The first modern school system was adopted in 1903. The system followed the pattern of the Japanese schools, which in turn had borrowed from Germany. Later, however, after establishment of the republic, Chinese leaders felt that the Prussian-style Japanese education could no longer satisfy the aspirations of the republican era, and they turned to American schools for a model. A new system adopted in 1911 was similar to what was then in vogue in the United States. It provided for an eight-year elementary school, a four-year secondary school, and a four-year college. Another revision was made in 1922, which again reflected American influence. Elementary education was reduced to six years, and secondary education was divided into two three-year levels. Education in the republic

The first decade of the republic, up to the 1920s, was marked by high hopes and lofty aspirations that remained unfulfilled in the inclement climate of political weakness, uncertainty, and turmoil. The change from a monarchy to a republic was too radical and too sudden for a nation lacking any experience in political participation. The young republic was torn by political intrigue and by internecine warfare among warlords. There was no stable government.

A school system was in existence, but it received scant attention or support from those responsible for government. School buildings were in disrepair, libraries and laboratory equipment were neglected, and teachers’ salaries were pitifully low and usually in arrears.

It was, nevertheless, a period of intellectual ferment. The intellectual energies were channeled into a few movements of great significance. The first was the New Culture Movement, or what some Western writers have called the Chinese Renaissance. It was, at once, a cordial reception to new ideas from abroad and a bold attempt to reappraise China’s cultural heritage in the light of modern knowledge and scholarship. China’s intellectuals opened their minds and hearts to ideas and systems of thought from all parts of the world. They eagerly read translated works of Western educators, philosophers, and literary writers. There was a mushroom growth of journals, school publications, literary magazines, and periodicals expounding new ideas. It was at this time that Marxism was introduced into China.

Another movement of great significance was the Literary Revolution. Its most important aspect was a rebellion against the classical style of writing and the advocacy of a vernacular written language. The classics, textbooks, and other respectable writings had been in the classical written language, which, though using the same written characters, was so different from the spoken language that a pupil could learn to read without understanding the meaning of the words. Now, progressive scholars rejected the heretofore respected classical writing and declared their determination to write as they spoke. The new vernacular writing, known as baihua" class="md-crosslink">baihua (“plain speech”), won immediate popularity. Breaking away from the limitations of stilted language and belaboured forms, the baihua movement was a boon to the freedom and creativity released by the New Thought Movement and produced a new literature attuned to the realities of contemporary life.

A third movement growing out of the intellectual freedom of this period was the Chinese Student Movement, or what is known as the May Fourth Movement. The name of the movement rose from nationwide student demonstrations on May 4, 1919, in protest against the decision of the Paris Peace Conference to accede to the Japanese demand for territorial and economic advantages in China. So forceful were the student protests and such overwhelming support did they get from the public that the weak and inept government was emboldened to take a stand at the conference and refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The students, thus, had a direct hand in changing the course of history at a crucial time and, from now on, Chinese students constituted an active force on the political and social scene. Education under the Nationalist government

Nationalist China rose in the mid-1920s amid a resurgence of nationalism and national consciousness stimulated by post-World War I developments. It was led by the Nationalist Party, the political party organized by Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the republic. Cognizant of the popular appeal of nationalism, the Nationalist Party set up a government pledged to achieve national unity at home and national independence from foreign control as prerequisites to a program of modernization and national reconstruction. In education, it set out to systematize and stabilize a shaky and ill-supported school system and use it as a means of national regeneration. Schools were assured of financial support, however inadequate, and placed under strict supervision and firm control by public authorities.

State control of education by means of centralized administration was instituted. Measures were adopted to correct the abuses and chaos that had resulted from the laissez-faire educational policy of the warlords. Decrees and regulations issued by the Nationalist Ministry of Education were strictly enforced, with the aid of a centrally administered system of inspection and accreditation. Detailed regulations covered the curricula of schools on all levels—minimum standards of achievement; teaching procedures; teachers’ qualifications; and specifications for school buildings, libraries, laboratories, and the like. Private schools were permitted but were as subject to government control as public schools and were required to follow the same regulations with regard to curriculum and all other details.

A uniform system of schools was in effect throughout the country. Elementary education was provided in the four-year primary school, followed by the two-year higher elementary. In areas where there were not enough funds to support longer courses, there were abbreviated schools having only one or two grades. Theoretically, the government was committed to the goal of four-year compulsory education, but financial problems prevented an early realization of this goal. Adult education was given much attention in adult schools, in mass education projects, and in different forms of “social education.” The latter term encompassed a variety of educational agencies outside the schools, such as libraries, museums, public reading rooms, recreational centres, music, sports, radio broadcasting, and films. Reduction of illiteracy was a major objective.

There were three parallel types of secondary education: the academic middle school, the normal school, and the vocational school. To counteract the traditional preference for the academic type of education, the government restricted the growth of the academic middle school. At the same time, vocational schools were encouraged.

A major objective of government policy was to promote “practical studies.” In secondary education, “practical studies” meant the development of vocational and technical schools and more attention to science and laboratory experience in middle schools. In higher education, measures were taken to steer students away from liberal arts, law, education, and commerce to the “practical courses” of science, engineering, technology, agriculture, and medicine. Government grants for private as well as public colleges were usually designated for the science program. As a result of this policy, the years prior to World War II saw a steady increase of enrollment in the “practical courses” of study and a corresponding decline of enrollment in the arts–law–education–commerce courses. The increase of interest in science was also evident in the secondary schools.

It may be said that the thrust of educational policy in Nationalist China was to rectify the imbalance of the past, especially the nonvocational literary tradition of premodern days. In the attempt to counteract past tendencies, however, it was possible that the pendulum might swing to the other extreme. Some educators expressed the fear that the promotion of “practical studies” might lead to a narrow, utilitarian concept of education and a neglect of the humanities and social sciences. Others were uneasy over the danger of regimentation through centralized administration. Nevertheless, education under the Nationalist government did succeed in establishing an effective national system of education, promoting science and technical studies, and correcting the abuses and irregularities of the earlier period. Thanks to dependable financial support, state schools and universities gained in prestige and academic performance until they were recognized as among the outstanding educational institutions of the country.

Other accomplishments of this period include the growth of postgraduate education and research, the general acceptance of coeducation in elementary and higher education, and the use of the Guoyu (National Tongue) as an effective means of unifying the spoken language and thus overcoming the difficulties of local dialects. Education under communism

The communist revolution aimed at being total revolution, demanding no less than the establishing of a new society radically different from what the orthodox communists called the feudal society of traditional China. This new society called for people with new loyalties, new motivations, and new concepts of individual and group life. Education was recognized as playing a strategic role in achieving this revolution and development. Specifically, education was called upon to produce, on the one hand, zealous revolutionaries ready to rebel against the old society and fight to establish a new order and, at the same time, to bring up a new generation of skilled workers and technical personnel to take up the multitudinous tasks of development and modernization.

The People’s Republic of China generally makes no distinction between education and propaganda or indoctrination. All three share the common task of changing man. The agencies of education, indoctrination, and propaganda are legion—newspapers, posters, and propaganda leaflets, neighbourhood gatherings for the study of current events, as well as political rallies, parades, and many forms of “mass campaigns” under careful direction. It is evident that the schools constitute only a small part of the educational program.

When the communists came to power in 1949, they took up three educational tasks of major importance: (1) teaching many illiterate people to read and write, (2) training the personnel needed to carry on the work of political organization, agricultural and industrial production, and economic reform, and (3) remolding the behaviour, emotions, attitudes, and outlook of the people. Millions of cadres were given intensive training to carry out specific programs. There were cadres for the enforcement of the agrarian law, the marriage law, and the electoral law; some were trained for industry or agriculture, others for the schools, and so on. This method of short-term ad hoc training is characteristic of communist education in general.

Because the new communist leaders had no experience in government administration, they turned to their ideological ally, the Soviet Union, for aid and guidance. Soviet advisers responded quickly, and Chinese education and culture, which had been Westernized under the Nationalists, became Sovietized. An extensive propaganda campaign flooded the country with hyperbolic eulogies of Soviet achievements in culture and education. The emphasis on Soviet cultural supremacy was accompanied by the repudiation of all Western influence.

A major agency designed to popularize the Soviet model was the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association (SSFA), inaugurated in October 1949, immediately after the new regime was proclaimed. Headed by no less a personage than Liu Shaoqi—the second highest Chinese Communist Party leader—the association extended its activities to all parts of the country, with branch organizations in schools, factories, business enterprises, and government offices. In schools, students were urged to enlist as members of the association and to participate in its activities. In many schools more than 90 percent of the students became SSFA members. Throughout the nation, the SSFA sponsored exhibits, motion pictures, mass meetings, parades, and lectures to engender interest in the Soviet Union and in the study of Russian language, education, and culture.

Soviet advisers drew up a plan for the merging and geographic redistribution of colleges and universities and for the reorganization of collegiate departments and areas of specialization in line with Soviet concepts. Colleges and departments of long standing were eliminated without regard to established traditions or to the interests and scholarly contributions of their faculties. Russian replaced English as the most important foreign language.

From curriculum content to teaching methods, from the grading system to academic degrees, communist China followed the Soviet model under the tutelage of Soviet advisers, whose wisdom few dared question. Even the new youth organizations (which displaced the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts) were comparable to the Pioneers and Komsomols of the U.S.S.R. According to one report, at the peak of the Sovietization frenzy, the first lesson in a Chinese-language textbook used in primary schools was a translation from a Russian textbook.

Never before in the history of education in China had such an extensive effort been made to imitate the education of a foreign country on such a large scale within such a short period of time. Nevertheless, there were many reasons why the campaign did not produce many lasting changes in Chinese education. Russian education and culture had not been well known in China, and the nation was not psychologically prepared for such a sudden and intensive dose of indoctrination to “learn from the Soviet Union.” Students, teachers, and intellectuals in general, who would have reacted favourably to a reform to make education more Chinese, were skeptical of the wisdom of switching from Western influence to Soviet influence.

Chinese leaders justified the indiscriminate imitation of the Soviet model on ideological grounds. The Soviet Union was the leader of the socialist countries; Lenin and Stalin were the shining lights that led the people of the world in their struggle for freedom and equality; the supremacy of the Soviet Union had proved the superiority of socialism over capitalism.

The paramount importance of ideology in education may also be seen in other ways. Ideological and political indoctrination was indispensable to all levels of schools and to adult education and all forms of “spare-time education.” It consisted of learning basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism and studying documents describing the structure and objectives of the new government as well as major speeches and utterances of the party and government leaders. Its aim was to engender enthusiasm for the proletarian-socialist revolution and fervent support for the new regime. Class and class struggle were related concepts that occupied a central place in the ideology, and a specific aim of education was to develop class consciousness so that all citizens, young and old, would become valiant fighters in the class struggle. School regulations stipulated that 10 percent of the curriculum should be set aside for ideological and political study, but, in practice, ideology and politics were taught and studied in many other subjects, such as language, arithmetic, and history. Ideology and politics permeated the entire curriculum and school life, completely dominating extracurricular activities.

Among the most important educational changes of this period was the establishment of “spare-time” schools and other special schools for peasants, workers, and their families. Adults attended the spare-time school after their day’s work or during the lax agricultural season. Workers and peasants were admitted to these schools by virtue of their class origin. Political fervour and ideological orthodoxy replaced academic qualifications as prerequisites for further study. As a result of the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, higher education was greatly curtailed and production and labour were emphasized. Mao Zedong, the Communist Party chairman, issued a directive sending millions of students and intellectuals into the rural areas for long-term settlement and “reeducation.” He asserted that the intelligentsia could overcome the harmful effects of bourgeois-dominated education only by identifying with the labouring masses through engaging in agricultural and industrial production. Proletarian leadership was also emphasized, as “Mao Zedong thought propaganda teams”—made up of workers, peasants, and soldiers who were well-versed in quotations from Chairman Mao but otherwise often barely literate—took over the management of almost all educational institutions.

Mao Zedong, 1966.Eastfoto Post-Mao education

After Mao’s death on Sept. 9, 1976, the new leaders lost no time in announcing a turnabout of ideological-political emphasis from revolution to development. They decreed that all effort should be directed toward “the four modernizations” (industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology). The primary task of education was to train the personnel needed to speed up the modernization program.

The post-Mao schools were very different from those of the revolutionary education. The conventional school system was reinstated. Full-time schools again became the mainstay of a system of coordinated schools, with orderly advance from level to level regulated by examinations. School discipline was restored, and due respect for teachers was expected of students. Serious study was not to be overshadowed by extracurricular activities; the line of demarcation between formal and informal education was clearly drawn. The main task of students, said Deng Xiaoping, was “to study, to learn book knowledge,” and the task of the school was to make “strict demands on students in their study…making such studies their main pursuit.”

Acquisition of knowledge was again a legitimate aim of education. Academic learning and the development of the intellect returned after a decade of banishment. Efforts were made to raise academic standards not only in the universities but also in the lower schools. The “key schools,” outstanding schools that elevated the standards of teaching and learning and served as models for others, were revived. They were provided with funds for well-equipped libraries and laboratories and were staffed with highly qualified teachers. Condemned during the Cultural Revolution as “little treasure pagodas” that catered to bourgeois children to the exclusion of workers, peasants, and soldiers, these centres of academic scholarship were now hailed as the standard-bearers of quality education.

Examinations returned with a vengeance. Every year the government set a date and time for the unified competitive college examination. High school graduates took the examination locally, indicating in order of preference the colleges they would like to attend if they passed.

Although in theory every college had a president, a vice president, deans, and the like, the real educational policy maker was the Communist Party organization in each school. School presidents or other administrators often had to be party members, but even they could not make decisions without the full cooperation of party representatives. Subsequently there were demands for reforms giving more power to school administrators and faculty members. Communism and the intellectuals

Throughout China’s long history, the intellectuals considered themselves the preservers and transmitters of the precious culture of their country. Their road to success was not always smooth, but the intellectuals were strengthened by the belief that once they won recognition as first-rank scholars they would be rewarded with position, honour, and lasting fame.

The attitude of the Chinese communists toward intellectuals is, in large measure, influenced by their ideology. While workers and peasants were raised to the top position, the intellectuals were downgraded because they were considered products of bourgeois and feudal education and perpetuators of bourgeois ideology. The communist policy was to “absorb and reform” the intellectuals.

The intellectuals were made to undergo thorough thought remodeling to be “cleansed” of bourgeois ideas and attitudes. The remodeling began with relatively mild measures, such as “political study” and “reeducation.” The policy became increasingly oppressive in the 1950s when intellectuals were pressured to take part in the class struggle of the land reform and in orchestrated attacks on university professors, writers, artists, and intellectuals in different walks of life. The intellectuals—especially those who had studied in Western schools or had been employed by Western firms—were forced to write autobiographies giving details of their reactionary family and educational background, pinpointing their ideological shortcomings, and confessing their failings.

Following Khrushchev’s 1956 speech criticizing Stalin, violence broke out in Poland and Hungary. This worried Mao, who agreed to try Premier Zhou Enlai’s proposal to relax the Communist Party’s pressure on intellectuals. This resulted in the slogan “Let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.” Mao indicated that intellectuals would be allowed to speak freely. The result, however, was unexpected and shocking. Once they began to speak freely, the intellectuals unleashed a torrent of angry words, fierce criticisms, and open attacks against the repressive measures under which they had suffered. Some recanted the confessions they had made under duress; others went so far as to denounce the Communist Party and its government. To avoid a more serious outburst of explosive ideas and emotions, the government decided to put a stop to the “blooming–contending.” Outspoken critics were labeled rightists, and an anti-rightist campaign not only silenced the intellectuals but also placed them under more restrictive controls than before. The “flowers” wilted and the “schools” were muffled.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s criticism of the intellectuals instigated young radicals all over the country to join the struggle against the intellectuals. Students were urged to slap and to spit at their teachers; insult, humiliation, and torture were common. Some teachers chose suicide. Others were sent to May 7th cadre schools or to the countryside to be reformed by labour.

After Mao’s death and the repudiation of the radical extremists, the intellectuals began to grow stronger. A movement called “Beijing (Peking) Spring” was launched in November 1978. Huge wall posters condemning the communist regime appeared on Beijing’s so-called Democracy Wall. The movement’s leaders expanded the modernization program by adding a fifth modernization, which clearly emphasized democracy, freedom, and human rights. The “Beijing Spring” movement was short-lived, but Chinese intellectuals in the United States and Hong Kong, as well as in China, continued to organize themselves and to advocate democracy and freedom. In China, astrophysicist Fang Lizhi toured university campuses speaking against the repression that he believed had killed the initiative and creativity of Chinese scholars. In the spring of 1989 a grand prodemocracy demonstration took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The university students took the lead, demanding a higher allotment of funds for education and protesting corruption, but people from all walks of life joined the demonstration. The movement drew attention and support both at home and abroad. However, it was soon forcibly suppressed by the government, and the country, including educational affairs, continues to be controlled by the Communist Party. Theodore Hsi-en Chen Patterns of education in non-Western or developing countries Japan Education at the beginning of the century

Between 1894 and 1905 Japan experienced two conflicts—the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars—that increased nationalistic feelings. Japan also experienced accelerated modernization and industrialization. In accord with the government’s new nationalism and efforts to modernize the country, educational reform was sought. The Japanese education system took as its model the western European educational systems, especially that of Germany. But the basic ideology of education remained the traditional one outlined in 1890 in the Imperial Rescript on Education (Kyōiku Chokugo).

In 1900 the period of ordinary elementary schooling was set at four years, and schooling was made compulsory for all children. At the same time, the cost of compulsory education was subsidized from the national treasury. In 1907 the period of compulsory education was extended from four to six years. As the educational system gradually improved and as modernization progressed and the standard of living increased, school enrollments soared. The percentage of elementary-age children in school rose from 49 in 1890 to 98 in 1910.

In those days, boys and girls in primary school studied under the same roof, though in separate classrooms. In secondary education, however, there were entirely separate schools for boys and girls—the chūgakkō, or middle school, for boys and the jogakkō, or girls’ high school, both aiming at providing a general education. Other than these, there was the jitsugyōgakkō, or vocational school, which was designed to afford vocational or industrial education to both boys and girls. All three secondary schools were for students who had completed the six- or four-year course of primary education.

As for the elementary and secondary curriculum, the Imperial Rescript on Education made it clear that traditional Confucian and Shintō values were to serve as the basis of moral education. This emphasis was implemented by courses on “national moral education” (shūshin), which served as the core of the curriculum. In 1903 a system of national textbooks was enacted, giving the Ministry of Education the authority to alter texts in accordance with political currents.

To meet the demand for an expansion of education, a new system for training primary school teachers was established under the Normal School Order of 1886 and subsequently developed under the strong control of the government. All the normal schools were run by the prefectures, and none were private. At first only the graduates of the higher primary schools were qualified for the normal school, but in 1907 a new course was introduced for graduates of the middle schools and the girls’ high schools. After 1886 the kōtō shihangakkō, or higher normal school for women, trained secondary school teachers. Additionally, temporary teachers’ training institutes were established after 1902. These were all state-run. There were also state-run institutes for training vocational school teachers.

For higher education, there were academies for the study of Confucianism, but a university of the European variety did not appear in Japan until 1877. In that same year the University of Tokyo was founded, with four faculties—law, physical sciences, literature, and medicine. In the early years, research and education were dominated by foreigners: most programs were taught in the English language by English and American teachers or, in the medical faculty, in the German language by German instructors. In 1886 the University of Tokyo was renamed the Imperial University by imperial order and, as a state institution, was assigned to engage exclusively in research and instruction of such sciences and technology as were considered useful to the state. Modern Western sciences formed the core of this research and instruction, though some traditional Japanese learning was revived. Engineering and agricultural science were added to the four established faculties. Tokyo Imperial University borrowed much of the style and mode of the German universities and served as the model for the imperial universities established thereafter. Meanwhile, the higher middle schools established in 1886 were remodeled into the kōtōgakkō, or higher schools, in 1894, and in the 20th century these higher schools developed as preparatory schools for the universities.

Higher education was advanced in another area by the College Order of 1903, which enabled certain upper-level private schools to be approved as senmongakkō, or colleges, and to receive the same treatment as state-run universities. Until then the private colleges had not been given a clear legal status and had been treated as rather inferior. Education to 1940

The events of World War I and its aftermath tremendously influenced Japanese society. In the postwar days, Japan experienced the panic and social confusion that was sweeping many countries of the world. Moreover, the intensified leftist movement and the terrible Kantō earthquake of 1923 caused uncertainty and confusion among the Japanese. Nevertheless, the period was one that earned the name of the “Taishō democracy” era, which featured the dissemination of democratic and liberal ideas. It was also a period that marked Japan’s real advancement on the world scene and the expansion of its capitalistic economy, all conducive to the flourishing of nationalism. It was quite natural that these social and economic changes should greatly influence education.

The Special Council for Education, established in 1917, was charged with making recommendations for school reforms that would adapt the nationalistic education system to the rapid economic growth. Their recommendations involved modifying the existing educational organizations rather than creating new ones. The reform emphasized higher education, though secondary education also grew remarkably. As for elementary education, the target of the reform was to improve the content and methods of education and to establish the financial foundation of compulsory education.

After World War I the new educational movements generally called progressive in the West were introduced into Japan and came to thrive there. Many private schools advocating this “new education” were established, and the curricula of many state and public schools were also refashioned. The method of new education was gradually introduced into the state textbooks. Preschool education was also encouraged. A state-run kindergarten attached to Tokyo Girls’ Normal School had been first established in 1876, and later many public and private kindergartens emerged, particularly after issuance of the Kindergarten Order in 1926.

Government aid for compulsory education was gradually put forward, and by 1940 this developed into a system whereby the government financed half the teachers’ salaries and the prefectural governments the other half. Elementary education thus further expanded. Between 1910 and 1940 the number of elementary teachers and pupils almost doubled. In the latter year there were 287,000 teachers and 12,335,000 pupils.

Secondary education continued to be provided by the middle schools for boys, the girls’ high schools, and the vocational schools. These schools increased remarkably both in numbers of institutions and in enrollments after World War I, reflecting the social demand. As a result, the secondary schools assumed more of a popular and less of an elitist character than they had evidenced in the Meiji era. In 1931 two courses were provided for the middle school system; one was for those who advanced on to higher schools, and the other course was for those who went directly on to a vocation. Enrollments of all kinds leaped: whereas in 1910 the enrollments in middle schools, girls’ high schools, and vocational schools had been 122,000 pupils, 56,200 pupils, and 64,700 pupils, respectively, the respective figures in 1940 were 432,000 pupils, 555,000 pupils, and 625,000 pupils.

A drastic reform of higher education was instituted in 1918, when the University Order and the Higher School Order were issued on the recommendation of the Special Council for Education. Before that, there had been only the imperial universities, which were state-run. The order approved the founding of private universities and colleges. As a consequence, the old influential private colleges, or senmongakkō, rich in tradition, were approved as formal universities or colleges, resulting eventually in such famous universities as Keiō and Waseda. National colleges of commerce, manufacturing, medicine, and so on were also opened. In general, universities and colleges multiplied, numbering in 1930 as many as 46 (17 state, five public, and 24 private). College-preparatory education concurrently enlarged through the establishment of public and private higher schools under the Higher School Order. The higher schools were remodeled after the German Gymnasium and the French lycée and offered a seven-year course.

The schools could not keep pace with the mounting demand for education. The ratio of applicants to the total number of seats being offered at higher schools, for example, rose from 4.3 in 1910 to 6.9 in 1920 and 10.5 in 1926. Because pupils could not proceed from elementary to secondary schools and from there to colleges or universities unless they passed a competitive entrance examination at each stage, the importance and severity of the examinations grew with the number of applicants. Despite efforts by the Ministry of Education to revise and deemphasize the examination system, its importance continues to the present day.

After World War I, social education, or education offered outside the formal school system, gained greater recognition in Japan. During the Meiji era, social education, then called “popular education,” had been promoted by the Ministry of Education to encourage school enrollment, but by 1890 it had taken the form of adult education, attempting to enlighten middle- and working-class adults with public lectures and library resources. By 1929 social education had again become important as a result of the Ministry of Education’s emphasis on youth organizations, supplementary vocational education, youth training, and adult education. The jitsugyō hoshūgakkō, or supplementary vocational schools, which had been built after 1893 as part-time educational institutions for working students, reached enrollments exceeding 1,277,000 by 1930. In 1935 seinengakkō, or youth schools, were newly established, uniting these supplementary vocational schools with the seinen kunrenjo, or youth-training centres, that had earlier been set up to provide military training for youth. Education changes during World War II

The Manchurian Incident in 1931 escalated into the Sino-Japanese War of 1937, and national life became more and more militaristic. Education acquired an intensely nationalistic character. With the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941, the education system underwent emergency “reforms.” Elementary schools were renamed kokumingakkō, or national schools, under the National School Order issued in 1941. The order proclaimed the idea of a national polity or spirit peculiar to Japan; the content and the methods of education were revised to reflect this nationalism. Moreover, the period of compulsory education was officially extended to eight years, though it actually remained six years because of the worsening war situation.

Secondary education was similarly made “national.” In 1943 the Secondary School Order was issued in an attempt to unify all the secondary schools, but, because of the war, it also shortened secondary education to four years. In the same year the normal school was upgraded to the level of the professional schools. As the war worsened, students above the secondary schools were mobilized as temporary workers in military industries and agricultural communities in order to increase production, and a great number of students were sent to the battlefields. As a result, classes were virtually closed at schools higher than the secondary level toward the end of World War II. Education after World War II

On Aug. 14, 1945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers. The overriding concern at the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Allied powers was the immediate abolition of militaristic education and ultranationalistic ideology. This was the theme of a directive issued by GHQ to the Japanese government in October 1945. In early 1946, GHQ invited the United States Education Mission to Japan, and it played a decisive role in creating a new educational system. The mission’s report recommended thorough and drastic reforms of education in Japan. The report was subsequently adopted in its entirety as the basic framework for a new democratic educational system. The Education Reform Committee, which was directly responsible to the prime minister, was established to make recommendations for the implementation of the new education. Based on these recommendations, the Japanese Diet passed a series of legislative acts that forged the foundation of postwar education.

The Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Law, both enacted in 1947, and the Boards of Education Law of 1948 set the outlines of the new education. The prewar system was replaced by a democratic single-track system, in which school programs were integrated and simplified and the period of attendance was settled in six, three, three, and four years, respectively, for shōgakkō, or elementary schools; chūgakkō, or lower secondary schools; kōtōgakkō, or upper secondary schools; and daigaku, or universities. The period of compulsory attendance was extended to nine years, coeducation was introduced, and provisions were made for education for the physically handicapped and other special education.

The reform of the content of education proceeded to reduce the strong state control of former days and to encourage teachers’ initiative. State textbooks were abolished in favour of commercial ones, and schools were controlled locally by elective boards of education. Shūshin disappeared from the curricula and was replaced by new subjects, such as shakaika, or social studies, designed to prepare children for life in a democratic society. The educational reform also altered the character of the universities, which offered access to all citizens. The former institutions—universities, colleges, and normal schools—were reorganized into four-year universities and colleges. Teacher education was placed within the university system, and anyone who completed professional training was eligible for teacher certification. This reorganization had an immense impact upon the development of higher education.

The peace treaty of 1952 not only liberated Japan from the restraints of occupation but also allowed education there to be adjusted to intrinsic cultural and political orientations. Centralization of control increased with respect to administration, curriculum, textbooks, and teacher performance through a series of legislative and administrative measures in the 1950s. In addition, the political indoctrination of the leftist Japan Teachers’ Union was hindered, and moral education was reintroduced as a requirement at the elementary and lower secondary levels. On the whole, however, the postwar educational reforms were retained and advanced, and their subsequent elaboration helped match Japan’s rapid economic growth.

The postwar educational administration was organized into a three-tiered structure, with national, prefectural, and municipal components—all under the general supervision of the Ministry of Education, which also wielded a considerable measure of authority over curricular standards, textbooks, and school finance, among other functions. Through its central, advisory role, the Ministry of Education guided the development of egalitarian and efficient schooling in the postwar era.

The progressive curriculum, which emphasized child interest and was introduced from the United States immediately after the war, produced deteriorating student performance. Thus, during 1961–63 the Ministry of Education replaced that curriculum with a discipline-centred curriculum at the elementary and lower secondary levels in order to improve academic achievement, moral education, science and technical education, and vocational education. This curricular revision set the tone for later changes in the national curriculum. Each major curricular revision represented an educational response to a variety of social needs, above all economic.

The 1960s was a period of high growth for both the economy and education. The unprecedented economic growth was stimulated by an ambitious national plan to boost individual income, industry, and trade. Responding to the changing economic and industrial environment, enrollments in high schools and in colleges or universities increased, respectively, from 57.7 and 10.3 percent of the eligible students in 1960 to 91.9 and 37.8 percent in 1975. Ninety percent of this increase in university and college enrollments was absorbed into poorly financed private institutions, which contributed to the deterioration of higher education. Problems also arose at the upper secondary level, where education remained rigidly uniform even though students were increasingly diverse in abilities, aptitudes, and interests. The inability of the postwar educational system to meet either student requirements or the insatiable demands for secondary and postsecondary education became of critical concern, and in 1971 the Central Council for Education recommended reforming Japan’s education to eradicate these problems.

The Central Council initiated a sustained school reform debate that set the stage for the establishment, in 1984, of an advisory council on educational reform, which was directly responsible to the prime minister. The advisory council called for elimination of the uniformity and rigidity of education at all levels and for the enhancement of “individuality” through education. Its recommendations in 1987 included diversifying upper secondary education, improving moral education, encouraging greater local freedom and responsibility in developing curriculum, improving teacher training, and fostering diversity in higher education. Arata Naka Nobuo Shimahara South Asia Pre-independence period

Amid the rising nationalism of the latter part of the 19th century, Indians became more and more critical of the domination of Western learning as imposed by the British rulers and demanded, instead, more attention to Indian languages and culture. The Indian National Congress, several Muslim associations, and other groups raised their voices against the British system of education. British authorities were not, however, altogether blind to the needs of the country. When Baron Curzon of Kedleston arrived as viceroy in 1898, his determination to improve education was immediately translated into an order for a close survey of the entire field of education. It revealed: “Four out of five villages are without a school. Three boys out of four grow up without any education and only one girl out of forty attends any kind of school.” Education had advanced, but it had not penetrated the country as the British had earlier expected.

Curzon applied himself to the task of putting matters in order. He disapproved of the doctrine of state withdrawal and instead considered it necessary for the government to maintain a few institutions of every type as models for private enterprise to imitate. He also abandoned the existing policy of educational laissez-faire and introduced a stricter control over private schools through a vigilant policy of inspection and control. Such a policy aroused bitter feelings among some educated Indians, since it was believed that Curzon was bent on bringing the entire system of education under government control.

The main battle, however, was fought over the universities. With Eton and Balliol in mind, Baron Curzon set up the Indian Universities Commission of 1902 to bring about a better order in higher education. The commission made a number of important recommendations—namely, to limit the size of the university senates, to entrust teaching in addition to examining powers to universities, to insist on a high educational standard from affiliated colleges, to grant additional state aids to universities, to improve courses of studies, to abolish second-grade colleges, and to fix a minimum rate of fees in the affiliated colleges. The report was severely criticized, and the last two recommendations had to be dropped. Legislation in regard to the other proposals was passed despite bitter opposition in the legislature and the press.

The conflict resulted less from educational differences than from political opinions on centralization. In one part of the country, violent agitation had already started on the question of the partition of Bengal. In another, the patriot Bal Gangadhar Tilak declared: “Swaraj [self-rule] is our birthright.” Thus, Baron Curzon’s educational reforms were considered sinister in their intentions, and his alleged bureaucratic attitude was resented.

The administrative policy of Baron Curzon also gave rise to the first organized movement for national education. This effort was part of the swadeshi movement, which called for national independence and the boycotting of foreign goods. A body known as the National Council of Education established a national college and a technical institution (the present Jadavpur University) in Calcutta (Kolkata) and 51 national schools in Bengal. These schools sought to teach a trade in addition to ordinary subjects of the matriculation syllabus. The movement received a great impetus, because the Calcutta Congress (1906) resolved that the time had arrived for organizing a national system of education. With the slackening of the swadeshi movement, however, most of the national schools were eventually closed. The effect of the movement was nevertheless noticeable elsewhere: Rabindranath Tagore started his famous school in West Bengal near Bolpur in 1901; the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha established gurukulas at Vrindaban and Haridwar; and the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League at their sessions in Allahabad and Nagpur, respectively, passed resolutions in favour of free and compulsory primary education.

In 1905 Baron Curzon left India. In order to pacify the general public, his successors modified his policy to some extent, but the main program was resolutely enforced. Although Indian public opinion continued its opposition, the reforms of Baron Curzon brought order into education. Universities were reconstituted and organized, and they undertook teaching instead of merely conducting examinations for degrees. Colleges were no longer left to their own devices but were regularly visited by inspectors appointed by the universities. The government also became vigilant and introduced a better system for inspecting and granting recognition to private schools; the slipshod system of elementary education was also improved. The number of colleges and secondary schools continued to increase as the demand for higher education developed.

In 1917 the government appointed the Sadler Commission to inquire into the “conditions and prospects of the University of Calcutta,” an inquiry that was in reality nationwide in scope. Covering a wide field, the commission recommended the formation of a board with full powers to control secondary and intermediate education; the institution of intermediate colleges with two-year courses; the provision of a three-year degree course after the intermediate stage; the institution of teaching and unitary universities; the organization of postgraduate studies and honours courses; and a greater emphasis on the study of sciences, on tutorial systems, and on research work. The government of India issued a resolution in January 1920 summarizing the report of the commission. Since then all legislation of any importance on higher education in any part of India has embodied some of the recommendations of the commission.

Meanwhile, World War I had ended, and the new Indian constitution in 1921 made education a “transferred” subject (that is, transferred from British to Indian control), entrusting it almost entirely to the care of the provinces. In each province, educational policy and administration passed into the hands of a minister of education, responsible to the provincial legislature and ultimately to the people. Although European-style education was still maintained as a “reserved” subject and was not placed under the control of the Indian minister of education, this anomaly was corrected by the Government of India Act of 1935, which removed the distinction between transferred and reserved subjects and introduced a complete provincial autonomy over education.

Generally, the new constitution of 1921 was considered inadequate by the Indian National Congress. In protest, Mahatma Gandhi launched the noncooperation movement, the campaign to boycott English institutions and products. National schools were established throughout the country, and vidyapeeths (“national universities”) were set up at selected centres. The courses of study in these institutions did not differ much from those in recognized schools, but Hindi was studied as an all-India language in place of English, and the mother tongue was used as the medium of instruction. These institutions functioned for a short time only and disappeared with the suppression of the noncooperation movement. The Congress’ struggle for self-rule, however, became more vigorous, and with it spread the national movement toward education to suit national needs. The Government of India Act of 1935 further strengthened the position of the provincial ministers of education, since the Congress was in power in major provinces. The developmental program of provincial governments included the spread of primary education, the introduction of adult education, a stress on vocational education, and an emphasis on the education of girls and underprivileged people. The importance of English was reduced, and Indian languages, both as subjects of study and as media of instruction, began to receive greater attention.

Mahatma Gandhi.History Archive/REX/Shutterstock.com

On this general background, educational developments from the inauguration of reforms in 1921 until independence in 1947 can be viewed. In the field of elementary education, the most important event was the passing of compulsory-education acts by provincial governments—acts empowering local authorities to make primary education free and compulsory in the areas under their jurisdiction. Another noteworthy feature was the introduction of Gandhi’s “basic education,” which was designed to rescue education from its bookish and almost purely verbal content by emphasizing the teaching of all school subjects in correlation with some manual productive craft. A general demand for secondary education developed with the political awakening among the masses. Schools in rural, semi-urban, and less-advanced communities were established, as were schools for girls. Some provision was made for alternative or vocational courses when the provincial governments started technical, commercial, and agricultural high schools and gave larger grants to private schools providing nonliterary courses. But the expected results were not achieved because of a lack of funds and of trained teachers. Secondary schools still concentrated on preparing students for admission to colleges of arts and sciences.

The period was also marked by a diminishing of the prejudices against the education of girls. The impetus came from the national movement launched by Gandhi, which led thousands of women to come out of the purdah for the cause of national emancipation. It was also realized that the education of the girl was the education of the mother and, through her, of her children. Between 1921–22 and 1946–47, the number of educational institutions for girls was nearly doubled.

In the field of university education, outstanding developments included (1) the establishment of 14 new universities, unitary as well as affiliating, (2) the democratization of the administrative bodies of older universities by a substantial increase in the number of elected members, (3) the expansion of academic activities through the opening of several new faculties, courses of studies, and research, (4) a substantial increase in the number of colleges and student enrollments, (5) the provision of military training and greater attention to physical education and recreational activities of students, and (6) the constitution of the Inter-University Board and the development of intercollegiate and interuniversity activities. With these improvements, however, the educational system of the country had become top-heavy. The postindependence period in India

India and Pakistan were partitioned and given independence in 1947, after which there was remarkable improvement in scientific and technological education and research; illiteracy, however, remained high. The new constitution adopted by India did not change the overall administrative policy of the country. Education continued to be the prime responsibility of the state governments, and the union (central) government continued to assume responsibility for the coordination of educational facilities and the maintenance of appropriate standards in higher education and research and in scientific and technical education.

In 1950 the government of India appointed the Planning Commission to prepare a blueprint for the development of different aspects of life, including education. Thereafter, successive plans (usually on a five-year basis) were drawn and implemented. The main goals of these plans were (1) to achieve universal elementary education, (2) to eradicate illiteracy, (3) to establish vocational and skill training programs, (4) to upgrade standards and modernize all stages of education, with special emphasis on technical education, science, and environmental education, on morality, and on the relationship between school and work, and (5) to provide facilities for high-quality education in every district of the country.

From 1947 the government of India also appointed three important commissions for suggesting educational reforms. The University Education Commission of 1949 made valuable recommendations regarding the reorganization of courses, techniques of evaluation, media of instruction, student services, and the recruitment of teachers. The Secondary Education Commission of 1952–53 focused mainly on secondary and teacher education. The Education Commission of 1964–66 made a comprehensive review of the entire field of education. It developed a national pattern for all stages of education. The commission’s report led to a resolution on a national policy for education, formally issued by the government of India in July 1968. This policy was revised in 1986. The new policy emphasized educational technology, ethics, and national integration. A core curriculum was introduced to provide a common scheme of studies throughout the country.

The national department of education was a part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, headed by a cabinet minister. A Central Advisory Board of Education counseled the national and state governments. There were several autonomous organizations attached to the Department of Education. The most important bodies were the All-India Council of Technical Education (1945), the University Grants Commission (1953), and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (1961). The first body advised the government on technical education and maintained standards for the development of technical education. The second body promoted and coordinated university education and determined and maintained standards of teaching, examination, and research in the universities. It had the authority to enquire into the financial methods of the universities and to allocate grants. The third body worked to upgrade the quality of school education and assisted and advised the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the implementation of its policies and major programs in the field of education.

The central government ran and maintained about 1,000 central schools for children of central government employees. It also developed schools offering quality education to qualified high achievers, irrespective of ability to pay or socioeconomic background. The seventh five-year plan (1985–90) specified that one such vidyalaya would be set up in each district. The state governments were responsible for all other elementary and secondary education. Conditions, in general, were not satisfactory, although they varied from state to state. Higher education was provided in universities and colleges.

From the 1950s to the ’80s, the number of educational institutions in India tripled. The primary schools, especially, experienced rapid growth because the states gave highest priority to the universalization of elementary education in order to fulfill the constitutional directive of providing universal, free, and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14. Most, but not all, children had a primary school within 1 km (0.6 mile) of their homes. A large percentage of these schools, however, were understaffed and did not have adequate facilities. The government, when it revised the national policy for education in 1986, resolved that all children who attained the age of 19 years by 1990 would have five years of formal schooling or its equivalent. Plans were also made to improve or expand adult and nonformal systems of education. Dissension among political parties, industrialists, businessmen, teacher politicians, student politicians, and other groups and the consequent politicization of education hampered progress at every stage, however. The postindependence period in Pakistan

On Aug. 14, 1947, Pakistan emerged as a national sovereign state. For the new state, the initial years proved to be a period essentially of consolidation and exploration. The constitution adopted in 1956 recognized the obligation of the state to provide education as one of the basic necessities of life. The new constitution implemented by the National Assembly in 1973 made practically no changes to the original educational policy. The federal Ministry of Education, headed by the federal education secretary, oversaw education in the federal capital territory and in national institutions and determined policies and standards. Provincial governments handled all other administrative duties.

Beginning in 1955, Pakistan adopted a series of five-year plans to improve economic and educational development. The most important educational objectives of the sixth plan (1983–88) were (1) to strengthen training programs for all categories of manpower, (2) to establish technical trade schools and vocational institutes, (3) to provide adequate machinery, materials, and books for workshops, laboratories, and other facilities, and (4) to strengthen and develop centres for advanced engineering studies. Because less than 30 percent of the adult population were able to read and write, literacy was also a major area of concern. The National Education Policy of 1979 emphasized the need for improving vocational and technical education and for disseminating a common culture based on Islamic ideology. It also announced plans for gradually replacing the four-tier school structure (primary, secondary, college, and university) with a three-tier system consisting of primary (grades one through eight), secondary (grades nine through 12), and higher education.

The government accepted responsibility for providing free primary education for a length of time fixed provisionally at five years. Only a little more than 50 percent of primary-age children were enrolled in schools, however, with attendance concentrated in urban areas. Religious classes providing Islamic moral and sociocultural education were taught in the schools from about 1980. An alternative course for non-Muslim students was also introduced. The postindependence period in Bangladesh

Comprising what was formerly the eastern wing of Pakistan, Bangladesh emerged as an independent sovereign state in December 1971. Thus, it shared its educational history with India until 1947 and with Pakistan from 1947 to 1971. After independence Bangladesh continued to follow the primary education scheme originally established by Pakistan. One of the country’s most valued educational assets is its rich national language, Bengali.

Article 17 of the constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh declares that it is the duty of the state to provide education to all its children to such stage as may be determined by law. In 1973 and 1974 the government nationalized most of the primary schools, but it was found that about 33 percent of primary-school-age children in Bangladesh never went to school and that about 70 percent of those who did left school before attaining the minimum educational standard. The majority of children thus entered adulthood illiterate. It was soon recognized that universalization of primary education for an overpopulated developing country like Bangladesh is a difficult task. Subsequent major reforms attempted to orient the educational system to a new social order inspired by the ideals of “nationalism, democracy, socialism, and secularism” on which the nation was founded. The postindependence period in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) gained independence in 1947. Successive governments subsequently continued the policy of democratizing education that began under British rule. The political and social changes ushered in during the pre-independence period paved the way for a gradual process of constitutional reforms. Schools and schooling were seen as great instruments of socioeconomic development.

Education was free from the kindergarten to the university level in all state and state-aided institutions. Although there were a few fee-levying private institutions, management of education was primarily a state responsibility. General education within the formal system was divisible into primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary education. There were few dropouts or grade repeaters at the primary level. At the junior secondary stage, instruction was provided according to a common curriculum that consisted of religion and other subjects. Students at the senior secondary stage were streamed into science, commerce, or liberal arts courses.

The University Act of 1978 established the University Grants Commission and the University Services Appeals Board to provide for the establishment, maintenance, and administration of universities and other higher educational institutions together with their campuses and faculties. The National Institute of Education was established in 1987 to coordinate curriculum development, textbook development, teacher education, and eventually certification and entrance examinations. S.N. Mukerji Africa

Before the arrival of the European colonial powers, education in Africa was designed to prepare children for responsibility in the home, the village, and the tribe. It provided religious and vocational education as well as full initiation into the society. In sub-Saharan Africa it varied from the simple instruction given by fathers to children among the San of the Kalahari to the complex educational system of the sophisticated and highly organized Poro society of western Africa (extending over Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea). The majority of ethnic groups in Africa fell somewhere between the San and the Poro with respect to the educational arrangements they provided for their youth. Most societies offered rituals to mark the end of puberty and relied heavily upon custom and example as the principal educational agents. The passage" class="md-crosslink">rites of passage marked the culmination of an epoch in a boy’s life. As a child, he had been introduced by his elders to the legends surrounding previous exploits of his tribe, to the mysteries of his religion, to the practical aspects of hunting, fishing, farming, or cattle-raising, and to his community responsibility. Now he occupied a new position in the society. In some cases he had been prepared for the rites; in others secrecy surrounded the event, for reaction to the ceremony was itself an important part of the ritual. A variety of formal observances, in addition to the experiences of daily living, impressed upon the youth his place in the society—a society in which religion, politics, economics, and social relationships were inextricably interwoven. Girls underwent a similar, though usually shorter, initiation period.

An exception to this pattern could be found in those areas where Islam had spread. Islam reached eastern Africa in the 9th and 10th centuries and western Africa in the 11th. It introduced the Arabic script, and, because knowledge of the Qurʾān became an important religious requirement, Qurʾānic schools developed. These schools concentrated on the teaching and memorization of the Qurʾān; some were little more than gathering places beneath a tree where teachers held classes. Qurʾānic schools placed young Africans in contact with Arab civilizations, and boys selected as potential leaders could attend higher educational institutions in the Arab world. Nevertheless, Islam touched but a small fraction of the total African population of sub-Saharan Africa.

Western-style schooling was introduced in most of Africa after the establishment of the European colonial powers. As African nations gained independence in the late 20th century, they abolished the racial segregation that had existed and instituted other reforms but, in general, kept the structure of the existing school systems, at least initially. Thus, 20th-century education in these countries can be discussed according to former colonial status. Education in Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa, however, must be treated separately—Ethiopia and Liberia because they have long histories as independent nations and South Africa because it was under the control of a white minority government for most of the century. Ethiopia

Christianity was recognized in Ethiopia in the 4th century. For nearly 1,500 years all education was church-related and hence church-controlled, except in the eastern part of the country where the Islamic population maintained Qurʾānic schools. In 1908 Emperor Menilek II created the embryonic government school system, modeling it on European systems. The real development of education, however, came after World War II under the direction of Emperor Haile Selassie. Despite his efforts, by 1969 less than 10 percent of the children between the ages of seven and 12 were in school. Education at the secondary level benefited from the infusion of more than 400 Peace Corps teachers in the 1960s and early 1970s. The first Ethiopian colleges were founded in the 1950s. By 1970, 2,800 Ethiopian students were enrolled in higher education either in their own country or overseas.

Haile Selassie, 1967AP

In 1974 a military revolution overthrew the emperor. Ethiopia declared itself a socialist state and proclaimed that socialism would permeate all aspects of the society. The government’s stated aims of education were (1) education for production, (2) education for scientific consciousness, and (3) education for social consciousness. Political alliance with the Soviet Union influenced educational reform. Polytechnical education, which emphasizes familiarizing children with the important branches of production and acquainting them with first-hand practical experience, was widely introduced by Soviet educational advisers. A number of Ethiopian students were sent to the Soviet Union or Eastern-bloc countries for higher education or to Cuba for schooling at the secondary level.

The structure of the Ethiopian school system remained unchanged from that established in the late 1950s. Children began the 12-year program at age seven. Grades one through six make up the primary cycle, seven through eight the junior secondary cycle, and nine through 12 the senior secondary cycle. Students who passed the Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination at the end of grade 12 were eligible for higher education, but space in the country’s colleges and universities was limited. Liberia

Education in Liberia, the oldest republic in Africa (1847), was distinctly different from that in any other African country. Liberia was founded by freed slaves from the United States, and its educational system was modeled on the American system. Public primary and secondary schools were established in the 19th century for the children of the settlers, but there was little money to extend schooling into the interior of the country for the indigenous people. Church schools were also established. The Western-style schools trained Liberians in the new settlements for work in offices. A few students were prepared for the legal or theological profession.

In 1912 a centralized educational system was established under a cabinet-level official, but, except for the establishment of a few secondary schools and colleges, nothing of importance happened until the end of World War II. In the prewar period, three-fourths of the schools were either private or mission-run. Economic growth and the interest of Pres. William V.S. Tubman in the 1950s resulted in a greater extension of education for indigenous Liberians. The educational system was organized to provide preprimary education for children ages four and five, six years of elementary education for children ages six through 12, and three years each of junior and senior high school. Postsecondary education could be pursued at three leading institutions: the University of Liberia, sponsored by the government; Cuttington University College, administered and financially supported by the Episcopal church with some financial aid from the government; and the William V.S. Tubman College of Technology. The educational expansion started by Pres. Tubman in the 1950s, however, reached only a small fraction of the people.

William V.S. TubmanCamera Press/Pictorial Parade David G. Scanlon South Africa

From the time of the first white settlements in South Africa, the Protestant emphasis on home Bible reading ensured that basic literacy would be achieved in the family. Throughout the development from itinerant teachers to schools and school systems, the family foundation of Christian education remained, though it was gradually extended to embrace an ethnic-linguistic “family.”

Despite some major 19th-century legislation on the administration of education (1874 in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, 1865 in Cape of Good Hope, 1873–77 in Natal) and some early efforts to establish free schools, political and linguistic problems impeded the development of public education before 1900. Natal had gone furthest in affirming government responsibility for education and setting up the necessary administrative machinery, but, by and large, provision for schooling remained voluntary and piecemeal until the beginning of the 20th century.

The South African War (1899–1902; also called the Boer War) suspended educational development entirely and confirmed the resolve of each white South African group to protect its own cultural prerogatives. When the Union of South Africa was created in 1910, it was a bilingual state, and thus both English-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking schools were established for white Europeans. Furthermore, a political tightness and separateness increased among the Afrikaners after the war and strengthened their tendency to exclude nonwhites from the cultural and political life of the dominant society. The trend toward separate schools for linguistic and racial groups became a rigid practice in most of South Africa after union.

Church mission schools attempted to replace the preliterate tribal education of native Africans in the South African colonies. Established from 1789, they were dedicated to converting the indigenous peoples to Christianity and generally inculcating an attitude of service and subservience to whites. These schools spread from 1823 to 1842, and colonial governments made occasional grants to them from 1854. Some mission schools included a mixture of races but, by and large, segregation was established by custom. Although some exemplary schools followed rather liberal social and curricular policies, most schools held to narrowly religious content in their curricula. The mission schools were virtually brought into the state system through government subsidies and through provincial supervision, inspection, and control of teaching, curriculum, and examination standards.

By the time the union was formed, the new provinces had each established school systems, structured mainly for European children but including provisions for other groups. Specific arrangements varied, but basically the systems were headed by a department of education under a director and controlled through an inspectorate. Three of the provinces had school boards that localized the department administration. Compulsory-attendance regulations were being effected for European children, while separate school developments were under way for other groups. The language of instruction had been established provincially, with both Afrikaans and English in use.

The South Africa Act of 1909 left the control of primary and secondary education with the provinces, while reserving higher education to the union government. The Union Department of Education, Arts, and Science became the central educational authority and expanded its responsibilities by accepting control of special sectors such as vocational, technical, and artistic education.

In 1922, when the Phelps-Stokes Commission on education in Africa offered its report, South Africa’s example in the development of liberal and adaptable educational provisions for Africans, particularly in Natal and Cape Province, was held up for emulation. The passing of the tribal system was noted and efforts toward interracial cooperation complimented. It was obvious, however, that little of value to Africans was being done in the European-model schools and that noteworthy educational efforts were associated with special institutions, such as Lovedale School and University College of Fort Hare in the Cape.

Concern over African education in the 1940s led to the creation of the Eiselen Commission, whose report in 1951 accorded with the separatist racial views of the government that came to power in 1948 and laid the groundwork for subsequent apartheid (“apartness”) legislation in education. That legislation included the Bantu Education Act of 1953. The National Education Policy Act of 1967 and a subsequent Amendment Act in 1982, along with the Constitution Act of 1983, also reflected apartheid policy. The provinces incorporated national policy into their own legislation and administration.

Fundamentally, the system of apartheid rested on three assumptions: (1) that each cultural group should be encouraged to retain its identity and develop according to its “unique” characteristics, (2) that, with a population of diverse racial-social groups, the way to ensure peaceful coexistence and general progress was through legal and institutional separation, and (3) that the only agency capable of exercising overall responsibility for this development was the central government. Implementation of apartheid policy led to a near-total separation of educational facilities for white, black, Coloured (mixed-race), and Indian (Asian) populations, with resulting divergence of opportunity between the extremes of black and white education.

Administration of education was divided between national departments and provincial authorities. Because education was differentiated by race, four separate systems were established. Education for whites was controlled by the Minister of National Education, and provincial–federal coordination was accomplished through a National Education Council and a Committee of Heads of Education. Education for Coloured and Indian population groups was administered through the legislative bodies representing these groups, the House of Representatives and the House of Delegates, respectively. Education for blacks was largely the responsibility of the black “homeland” governments. All four systems were supposed to follow the same basic organizational and curricular patterns. For blacks outside the homelands, the Department of Education and Training administered education.

Formal characteristics distinguishing the system of education for blacks included a slightly different school organization, designation of state-aided community schools with school committees, provision for limited African-language instruction, and separate administration. More important, however, were the effects of inequality on the system’s operation. Although the government introduced a limited experiment in compulsory education, the dropout rate among blacks was high. Many pupils were educated in factory, mine, or farm schools that were less adequate than general schools. Teacher qualifications were lower for blacks than for the other groups. Illiteracy was high. Rural schools were crowded and short of materials. Few black pupils attended secondary schools.

There were some attempts to close the gap between black and white education at both lower and higher levels. The government proclaimed the principle of equal educational opportunity and, from the 1970s, sharply increased budget allotments for black education. Private and community efforts augmented schooling and introduced experimental integrated schools, and some private schools and white universities were opened to black students. Black schools remained severely inadequate, however, and the government’s position that the immensity of the problem defied immediate solution conflicted with the demands of black activist student organizations, which multiplied after 1976 (partly through division) and intensified their resistance through strikes and boycotts. Violence and fear intruded on township schools and on black universities during the apartheid period.

By the Extension of University Education Act in 1959, nonwhites were barred from entrance to white universities, and separate university colleges were set up on an ethnic-linguistic basis. This well-organized system of differentiating groups began to break down, however, as first English and then Afrikaans universities stated their policies of admission by merit, as university decisions and legislation opened nonwhite universities to other groups, and as protests against government quotas on university admissions became increasingly effective. The universities became centres of agitation against apartheid.

A major government commission, conducted through the Human Sciences Research Council, in 1981 recommended that a single system of education under a single ministry be established. Although principles of the report were accepted, the government held to the cultural policy from which institutional separation was derived. The change from an ideological basis to a pragmatic basis for this separation, combined with the elimination of formal barriers to racial crossovers and black mobility in education, produced a policy that competed with revolutionary strategies for social change.

Before the apartheid era came to an end during the early 1990s, South Africa began to address the crisis in African education. An Education Renewal Strategy was released in 1993. Discussions involving government officials, educators, parents, and students were initiated in the mid-1980s and were formalized in the 1990s. A single Ministry of Education was established in 1993.

Educational reform faced severe challenges, however. The primary obstacle was the limited amount of resources available for expenditure on education. School facilities in predominantly white schools were far superior to schools in black areas. Many African schools, especially in rural areas, lacked primary necessities such as heat, plumbing, and electricity as well as advanced facilities such as science laboratories. Shortages of basic classroom supplies were common.

Teachers were often poorly trained, particularly in the rural schools. Many teachers in suburban school systems, who generally were the best qualified, were reluctant to move to rural schools. Efforts were accelerated to improve the teacher-training system: the previously discriminatory qualifications required for primary and secondary teachers as well as for teachers from the different racial groups were standardized. All teachers must complete a full secondary course plus a three-year training course.

Thus in the early postapartheid period, class differences and geographic considerations began to become more characteristic of social division than race in South African schools. Improvement in the system depended largely on increased availability of resources for education, which in turn depended on a strong South African economy.

A shift to a more Afrocentric curriculum was an important element of South African educational reform during the 1990s. The government and private publishers created new curricula in which racial stereotypes were eliminated and the African perspective of South African history was emphasized. New approaches, including the use of oral histories, were introduced during the 1990s.

Some of the basic features of South African education continued into the postapartheid period. The system was organized into four three-year cycles: junior primary, senior primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary. Because the first year of the junior secondary cycle was taken in the primary school, the primary and secondary units were seven and five years, respectively (replacing an earlier eight-four organization). Schooling was compulsory for students of all races from age seven to 16.

The general high schools were predominantly academic but offered a range of streams. Specialized high schools, at the senior secondary level, offered technical, agricultural, commercial, art, and domestic science courses. Apprenticeship could begin after the first year of the senior secondary phase (grade 10). Attempts were made to form regional comprehensive schools. Private schools were found mainly in the northeast and in the Cape region.

The tertiary sector of South African education included universities, technikons (successors to the colleges of advanced technical education, offering programs ranging from one to six years in engineering and other technologies, management, and art), technical colleges and institutes, and colleges of education. Technical centres, industrial training centres, and adult education centres extended training to early school-leavers. During the 1990s many black university students demanded reduced admission standards and increases in scholarships and faculty appointments for blacks.

Language is intimately related to politics and to African aspirations. It was the imposition of Afrikaans as the compulsory language of instruction that triggered the Soweto riots in 1976 and the subsequent wave of unrest. Black parents and students demanded recognition of their own language and culture (Africanization) as well as the access to the metropolitan culture of their own and other countries that English could provide. During the early postapartheid period, Afrikaans was dropped as a language of instruction for black students in favour of English and African languages. Robert Frederic Lawson General influences and policies of the colonial powers

During the colonial period, the first direct “educational” influences from outside came from religious missionaries—first Portuguese (from the 15th century) and then French, Dutch, English, and German (from the 15th to the 19th century). Starting from coastal bases, they undertook to penetrate the interior and begin campaigns to convert the black populations. The missions were the first to open schools and to develop the disciplined study of African languages, in order to translate sacred texts or to conduct religious instruction in the native tongues.

The partition of Africa by the colonial powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries led first to the establishment of mission schools and then to the establishment of “lay” or “public” or “official” schools. The importance of either the lay or the religious system depended on the political doctrines of the mother country, its institutions (a firmly secular state or one with a state religion), and the status of the colony and its history. But, whatever the system, the fundamental purpose of colonial instruction was the training of indigenous subaltern cadres—clerks, interpreters, teachers, nurses, medical assistants, workers, and so forth—all indispensable to colonial administration, businesses, and other undertakings. Though inspired by the system in the mother country, no colonial system was equivalent to its prototype. The intention was not to “educate” the subject peoples but to extend the language and policies of the colonizer.

Such a generalization, though, is subject to a slight qualification with reference to the religious missions. Both the missions and the political administrations wished to model the African man in accordance with their own needs and objectives. The religious missions, however, became involved in the cultures of the Africans through continual contact with them in the daily ministrations; they used African languages in instruction wherever the colonial administration permitted it. Moreover, for a long while, religious establishments were alone in offering vocational education, some secondary education, and even some higher education to Africans—frequently in the face of the fears or opposition of the colonial authorities. Education in Portuguese colonies and former colonies

Angola and Mozambique shared a common historical legacy of hundreds of years of Portuguese colonization, and the general overall educational philosophy for both countries was the same until independence. For Portugal, education was an important part of its civilizing mission. In 1921, Decree 77 forbade the use of African languages in the schools. The government believed that since the purpose of education was integration of Africans into Portuguese culture the use of African languages was unnecessary. In 1940 the Missionary Accord signed with the Vatican made Roman Catholic missions the official representatives of the state in educating Africans. By the 1960s an educational pattern similar to that in Portugal had emerged. It began with a preprimary year in which the Portuguese language was stressed, followed by four years of primary school. Secondary education consisted of a two-year cycle followed by a three-year cycle. After 1963 two universities were opened, one in Angola and the other in Mozambique. In addition, postprimary education was offered in agricultural schools, in nursing schools, and in technical service courses provided by government agencies. Despite remarkable progress in the 1960s, primary education was available to few Africans outside urban areas, and even there the proportion of African children in secondary schools was low.

Marxist governments triumphed in both Angola and Mozambique when independence came in 1975. Dissident groups, however, maintained bloody civil wars in both countries that had disastrous effects on the educational systems. Nevertheless, even during the fight for independence, educational reform was a main objective of the Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola; MPLA), which gained control of Angola when Portugal withdrew. A report of the first congress of the MPLA published in 1977 provided a blueprint that was followed with few deviations. Marxism-Leninism was stressed as the base for the educational system. The training of all people to contribute to economic development was a major objective. Eight years of primary education was to be universal. Secondary education, offered on a limited basis, included vocational as well as college preparatory courses. At the University of Angola, special emphasis was placed on scientific and engineering courses.

The Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique; Frelimo) introduced its educational system in the areas it controlled even before independence. After independence, at the Third Congress of Frelimo in February 1977, policies for the transition to socialism were formalized. While Marxism would provide a foundation, the particular needs of Mozambique would be addressed. All schools were nationalized. However, the government faced a tremendous teacher shortage, as most of the teachers, who were Portuguese, had left the country. Crash programs in teacher training were introduced. Textbooks, although very limited, were produced that reflected the culture of Mozambique. Most were in Portuguese, which remained the official language of the country, in part because none of the multitude of different cultural groups dominated. German educational policy in Africa

Well before Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had granted a charter to the German Colonial Society in 1885, German missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, were operating in various regions of western, central, and eastern Africa—from 1840 in Mombasa (now in Kenya), from 1845 in Cameroon, from 1847 in Togo, and from 1876 in Buganda (now Uganda) and in Mpwapwa and Tanga (now in Tanzania). Instruction was everywhere conducted in the local languages, which were objects of study by numerous missionaries and by eminent scholars.

On the eve of World War I, more than 95 percent of the schools in German Africa were operated by religious groups. In the southwestern part of the continent the government did not establish any schools at all, relying completely on missionary activity. (In eastern Africa, however, where the large Muslim population was unwilling to send its children to schools managed by Christian religious groups, the government did assume a more active educational role.) To assist the missions, the government granted aid to those schools that met requirements based on specific government needs that changed with time. An example of this sort of aid was the fund founded in 1908 for the dissemination of the German language. The missions had not previously been required to include German in the curriculum but were now forced to do so in order to receive money from the new fund. The language problem was a persistent one and was handled differently in different colonies. In eastern Africa, Swahili was recognized as a language and emphasized in the lower schools, thus providing a lingua franca for the entire area. The government attempted a similar policy with Ewe in Togo and Douala in the Cameroons, but German was the language of instruction in southwestern Africa.

Throughout the literature on German educational policy in the African colonies, there is a continued emphasis on the necessity for vocational education and practical work. The missions, however, were more interested in establishing schools providing general education, and lay German educators took a dualistic approach to African education, emphasizing both practical and academic studies.

The absorption of German colonies by England and France after World War II eradicated most of the German influence in education. However, the German insistence on Swahili in German East Africa left that area far more unified linguistically than any other colonial area. Education in British colonies and former colonies

In the British colonies, as elsewhere, religious missions were instrumental in introducing European-style education. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Moravian Mission, the Mission of Bremen, the Methodists, and Roman Catholic missionaries all established themselves on the Gold Coast (Ghana) between 1820 and 1881, opening elementary schools for boys and girls, a seminary, and eventually a secondary school (in 1909). In Nigeria, Protestant missions were opened at Badagry, Abeokuta, Lagos, and Bonny from 1860 to 1899, and the Roman Catholic missions entered afterward and opened the first catechism, primary, secondary, and normal schools. In Uganda and Kenya the Church Missionary Society, the Universities Mission to Central Africa, the White Fathers, and the London Missionary Society opened the first mission schools between 1840 and 1900.

The first official lay schools came later and for a long time constituted a weak minority. In 1899 in Nigeria, for instance, only 33 of the 8,154 primary schools, 9 of the 136 secondary schools, and 13 of the 97 normal schools were government-run. Similarly, in the Gold Coast in 1914 the government was responsible for only 8 percent of the schools. In Kenya and Uganda all schools were conducted by missions. Not until 1922 did the British government assume some responsibility for education in Uganda, by opening the first government technical school at Makerere (the future Makerere University College). Only in territories seized from the Germans in World War I did the British take over the administration of existing government schools. Generally, the British preferred to leave education to missions, which were given variable financial aid, usually from local and inadequate sources.

Following the publication of critical reports in 1922 and 1925—when there was growing uneasiness among the Africans, the missions, the governors, and the administrators—the necessity of a precise policy on education was imposed on the British authorities. In 1925 an Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies, created in 1924 and presided over by William Ormsby-Gore, published an important report. The ideas, principles, and methods formulated in this document covered the matters involved in defining a policy—namely, the encouragement and control of private educational institutions, the cooperation by the governmental authorities with these institutions, and the adaptation of education to the traditions of the African peoples. Special importance was placed on religious and moral instruction, the organization and status of education services, subsidies to private schools, instruction in the African languages, the training of native teachers, the inspection of schools and the upgrading of teachers, professional training and technique, and the education of young girls and women. The structure of an educational system at the most advanced stage was to consist of an elementary education (generally six years), diversified middle and secondary education (four to six years), technical and professional schools, specialized schools of higher education, and adult education.

In practice, subsequent British policy in Africa was far from the recommendations of the Ormsby-Gore committee. The subsidies to mission schools were subject to regulations that varied from one colony to another and paid insufficient attention to the character of the education. The development of instruction, especially secondary, was generally curbed, and various local associations and numerous organizations therefore arose to promote the expansion of education. The colonial governments exerted real effort only on behalf of schools that trained subaltern cadres for administration and commerce (mostly schools for the children of chiefs and prominent persons and the colleges at Makerere and Achimota). Government-sponsored secondary education began only after 1930 in the Gold Coast, only in a conditional manner in 1933 at Makerere College in East Africa, and only after 1935 in Nigeria. In Uganda no complete secondary school existed until 1945.

The Advisory Committee reports published in 1935 and 1944 raised the same questions and the same fundamental themes, indicating that the government still was playing an insufficient role in education. Development was primarily a result of the efforts of missions, of various private local or foreign institutions, and of local indigenous authorities. After World War II the different sectors of education were developed with the growing participation of Africans, who were gaining more autonomy. Secondary education expanded. Institutions of higher learning were improved and increased in number. University colleges were established at Accra and Ibadan in 1948, at Makerere in 1949, and at Khartoum in 1951; a College of Technology (later, University of Science and Technology) was founded in Kumasi in 1951; and the Royal Technical College of East Africa (later, University College) was founded in Nairobi in 1954. Beginning in 1950, development plans for the various colonies—Ghana (the Gold Coast), Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika—contributed to educational progress.

Upon achieving home rule and then independence, the new African states born of the old British colonies were inheritors of an educational system that, though better than that of the other African states, was still a cause for concern. In most states (Ghana, Kenya, and Malaŵi being the only exceptions), less than 40 percent of the population had a primary education. Secondary education was even less widespread, Ghana being the only country in which it exceeded 10 percent. Higher education existed in urban centres but only in an embryonic state. Other serious obstacles to the ultimate development of education for all the people included the diversity of organizations and institutions responsible for education, the necessity for students to pay fees, and the complexity of the legislation in force.

Every one of the various countries set out to improve education. They offered subsidies to private schools, extended supervision over them, and regulated their tuition. They increased the number of primary and secondary schools offering free or partly free instruction and created numerous institutions of higher learning, such as the universities of Cape Coast in Ghana, of Lagos, of Ifé, and of Ahmadu Bello in Nigeria, as well as the universities of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Nairobi in Kenya, and Makerere in Uganda. The educational systems inherited from colonial rule were racially integrated and subjected to “Africanization.” The rate of educational growth was not spectacular, however. Moreover, the place made for African languages in primary education seemed everywhere to have been eclipsed by English, the official language—in spite of the widespread use of African languages in the mass media. Education in French colonies and former colonies

As elsewhere in Africa, mission schools were the first to be established in French colonies. Although public or official schools appeared in Senegal between 1847 and 1895, the first such schools in Upper Senegal, Niger, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey were begun only from 1896 on.

Only after 1900, with the organization of the federated colonies of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, was there a French colonial policy on education. By decree in 1903, education in French West Africa was organized into a system of primary schools, upper primary schools, professional schools, and a normal school. Two further reorganizations followed decrees in 1912 and 1918, and important schools were established—the St. Louis Normal School in 1907 (transferred to Gorée in 1913), the School for Student Marine Mechanics of Dakar in 1912, and the School of Medicine of Dakar in 1916. The educational organization that remained in force in French West Africa from 1924 until 1947 included a system consisting of primary instruction for six years (regional urban schools), intermediate-higher education given in upper schools and in professional schools (generally one for each colony), and at the top the federal schools (two normal schools, a school of medicine and pharmacy, a veterinary school, a school for marine mechanics, and a technical school). The two schools for secondary education, both in Senegal (the Faidherbe State Secondary School of St. Louis and Van Vollenhoven State Secondary School, at Dakar), were reserved for Europeans and those rare Africans having French status.

Total enrollment in French West African schools rose from 15,500 in 1914 to 94,400 in 1945. The number of students in the higher primary schools grew in the same period only from 400 to 800 or 900. (The area’s total population in 1945 was almost 16 million.)

Educational policy was stated frankly in the official statements of governors general:

Above all else, education proposes to expand the influence of the French language, in order to establish the [French] nationality or culture in Africa (Bulletin de l’Enseignement en AOF, No. 45, 1921); Colonial duty and political necessity impose a double task on our education work: on the one hand it is a matter of training an indigenous staff destined to become our assistants throughout the domains, and to assure the ascension of a carefully chosen elite, and on the other hand it is a matter of educating the masses, to bring them nearer to us and to change their way of life. (From Bulletin de l’Enseignment en AOF, No. 74, 1931.)

After World War II all inhabitants of the newly established French Union became citizens in common who were represented in the French Parliament. This political policy carried over into education, which became even more assimilationist: the old higher primary schools, for instance, became classical and modern secondary schools on the French model. An Investment Fund for Economic and Social Development provided financial and developmental aid to education—to the extent that primary enrollments rose to 156,000 in 1950 and to 356,800 in 1957 and higher primary enrollments rose to 5,800 in 1950 and to 14,100 in 1957. Technical and professional education also expanded, from 2,200 students in 1951 to 6,900 in 1957. Scholarships awarded by the central government, the colonies, and local groups enabled an increasing number of African youths to pursue higher education in France. In Senegal in 1950 the first French West African university, the Institute for Higher Studies (later called the University of Dakar), was established. It was followed by those of Abidjan and Brazzaville.

In 1957 and 1958, when the colonies achieved autonomy and then a kind of commonwealth status within the new French Community established by the Gaullist constitution, education began a more intensive development, at least quantitatively. More primary and secondary schools were opened, teacher training was accentuated, and more scholarship students went to France. Within three years, after the French African countries had achieved full independence, this upgrading of education accelerated. Curricular reforms, however, were slow. Although countries including Guinea, Mali, and Congo (Brazzaville) introduced such reforms as the Africanization of history and geography, generally the traditional French system persisted, and courses were taught in French. The so-called ruralization of primary education—that is, the spread of education out beyond the towns—proceeded under the aegis of the governments and French educational officials.

The rise in the number of primary students was spectacular at first. Between 1955 and 1965, for instance, the percentage of primary-age children enrolled in school increased in Guinea from 5 to 31, in Senegal from 14 to 40, in Niger from 2 to 12, and in Chad from 5 to 30. Such progress, however, depended on recourse to unqualified teaching personnel. Some countries subsequently continued programs of rapid educational expansion. Progress was slower in other countries, and in some areas enrollment even declined. Also, in the former French areas, the number of students attaining a higher education remained among the lowest in Africa. Education in Belgian colonies and former colonies

As elsewhere—and perhaps more than elsewhere—the Catholic and Protestant missions played the prime role in the development of education in the Belgian Congo (now Congo [Kinshasa]; called Zaire from 1971 to 1997) and in Ruanda-Urundi (the present states of Rwanda and Burundi). In the period before 1908, when the Belgian king Leopold II treated the Congo as virtually his private preserve, the missions had assumed an unofficial responsibility for education. After 1908, when the Belgian parliament assumed control of the Congo, the Roman Catholic mission schools were afforded government subsidies and given a privileged official status; the Protestant schools, though not provided with financial assistance, were officially authorized to operate. Throughout the colonial period the overwhelming majority of schools were missionary, and until 1948 the systems were limited to two-year primary schools, three-year middle schools, and a sprinkling of technical schools for training indigenous cadres. In 1948 the Belgian government issued a new plan titled “Organization of Free Subsidized Instruction for the Indigenous with the Assistance of Christian Missionary Societies,” which promised more diversification in primary education (both vocational and secondary-preparatory) and, more radically, recommended the establishment of secondary schools that would prepare the Congolese for higher education.

Leopold II, portrait bust by Ottavio Giovannozzi, 1846; in the Uffizi, FlorenceAlinari/Art Resource, New York

In 1962 the government of the newly independent Congo proceeded with a reform of the old educational system. The first primary degree was standardized and its length extended from two or four years to six years; and pupils were to take a common primary course prior to their orientation toward general, normal, or technical secondary education or toward professional education. Numerous specialized schools of higher education were created: the National Institute of Public Works and Construction, the School of Civil Engineers, the National Institute of Mines, the Higher Pedagogical Institute, the Higher Institute of Architecture, and the National School of Administration. To the already existing Lovanium University of Kinshasa (founded in 1954) and the Official University of the Congo (founded in 1955 in Lubumbashi) there was added the Free University of the Congo (founded in 1963 in Léopoldville [from 1966 called Kinshasa]). Although less pronounced, an analogous evolution characterized Burundi and Rwanda.

By 1970 Congo was among the African countries enjoying the best school and university infrastructure. Then, from 1974 to 1977, the country, then called Zaire, went through a period of intense nationalism. Zairian citizens with Christian names were ordered to change them to African names. Foreign-owned businesses were sold to Zairian citizens. All schools were nationalized, and mission schools were made state schools. A program of accelerated teacher training was instituted. The old universities were combined with the National University of Zaire. The economic chaos that resulted from these moves caused the government to quickly rescind its plans, however. Businesses were returned to foreign owners in 1977. The church schools were reinstated in 1976, and the universities once again separated in 1981. The result of this upheaval was disastrous for the educational system. Problems and tasks of African education in the late 20th century

The independent African states faced numerous problems in implementing an educational policy that would encourage economic and social development. Pedagogical problems and economic and political problems intermixed. The difficulties confronting most governments, however, were basically political.

Numerical increases in school enrollments, though occasionally spectacular, failed to correspond to the legitimate aspirations of the people or even, more modestly, to the initial objectives fixed by the governments themselves. The Conference of Nairobi in July 1968 viewed as rather alarming the lack of progress in education and literacy in the context of growing populations. Increasing emphasis was placed on improving and expanding vocational-technical, adult, and nonformal programs of education. There was also concern about the financial difficulties of the different states, the unsuitability of current educational systems to local needs, the waste and duplications in primary and secondary education, and the insufficient liaison between educational policy makers and the planners of economic and social development. In short, an educational crisis developed and ripened in Africa. Abdou Moumouni David G. Scanlon The Middle East

Modern education was introduced into the Middle East in the early 19th century through several channels. Rulers in both Egypt and the Ottoman Empire (1300–1922) established new military and civilian schools to teach people the skills required to build modern states. In Iran, too, rulers opened new schools, though on a much smaller scale. Many missionary and foreign schools were also established, especially in the Levant. These modern institutions affected only a small percentage of the people, however; the mass continued to receive a traditional education in the Islamic schools. Colonialism and its consequences

Following World War I and the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, new states emerged, which—with the exception of Turkey and Iran—fell under French or British control. Although the new countries inherited educational institutions of various size, each needed to build a new educational system, either from scratch or by expanding a small existing system. Each country sought to use education to provide the skilled manpower required for national development and to socialize its diverse population into feeling loyal to the new state. Educational expansion was pursued everywhere, but the particular pattern of change was profoundly affected by the nature of the political regime, particularly by colonial status. In Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, educational policy reflected French interests. In Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq, British policy prevailed. Both colonial powers shared similar goals: to preserve the status quo, train a limited number of mid-level bureaucrats, limit the growth of nationalism, and, especially in the case of France, impose its culture and language. Accordingly, they limited educational expansion, particularly at the higher levels, even though the demand continued to grow.

Private, foreign, and missionary schools were favoured everywhere as alternatives for the upper classes to the inadequate public schools. The public systems were centrally administered. Their curricula were usually copied from the British or the French and thus were of limited relevance to local needs; the numbers and quality of teachers were seldom adequate; and dropout rates were high. Few modern schools were to be found in the Arabian Peninsula. Only in Lebanon and in the Jewish community in Palestine (which developed its own educational system) were significant numbers of students enrolled in modern schools. Elsewhere only a small percentage of the populace (including a few women) received a modern education.

Upon achieving independence, the Middle Eastern countries nationalized the private schools, which were regarded as promoting alien religions and cultures, and greatly expanded educational opportunities, especially at the upper levels. Egypt, for example, in 1925 nationalized a small, poor private institution (founded in Cairo in 1908) and made it into a national university and subsequently opened state universities in Alexandria (1942) and ʿAin Shams (1950). The newly independent countries also sought to equalize educational opportunities. Iraq provided free tuition and scholarships to lower-class students. Syria, in 1946, made primary education free and compulsory. Jordan enacted a series of laws calling for free and compulsory education and placed strict controls on foreign schools, especially the missionary ones.

Despite their importance, these reforms did not transform education. The schools in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, for example, continued to be characterized by rigidity, formalism, high dropout rates, and limited relevance to national needs. Moreover, rapid population increases often offset the educational gains, especially in Egypt. Egypt also could not overcome the existing fragmentation of its educational system. Its modern system was divided into schools for the masses and schools that provided access to the higher levels for the elite. Both types coexisted uneasily with the traditional Islamic schools, which ran the gamut from rudimentary primary schools to the venerable al-Azhar University.

Countries with strong nationalist leaders were more successful in modernizing education. Kemal Atatürk" class="md-crosslink">Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey, who was determined to create a modern state, initiated a dramatic program of social and cultural change in which education played an important role. He closed the religious schools, promoted coeducation, prepared new curricula, emphasized vocational and technical education, launched a compulsory adult education project, established the innovative Village Institutes program to train rural teachers, and, in 1933, reorganized Istanbul University into a modern institution staffed mainly by refugees from Nazi Germany. Later, Istanbul Technical University also reorganized and Ankara University was established.

Reza Shah Pahlavi followed similar policies in Iran, albeit to a lesser degree, for he was a reformer rather than a modernizer and ruled a country that had been largely isolated from modern influences. He integrated and centralized the educational system, expanded the schools, especially the higher levels, founded the University of Tehrān (1934), sent students abroad for training, moved against the Islamic schools, promoted the education of women, and inaugurated an adult education program. Nevertheless, the Iranian educational system remained small and elitist.

After World War II new leaders came to power, including Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt in 1952, Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia when it became independent in 1956, and the revolutionary government that deposed the monarchy in Iraq in 1958. They began to make major administrative and social reforms and adopted educational policies similar to those of Atatürk. Bourguiba’s reform plans called for universal primary education, an emphasis upon vocational training, expansion of the higher levels, incorporation of the Qurʾānic schools into the modern system, and the promotion of women’s education.

Tunisia, like the other French possessions in North Africa, had to face yet another educational challenge—nationalizing a system that was designed to socialize students into French culture. Arabicization, the substitution of Arabic for French as the language of instruction and of texts and syllabi representing Arab concerns for ones developed to meet French needs, presented many difficulties. Most teachers were qualified to teach only in French, and appropriate texts were not available. When Algeria and Morocco gained independence from France they adopted similar policies and encountered the same problems, which were expensive and difficult to overcome.

Egypt’s President Nasser also sought to transform society and culture. He integrated and unified the Egyptian educational system by bringing the religious schools under secular control and by transforming al-Azhar University, long a centre of Islamic learning, into a modern institution. The old elementary system, which provided access to further education only for urban students, was abolished, and major curricular and other reforms were implemented. All public education was made free, and strong efforts were made to universalize primary education, to upgrade technical and vocational education, and to improve the quality of education generally.

These important reforms did not always produce the anticipated results. Nasser failed to devise a coherent educational strategy that paid adequate attention to the systemic implications and the fit between educational expansion and developments in other sectors. Tunisia, too, despite large investments, was unable to coordinate educational expansion with the needs of the economy. The second half of the 20th century

Every modern Middle Eastern state strove to create an educational system that promoted economic growth and provided equal educational opportunities. In addition, the Arab states wished to promote cultural unity. In 1957 Egypt, Syria, and Jordan replaced the educational structures that had been established by the colonial powers with a common one consisting of six years of primary school, three years of middle school, and three years of secondary school. Most of the Arab states subsequently followed this pattern, although the length of the school year varied from country to country. The Arab systems also differed in the emphasis they placed on certain subjects, especially religious instruction and Arabic, which occupied an especially prominent place in Saudi Arabian schools.

Turkey, Iran, and all the Arab states except Lebanon had another feature in common: education to the secondary level in these countries was planned and administered by a central ministry. These ministries were generally characterized by administrative weaknesses that severely handicapped the provision of education. University education could also be the responsibility of the ministry or—as in Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt—of a separate body.

Educational planners had usually attained, or surpassed, their quantitative targets for academic schooling. School enrollments and literacy rates rose substantially throughout the Middle East. These gains, however, were at least partly offset by rapidly growing populations. Some governments initiated adult literacy programs, with varying degrees of success.

Planners were less successful in achieving their other goals. Despite great efforts, primary and secondary education everywhere retained certain traditional features. Inequalities remained in such areas as rural and urban access to education and women’s education. Although female school enrollment ratios rose throughout the Middle East, they remained considerably lower than male ratios in every country except Lebanon and Israel, which achieved almost universal elementary literacy. Moreover, at the higher levels of education, the percentage of women students became progressively lower. Many countries, especially Egypt and Tunisia, made strenuous efforts to overcome the economic and cultural factors that limited women’s education, but their experience demonstrated how difficult it was to do so.

Qualitative goals were also difficult to achieve. Financial, human, and physical resources were not able to keep pace with growing enrollments. As a result, the quality of primary and secondary education suffered. Split shifts, crowded classrooms, serious shortages of qualified teachers, and inadequate textbooks and curricula were common problems. The strict examination system used by most countries to determine which students may advance to the next level of education also hurt educational quality. Most experts agreed that the examination system did not provide a valid or reliable indication of student ability. Furthermore, they felt that it reinforced traditional tendencies toward memorization and a rigid classroom culture.

Various innovations were introduced in an attempt to remedy these shortcomings. One of the most important was the nine-year basic education program, which sought to provide all children between the ages of 6 and 15 years with an integrated study program that was practical, did not involve examinations, and prepared students to function in a changing environment. It was widely implemented in Egypt and was introduced in Tunisia and Syria as well.

The Middle Eastern countries were also confronted by serious problems at the university level. Because a degree was widely regarded as a passport to elite status, the demand for higher education grew dramatically. Every government sought to limit the flood of entrants through examinations but managed only to slow, not stop, the growth, which far outpaced projections and resources. To help accommodate the surplus, Egypt and Turkey established programs of “external students” and open universities, which allowed students to take courses at home at their convenience. Every year more and more students of lower-class backgrounds received a university education, but the entrance examinations tended to limit admissions to the most desirable faculties (medicine and engineering) to students with elite backgrounds. The rising number of graduates with unneeded skills in turn aggravated problems caused by lack of coordination between education and employment needs. Except in the Gulf states, which had manpower shortages, governments faced the difficult task of absorbing poorly prepared graduates into the work force while they tried to find qualified managers, technicians and skilled workers.

The development of higher education was adversely affected by political considerations. Most Middle Eastern countries never accepted the principle of academic freedom. Turkey, Lebanon, and Israel were prominent exceptions, but even Lebanese and Turkish universities were subject to political control. The Lebanese civil war and subsequent conflicts created a difficult environment for education at all levels. In Turkey the universities became so politicized in the 1970s that ideology influenced many aspects of university life. After the military coup of 1980, the government proceeded to limit university autonomy and to eliminate political activism. Iran and most Arab countries were ruled by more or less authoritarian regimes that regarded universities as potential sources of opposition. The governments in these countries tried to use schools and colleges to disseminate the prevailing ideology. Hence, scholars often emigrated, and those who remained at home were compelled to teach and to conduct research in ways that did not create difficulties.

Efforts to increase vocational and technical training were not very successful, because of the continuing appeal of white-collar careers. In Egypt the government’s determined attempt to channel students into technical and vocational schools yielded mixed results. Enrollments did increase, but the quality and relevance of such education was questioned as authorities considered the costs involved in purchasing necessary expensive equipment and in training and retaining qualified teachers, whose skills enabled them to obtain more remunerative positions in industry. The same difficulties prevailed in the other Middle Eastern countries, though Turkey established—with World Bank support—a network of modern vocational schools.

Technical training in the agricultural sector was also deficient. There was a shortage of qualified extension agents and other specialists everywhere. Moreover, the bias toward academics meant that rural education tended to be neglected, even though the need for agricultural modernization in national development required that peasants acquire a wide range of skills. Israel was one country where rural education received the attention that it deserved. The Islamic revival

The rapid expansion of modern education and knowledge produced results that were not welcomed everywhere. Islam remained, in all societies, a powerful force—one nurtured by traditional factors and by religious education, which continued to be widely offered in one form or another. Believing that traditional Islamic values had been eroded by Western knowledge based on erroneous assumptions, numerous Islamic scholars called for the creation and diffusion of knowledge within an Islamic framework. The Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamic fundamentalist movements demonstrated the power of this appeal. Religiously based polities like Saudi Arabia and Iran emphasized Islamic teachings and values in all schools and colleges, but many other states were providing more religious education than previously. Migration and the brain drain

Educational systems were also affected by the widespread international migration of professionals and skilled workers that characterized the Middle East. The West siphoned off a significant percentage of the skilled manpower from Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. Large numbers of educated persons migrated from Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and especially Egypt and Jordan to the oil-rich states, particularly Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates, all of which faced severe manpower shortages. This flow aggravated shortages of skilled workers in many of the exporting countries, especially Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

These migration patterns influenced and were influenced by educational developments in several ways. They were the result of systems that did not meet a country’s labour requirements. The outflows further reduced existing standards, because migrants included the most qualified teachers, especially those with vocational and technical skills. Moreover, the attraction of working abroad was so strong that many persons chose schools and subjects in order to enhance their potential for migration, regardless of the domestic demand. Thus, domestic educational systems became geared to meet the needs of other societies while domestic employment needs were neglected.

Despite the many problems, it should be emphasized that all the Middle Eastern states built modern educational systems in the face of considerable difficulties. The importance of education was acknowledged everywhere, and every state strove to make education more relevant to personal and societal needs, to achieve greater equity, to lower the high wastage rates, and to improve quality. Joseph S. Szyliowicz Latin America

The term Latin America is a facile concept hiding complex cultural diversity. This abstraction covers a conglomerate of areas, distinguished by differences not only in the Indian and black population base but also in the superimposed nonindigenous patterns—Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxon. In this brief survey, generalizations will be limited to the major Spanish and Portuguese patterns. The heritage of independence

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish colonies enjoyed a prosperity that led to optimism, thoughts of independence, and republican rule. In the prolonged struggle for independence, they were all but ruined, and the change from absolute monarchy to popular democracy was far from easy. The revolutionaries tried to follow the U.S. model, but novel institutions clashed with those of the past; governmental practice did not follow political theory; and the legal equality of the citizens hardly corresponded to economic and educational realities.

The new governments all considered education essential to the development of good citizens and to the process of modernization. Accordingly, they tried to expand schools and literacy, but they faced two obstacles. Their first was a disagreement over what should form the content of education. Since the time of the Enlightenment, political tyranny and the Roman Catholic Church had been blamed for backwardness. Thus, once independence had been achieved, the liberals tried to get rid of the church’s privileges and to secularize education. The conservatives, however, wanted to follow traditional educational patterns and considered Catholicism a part of the national character. After decades of confrontation, the liberals in many countries managed to make education both secular in character and a state monopoly. In other countries, such as Colombia, by way of a concordat with the Holy See, religious education became the official one.

The second obstacle to educational expansion was a financial one. The new governments lacked the means with which to establish new schools. Thus, they began to import the Lancaster method of “mutual” instruction (named for its developer, the English educator Joseph Lancaster), which in monitorial fashion employed brighter or more proficient children to teach other children under the direction of an adult master or teacher. Its obvious advantage was that it could accomplish an expansion of education rather quickly and cheaply. Beginning in 1818, it was introduced in Argentina and then in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Until well into the second half of the 19th century, it was to be the most widely used system.

Almost all the heroes of independence tried to establish schools and other educational institutions. José de San Martín founded the National Library and the Normal Lancasteriana, a teacher-training school, in Lima; Simón Bolívar established elementary schools in convents and monasteries and founded the Ginecco (1825), known afterward as the Normal Lancasterian School for Women. Bernardino Rivadavia, the first president of Argentina, also stimulated educational development, including the establishment of the University of Buenos Aires. In mid-century Benito Juárez in Mexico also championed education as the only bulwark against chaos and tyranny.

By the 1870s the liberals had won the day almost everywhere throughout Latin America. Education was declared to be compulsory and free, the lack of teachers and teacher colleges notwithstanding. A program to remedy this situation was launched. Chile paid for the educator Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s travels to the United States and Europe and enabled him to found, on his return in 1842, the Normal School for Teachers. This was the first non-Lancasterian teachers’ college and was to be followed in 1850 by the Central Normal School in Lima and in 1853 by the Normal School for Women in Santiago. Countries with more acute educational problems, such as Ecuador, simply imported the Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred Heart and put them in charge of organizing their educational system. During the 1870s and ’80s, foreign teachers began to be imported and students were sent abroad. Sarmiento had already called in North American teachers to open his normal schools in the 1860s, and Chile invited Germans for its Pedagogical Institute (1889). Germans and Swiss came to Mexico and Colombia; a number of distinguished Mexican educators were trained by Germans in the Model School in Orizaba. With the foreign professors came new pedagogical ideas—especially those of Friedrich Froebel and Johann Friedrich Herbart—and also new ideologies, foremost among them positivism, which flourished in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Administration

With independence the task of overseeing public instruction fell to the state and local authorities. Fiscal poverty and a lack of trained personnel soon proved them unequal to the task. Furthermore, since most existing schools were confessional and private, the need for intervention by the central authorities to enforce unity became obvious. In 1827 the Venezuelan government established a Subdirectory of Public Instruction, which in 1838 became a directory. Mexico established a General Directory of Primary Instruction in 1833. Soon some countries decided to assume responsibility for centralization through a ministry for public instruction—Chile and Peru in 1837, Guatemala in 1876, Venezuela in 1881, and Brazil in 1891. Other governments abstained from accepting total responsibility. In Mexico, no ministry was created until 1905 and then only with jurisdiction over the Federal District and territories; even that became a victim of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In 1922 a Mexican ministry was reestablished, now in charge of the whole republic and taking up the functions that the states could not fulfill. In Argentina the Lainez Law, decreed in 1905, authorized the National Council of Education to maintain, if need be, schools in the provinces.

In all countries, the control over education is in the hands of a ministry of public education or a similar government unit. Its functions include planning, building, and administering schools; authorizing curricula and textbooks for public elementary and secondary schools; and supervising private ones. In some countries, the states sustain their own educational systems, which the federal government then supplements, but, because of the disparity between city and countryside, these federal governments often had to shoulder almost the total burden of rural elementary education. Primary education and literacy

At the time of independence, elementary education consisted of teaching reading and writing, the religious and civil catechisms, and rudiments of arithmetic and geometry. By the second half of the century it became differentiated between “elementary primary” and “superior primary” education, and the curriculum was enlarged to include the teaching of national language, history, geography, rudimentary natural sciences, hygiene, civics, drawing, physical education, and crafts for boys and needlework for girls. The elementary primary school was increased to five or six years, and the superior primary was to become the secondary school of the 20th century. These educational levels absorbed the greatest part of the governmental efforts and became a means to do away with illiteracy and also to create a concept of citizenship.

Primary instruction was improved by special programs and teacher training, and both benefited not only from educational influences coming from abroad but also from improvements resulting from the study of national problems. Today, primary-school teachers are trained in teachers’ colleges having the status of secondary schools.

Thanks to solid foundations laid during the 19th century, public education in Argentina and Chile reached a high level of competence. In other countries, because of such factors as a more heterogeneous population, a higher level of demographic growth, and greater geographical barriers, the results of great efforts have been less than impressive. Although all countries have declared primary instruction to be free and compulsory, the situation in reality is rather complex. Whereas in towns many children have gone from kindergarten to secondary schools since the beginning of the century, in the rural areas many schools have only one teacher to handle students of all levels. Furthermore, because many Indian citizens do not understand Spanish, special instruction is required.

In the 20th century, governments established special institutions for Indians. The first such cultural mission was created by the Mexican secretary of education, José Vasconcelos, in 1923. The idea was to send an elementary-school teacher, an expert in trades and crafts, a nurse, and a physical-education teacher to underdeveloped communities for a limited period of time to provide the population with some general education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) helped in the training of teachers for these special areas through two regional centres of fundamental education for Latin America (CREFAL), one in Mexico and the other in Venezuela. Many countries tried to master the dropout problem by offering at least one free meal a day to those who continued their schooling.

Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile were able to multiply their schools and thus to provide facilities for their entire population of school age. In other countries the efforts may be gauged by comparing statistics. In Peru only 29,900 children went to school in 1845, but there were 59,000 in 1890 and 2,054,000 in 1965. In Brazil there were 115,000 pupils in 1869, 300,000 in 1889, and 9,923,000 in 1965. In Mexico there were 349,000 in 1874, 800,000 in 1895, and 7,813,000 in 1969. Unfortunately, the high population-growth rate made it difficult to keep up with the ever-increasing needs. Illiteracy was fought by various means in accordance with the political and socioeconomic situation. Secondary education

During the 19th century, many countries established new secondary schools on the basis of colonial institutions. Thus, in 1821 Argentina converted its College of San Carlos into its College of Moral Sciences. Mexico attempted a total reform in 1833 but would not complete it until 1867 with the founding of the National Preparatory School, which involved reforming the whole system on the basis of positivist philosophy. In Brazil the Royal Military Academy was established in 1810 and the Pedro II College in 1830, but secondary instruction did not prosper until the return of the Jesuits in 1845 and was to be supplemented later by gimnasios—that is, Gymnasien on the German model. Peru and Venezuela established national colleges, and Chile and Argentina created liceos (modeled on the French lycées) and, later, national colleges. (The term college in all cases here is used in the continental European sense to refer to secondary institutions, not institutions of higher education.)

In all countries (except perhaps Chile), secondary instruction was considered a preparation for the university. All attempts to make it more formative and practical failed, in spite of the fact that the government took charge. The secondary-preparatory course lasted from five to six years, with a degree of bachelor (bachillerato) usually awarded upon its completion. Its teachers came from the humanities departments of the universities and the superior normal schools (which existed from 1869 in Argentina, 1889 in Chile, and the 20th century in the other countries).

Polytechnical education—industrial, commercial, and agricultural—had been a concern of liberal governments since the end of the 19th century. Traditional prejudices against practical instruction were overcome only after industrialization began. It was emphasized in Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, and Mexico. Higher education

Imbued with a revolutionary spirit in which education was a vital element, Latin Americans founded 10 universities between 1821 and 1833, among them the University of Buenos Aires (1821). Bolívar himself established two in Peru, Trujillo (1824) and Arequipa (1828). With independence, practically all theological faculties had disappeared, and their position of preeminence was taken over by faculties of law.

Four universities were founded in the 1840s, Chile’s among them, and 10 more in the second half of the 19th century. In Mexico the new institutions called themselves institutes of arts and sciences, because the University of Mexico (founded in 1551) was associated with colonialism and had become a favourite target of the liberals. The University of Mexico was suppressed in 1865, not to be reopened until 1910, the year of the revolution. Argentine liberals solved their problem by passing the Avellaneda Law (1885), which allowed only national universities, prohibiting private universities (until the reform of 1955).

In Brazil the plans to open a university in 1823 failed. Several professional schools were established, but the first university opened its doors in 1912 in Paraná. In 1920 the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro was founded.

Almost all higher education in Latin America came to be secular and state-operated. The fact that Latin American governments, themselves unstable, generally took charge of higher education explains in part its uncertain existence.

Some colonial religious institutions nevertheless survived. During part of the 19th century, for instance, the University of the Republic in Montevideo maintained its ties with the church. In 1855 the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, through a concordat with Rome, reverted to pontifical status. But with the exception of the Catholic University in Chile (1888), the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (1917), and the Javeriana University in Colombia (1931), all religious universities were modern creations. The need for technical education was also recognized by the Mexican government when it founded, in 1936, the National Polytechnical Institute as its second national institution of higher learning, with several branches in the country (regional technological institutes) to serve the particular needs of each region.

Until the 20th century, universities were mainly professional schools. Often they also supervised primary and secondary education (Uruguay, 1833–37; Chile, 1842–47; Mexico, 1917–21). Today they also conduct research and try to encourage regional developments. Unofficially, they have sometimes played a role in political life. Since the reform movement for student representation at the University of Córdoba in Argentina in 1918, they have become involved in political controversies. The Mexican government tried to extricate the National University from political strife by giving it autonomy in 1929. Student demonstrations by the late 1960s, however, proved this measure to lack effectiveness. Reform trends

Although most of the Latin American countries achieved nominal independence in the 19th century, they remained politically, economically, and culturally dependent on U.S. and European powers throughout the first half of the 20th century. By 1960 many viewed this dependency as the reason for Latin America’s state of “underdevelopment” and felt that the situation could best be remedied through educational reform. The most general reform movement (desarrollista) simply accepted the idea of achieving change through “modernization,” in order to make the system more efficient. The Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire, however, advocated mental liberation through self-consciousness, a view that was influential in the 1960s and ’70s throughout Latin America. Because political dictatorship prevailed through the 1960s and part of the 1970s in many countries, authoritarian pedagogy became the practice, especially in Chile. In the 1980s the deep economic crisis in Latin America proved to be the greatest influence on education, obstructing all renovation or modernization of public education. Josefina Zoraida Vázquez Southeast Asia

Indigenous culture, colonialism, and the post-World War II era of political independence influenced the forms of education in the nations of Southeast Asia—Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Before 1500 ce, education throughout the region consisted chiefly of the transmission of cultural values through family and community living, supplemented by some formal teaching of each locality’s dominant religion—animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, or Islam. Religious schools typically were attended by boys living in humble quarters at the residence of a pundit who guided their study of the scriptures for an indeterminate period of time.

With the advent of Western colonization after 1500 and particularly from the early 19th to the mid-20th century, Western schooling—with its dominantly secular curriculum, sequence of grades, examinations, set calendar, and diplomas—began to make strong inroads on the region’s traditional educational practices. For the indigenous peoples, Western schooling had the appeal of leading to employment in the colonial government and in business and trading firms.

After World War II, as all sectors of Southeast Asia gained political independence, each newly formed country attempted to achieve planned development—to furnish primary schooling for everyone, extend the amount and quality of postprimary education, and shift the emphasis in secondary and tertiary education from liberal, general studies to scientific and technical education. Although indigenous culture was still learned through family living and traditional religion continued to be important in people’s lives, most formal schooling throughout Southeast Asia had become predominantly of a Western, secular variety.

Schooling in all these countries was organized into three main levels: primary, secondary, and higher. In addition, nursery schools and kindergartens, operated chiefly by private groups, were gradually gaining popularity. The typical length of primary schooling was six years. Secondary education was usually divided into two three-year levels. A wide variety of postsecondary institutions offered academic and vocational specializations. Beginning in the 1950s, nonformal education to extend literacy and vocational skills among the adult population expanded dramatically throughout the region. Most of the countries were committed to compulsory basic education, typically for six years but up to nine years in Vietnam. However, the inability of governments to furnish enough schools for their growing populations prevented most from fully realizing the goal of universal basic schooling.

In each country a central ministry of education set schooling structures and curriculum requirements, with some responsibilities for school supervision, curriculum, and finance often delegated to provincial and local educational authorities. Government-sponsored educational research and development bureaus had been established from the 1950s in an effort to make the countries more self-reliant in fashioning education to their needs. Regional cooperation in attacking educational problems was furthered by membership in such alliances as the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The problems that most Southeast Asian education systems continued to face were reducing school dropout and grade-repeater rates, providing enough school buildings and teachers to serve rapidly expanding numbers of children, furnishing educational opportunities to rural areas, and organizing curricula and access to education in ways that suited the cultural and geographical conditions of multiethnic populations. Myanmar

The indigenous system of education in Myanmar consisted mainly of Buddhist monastic schools of both primary and higher levels. They were based on (1) the moral code of Buddhism, (2) the divine authority of the kings, (3) the institution of myothugyi (township headmen), and (4) widespread male literacy. The Western system was established after the British occupation in 1886. The new system recognized women’s right to formal education in public schools, and women began to play an increasingly important role as teachers. The Government College at Rangoon and the Judson College established in the 19th century were incorporated as the University of Rangoon under the University Act of 1920.

Following independence in 1948, the country experienced more than a decade of political instability until a coup d’état in 1962 brought a strongly centralized socialist government to power. Subsequently, marked improvements in education occurred. Science was emphasized along with general academic subjects, civic education, and practical arts. Primary school attendance for children ages five through nine became free where available. Enrollments in primary schools and secondary schools and in higher education all increased. Malaysia and Singapore

The Malay states, Singapore, and sectors of North Borneo were British colonies until reorganized as the country of Malaysia in 1963. Singapore left the coalition in 1965 to become an independent city-state. As a result, while Malaysia and Singapore shared common educational roots, their systems diverged after 1965.

Under British rule, the most significant feature of education on the Malay Peninsula was the structuring of primary schools in four language streams—Malay, Chinese, English, and Tamil. Students in the English stream enjoyed favoured access to secondary and higher education as well as to employment in government and commerce. After 1963 Malaysian leaders sought to indigenize and unify their society by adopting the Malay language as the medium of instruction in schools beyond the primary level and by teaching English only as a second language. In contrast, the government of Singapore urged everyone to learn English, plus one other local tongue—Chinese, Malay, or Tamil. Thus, in both Malaysia and Singapore the learning of languages became a critical issue in people’s efforts to gain access to socioeconomic opportunity and in political leaders’ attempts to unify their multiethnic populations.

Efforts to popularize schooling in Malaysia and Singapore were notably successful. By 1968 all primary-age children in Singapore were in school. In both countries, secondary- and higher-education enrollments continued to increase rapidly. Both nations were well supplied with school buildings, textbooks, and trained teachers. Indonesia

From 100 to 1500 ce the Indonesian aristocracy adopted Hindu and Buddhist teachings, while education for the common people was provided mainly informally through daily family living. Islam, introduced into the archipelago about 1300, spread rapidly in the form of Qurʾān schools. The first few schools on Western lines were established by Portuguese and Spanish priests in the 16th century. As the Dutch colonialists gained increasing control over the islands, they set up schools patterned after those in Holland, primarily for European and Eurasian pupils. In 1848 the Dutch East Indies government officially committed itself to providing education for the native population. However, even though the amount of education for indigenous islanders increased over the following century, Western schooling under the Dutch never reached the majority of the population.

After Indonesians gained independence from the Dutch in 1949, they sought to provide universal elementary schooling and a large measure of secondary and higher education. Progress toward this goal after 1950 was rapid, despite the challenge of an annual population growth rate around 2.3 percent. Enrollments after 1950 increased significantly at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The majority of the country’s schools were of a Western secular variety, and the remaining Islamic schools were required to offer secular studies in addition to religious subjects. Philippines

The pre-Spanish Philippines possessed a system of writing similar to Arabic, and it was not uncommon for adults to know how to read and write. Inculcation of reverence for the god Bathala, obedience to authority, loyalty to the family or clan, and respect for truth and righteousness were the chief aims of education. After the Spanish conquest, the first educational institutions to be established on Western lines, apart from parochial schools run by missionaries, were in higher education. The Santo Tomás College, established in 1611 and raised to the status of a university in 1644–45, served for centuries as a centre of intellectual strength to the Filipino people. Educational growth, however, was slow, mainly because of lack of government support.

With the advent of American rule, the stress laid on universal primary education in the policy announced by U.S. Pres. William McKinley on April 7, 1900, led to a rapid growth in primary education. A number of institutions of higher education were also established between 1907 and 1941, including the University of the Philippines (1908). Private institutions of higher education, however, far outnumbered the state institutions, thus indicating a trend that remains a characteristic feature of the system of higher education in the Philippines.

The new Republic of the Philippines emerging after World War II launched a series of national development plans that included components aimed at the renovation and expansion of education to promote socioeconomic modernization. After 1948, enrollments rose dramatically in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools. In the late 20th century the Philippines had more than 1,000 higher-education institutions, and nearly all primary pupils attended public schools. Thailand

The traditional system of education in Thailand was inspired by the Thai philosophy of life, based on (1) dedication to Theravada Buddhism, with its emphasis on moral excellence, generosity, and moderation, (2) veneration for the king, and (3) loyalty to the family. The beginning of the modern system of education can be traced to 1887, when Chulalongkorn" class="md-crosslink">King Chulalongkorn set up a department of education with foreign advisers, mostly English educationists. Gradually, temple schools were established. The process of Westernization of education was strengthened with the establishment of a medical school in 1888, a law school in 1897, and a royal pages’ school in 1902 for the general education of “the sons of the nobility.” It was converted into the Civil Service College in 1910.

The abolition of the absolute monarchy after the 1932 revolution stimulated the government to increase educational provisions at all levels, particularly for training specialists in higher-learning institutions. Beginning in 1962, the nation’s series of five-year development plans assigned educational institutions a crucial role in manpower preparation. The government supervised all educational institutions, public and private. Financing education was primarily a government responsibility, supplemented by the private sector. Thai was the language of instruction at all levels, with English taught as a second language above grade four. Cambodia

For nearly four centuries before the advent of the French in 1863, the educational system in Cambodia grew up around Theravada Buddhism, which became the established religion toward the end of 1430 under Thai influence. In 1887 Cambodia became a part of the French Indochina Union and did not achieve complete independence until 1954. Pagoda schools, imparting education at the primary level, were remodeled and integrated into the primary school system administered by the Ministry of Education.

Civil war throughout the 1970s disrupted education until Vietnamese forces overthrew the Khmer Rouge government in 1979. By the mid-1980s schools had reopened with a total enrollment of nearly two million throughout the four-year primary, three-year junior-secondary, and three-year senior-secondary structure. Secondary schools and the country’s few higher-education colleges were in a state of rebuilding. Much of the teacher-training was in the form of short courses, and nonformal adult literacy classes multiplied at a rapid pace. Laos

The pagoda school was the main unit of the traditional educational system in Laos. Efforts toward modernization came in the wake of the country’s becoming a French protectorate in 1893 and finally after its inclusion in 1904 within the French Indochina Union. The medium of education was changed to French when the French Education Service was created.

In 1975, after 30 years of uninterrupted revolution, a socialist government was established and schooling was accorded high priority. Within a decade, more than three quarters of all children 7 to 11 years old were in the five-year primary school, about one half of children 12 to 14 years old were in the three-year junior-secondary school, and about one quarter of the 15- to 17-year-olds were in the three-year senior-secondary school. Vietnam

Lengthy Chinese domination of Vietnam resulted in strong Confucian and Daoist influences on the Vietnamese educational system, though it centred on Buddhism. The establishment of French rule, commencing with the occupation of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1859, led to the gradual growth of a pattern of education similar to that of the rest of the former Indochina Union. Vietnamese attempts to develop education were thwarted by the continued fighting from World War II onward and, after the partition of the country in 1954, by fighting between the South and the North. After the war’s end in 1975, the communist government attempted to “reeducate” the conquered South and sought to establish urgently needed technical and vocational education in secondary and higher levels. By the next decade there were eight million pupils in elementary schools, four million in secondary schools, and more than 115,000 in higher-education institutions. Muhammad Shamsul Huq R. Murray Thomas Global trends in education The development and growth of national education systems

One of the most significant phenomena of the 20th century was the dramatic expansion and extension of public (i.e., government-sponsored) education systems around the world—the number of schools grew, as did the number of children attending them. Similarly, the subjects taught in schools broadened from the basics of mathematics and language to include sciences and the arts. Various explanations have been given for the substantial increase in numbers of youths as well as adults attending government-sponsored schools; social scientists tend to categorize the reasons for these enrollment increases as products of either conflict or consensus in the process of social change. In most cases these perspectives are rooted in theories of social science that were formulated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Education and social cohesion

One major school of thought is represented in the work of French sociologist Émile Durkheim, who explained social phenomena from a consensus perspective. According to him, the achievement of social cohesion—exemplified in Europe’s large-scale national societies as they experienced industrialization, urbanization, and the secularization of governing bodies—required a universalistic agency capable of transmitting core values to the populace. These values included a common history that contributed to cultural continuity, social rules that instilled moral discipline and a sense of responsibility for all members of the society, and occupational skills that would meet the society’s complex and dynamic needs. Durkheim recognized that public schooling and teachers—as agents of a larger, moral society—served these necessary functions. As he observed in The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), “Education sets out precisely with the object of creating a social being.”

Durkheim’s thoughts, expressed near the turn of the 20th century, were reflected in the policies of newly sovereign states in the post-World War II period. Upon achieving their independence, governments throughout Africa and Asia quickly established systems of public instruction that sought to help achieve a sense of national identity in societies historically divided by tribal, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and geographic differences. Education and social conflict

Max Weber, 1918Leif Geiges

Karl Marx, c. 1870.From Karl Marx's Oekonomische Lehren, by Karl Kautsky, 1887The German political theorist and revolutionary Karl Marx viewed public schooling as a form of ideological control imposed by dominant groups. This perspective saw education not as building social cohesion but as reproducing a division of labour or enabling various status groups to gain control of organizations and to influence the distribution of valued resources. The German sociologist Max Weber regarded educational credentials as one such resource, in that credentials function as a form of “cultural capital” that can generally preserve the status quo while granting social mobility to select members of society.

Education and personal growth

The American philosopher John Dewey believed that education should mean the total development of the child. On the basis of the observations he made at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools—the experimental elementary schools that he founded in 1896—Dewey developed revolutionary educational theories that sparked the progressive education movement in the United States. As he propounded in The School and Society (1899) and The Child and the Curriculum (1902), education must be tied to experience, not abstract thought, and must be built upon the interests and developmental needs of the child. He argued for a student-centred, not subject-centred, curriculum and stressed the teaching of critical thought over rote memorization.

Later, in Experience and Education (1938), he criticized those of his followers who took his theories too far by disregarding organized subject matter in favour of vocational training or mere activity for their students. If prudently applied, progressive education could, Dewey believed, “shape the experiences of the young so that instead of reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an improvement on their own.” Concurrent pedagogies appeared in European institutions such as Ovide Decroly’s École de l’Ermitage (the Hermitage School), which envisioned students utilizing the classroom as a workshop, and Maria Montessori’s Casa dei Bambini (“Children’s House”), which incorporated experiential and tactile learning methods through students’ use of “didactic materials.” Education and civil society

Toward the end of the 20th century, comprehensive theories—such as those represented by the consensus and conflict models—were increasingly viewed as oversimplifications of social processes and, in many quarters, gave way to more particularized interpretations. One such perspective viewed educational expansion and extension less as a function of national interest and more as a by-product of religious, economic, political, and cultural changes that had occurred across most of Europe. Especially in the wake of the Enlightenment, an emphasis on the glorification of God was joined by the growing celebration of human progress (ultimately defined as economic growth), while concerns for the salvation of the soul were augmented by the cultivation of individual potential. As nation-states with centralized governments extended citizenship rights in the 18th century, state sponsorship of schools began to supersede the church-supported instruction that had become the norm in the 16th and 17th centuries (see Education, history of: Central European theories and practices). According to such scholars as John Meyer and Michael Hannan in National Development and the World System: Educational, Economic, and Political Change, 1950–1970 (1979), formal systems of education not only represent the means by which nation-states have modernized and prospered economically but are also the surest route to enhancing the talents of individuals. As a requirement for all children and youths between certain ages and as an institution regulated by the state, schooling also became the primary agency for creating citizens with equal responsibilities and rights.

These values emerged in education systems throughout the world, especially in the late 20th century as education professionals promoted them in developed and less-developed countries alike. As such, schools effectively carried modernity into many parts of the world, where it was met with varying degrees of resistance and acceptance. Teachers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and government agencies contributed, for example, to standardization in the shape and style of the classroom, types of curricula, and goals for school enrollments. In the first half of the 20th century, schools in most industrialized countries came to exhibit similar characteristics—that is, schools could be identified as schools. By the second half of the 20th century, these traits had become prominent in most schools around the world. Education and economic development

One explanation for the changes evidenced in this “institutionalist” view of education can be found in the human-capital theory first popularized by American economist Theodore Schultz in “Investment in Human Capital,” his presidential address to the American Economic Association in 1960. According to this theory, education is not a form of consumption that represents a costly expenditure for government but instead serves as an investment that improves the economic worth of individuals (e.g., human capital) and thereby raises a country’s overall productivity and economic competitiveness. In other words, governments support education because it ultimately strengthens their countries. Global enrollment trends since the mid-20th century

Each of these theories partially explains the widespread increase in enrollments, as reported by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), in all levels of education during the last half of the 20th century. Broadly speaking, enrollments increased substantially for school-age children and youths, while adult illiteracy rates decreased significantly. In the second half of the 20th century, the proportion of children worldwide enrolled at all levels (from primary through tertiary) increased from less than half to approximately two-thirds of the relevant age-groups.

Much of this enrollment growth was a product of political change. Most countries in a postcolonial phase expand their education systems, largely because it is something governments can do at a reasonable cost with significant effect. With the opening of schools to many who were once denied education under semifeudal, colonial, or totalitarian systems, it has not been uncommon to find large numbers of overage students enrolled. First-grade classes might have an age range from 6 to 11. Overall, primary-school enrollments more than tripled in the last half of the 20th century, from slightly more than 200 million to some 670 million; secondary education increased more than ninefold, from more than 40 million to nearly 400 million; and tertiary education increased more than 12-fold, from about 7 million to nearly 90 million. Higher levels of enrollment are usually sustained, in part, because “credentialing”—the attainment of degrees or certificates of achievement—has become a social necessity. Employers tend to seek highly schooled individuals while depending on the education system to prepare and distinguish job candidates. In addition, enrollments have been known to gain momentum through the “queuing” effect; that is, when people line up to participate in something, others soon join the crowd in the belief that something of value will be obtained. Primary-level school enrollments

In not only the industrially developed world but also in other regions (e.g., Latin America and East and South Asia), gross primary-school enrollment rates had reached 95 to 100 percent by the beginning of the 21st century, while in Africa they had achieved an average of about 80 percent. Some of the world’s least-developed countries took the most dramatic steps toward offering universal primary education in the final decades of the 20th century. As late as 1970 less than half of the relevant school-age population attended primary schools in such countries, but by 1997 primary-school enrollments in the least-developed countries had grown to include more than 70 percent of school-age children. Between 1999 and 2005, the overall number of children entering primary education worldwide increased by 4 percent, from 130 million to 135 million. Worldwide total enrollment for primary education increased 6 percent, to 688 million. The biggest gains for entering students took place in sub-Saharan Africa, with an increase of 40 percent. Some countries, however, continued to lag behind this trend. Some of the world’s lowest primary-school enrollment rates persisted in countries such as Niger and Djibouti (both less than 40 percent). Although primary education, as compared with higher levels of schooling, is the least costly to maintain and the easiest to expand, a 2008 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report, “Education for All,” concluded that a number of sub-Saharan African and Arab countries were not likely to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Another significant challenge is to provide continuing education opportunities for those who complete basic schooling. Secondary-level school enrollments

In the second half of the 20th century, secondary-school enrollments worldwide expanded from less than one-fifth to almost two-thirds of the relevant age-group. Between 1999 and 2005, enrollment in secondary education grew by 17 percent to 512 million worldwide, an increase of 73 million. Secondary education in developed countries has become, with few exceptions, universally available. In East Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, secondary-education enrollment rates ranged from approximately 60 percent to 70 percent at the beginning of the 21st century. South Asia and Africa had the lowest enrollment rates, at approximately one-half and one-third of the age-group, respectively. Between 1999 and 2005, the fastest growth rates in secondary education occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, and the Arab countries at 55 percent, 27 percent, and 21 percent, respectively. Enrollment numbers are significantly dependent upon a country’s economic resources; it has been the case, for instance, that many youths in this age group cannot attend school because they are needed to supplement family income.

There was a marked worldwide trend toward more comprehensive secondary education in the second half of the 20th century. The higher enrollments were intended to permit students to continue with higher education instead of being “tracked” into different schools and programs that provided a terminal vocational education. However, not all college and university graduates find work that is commensurate with their educational attainment. Increasingly, large numbers of underemployed tertiary-level graduates have led to a renewed interest in vocational education. At both the primary- and secondary-education levels, another worldwide trend has been the inclusion of a greater number of courses in mathematics and science, accompanied by a growing emphasis on computer-related courses intended to prepare students of all ages for participation in the modern economy and its dynamic labour needs. Tertiary-level school enrollments

Higher education, which once had the primary purpose of educating religious leaders, now acts as a gateway to the modern sectors of national economies and often to a higher social status. Higher education is also where the greatest constriction of enrollments occurs. Worldwide, fewer than one-fifth of those aged 18–24 were engaged in some form of tertiary education at the turn of the 21st century, with less than 5 percent of those in the least-developed countries enrolled. By contrast, in the most industrialized and developed countries, higher-education enrollment as of 2005 reached approximately half of the age group, with rates of greater than two-thirds in North America and western Europe and nearly three-fifths in Oceania. Between 1999 and 2005, tertiary education enrollment grew by 45 million students to 138 million, with Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Cuba, and South Korea showing the greatest gains. In some countries access to higher education has come to be considered an entitlement or, alternatively, a social requirement for entry into the most prestigious occupations or high political offices.

Since the 1990s international trends in higher education include rapid growth of private institutions, closer ties to the marketplace (such as corporate sponsorship of university research), and institutional differentiation (such as specialization in particular subject areas or occupations). Postsecondary-learning options range from distance education and short-term courses to extended residential stays and postgraduate work at world-class institutions. Some of these trends stem from advances in communications and international travel. Developed countries not only provide more students with a greater variety of study options but also invest more heavily in the research-and-development infrastructure of higher education. However, regional differences in the capacity of higher-education systems to contribute to scientific research and technological innovation may constitute an even greater gap than differences in material wealth between the richest and poorest countries.

Other developments in formal education

At the other end of the school continuum, access to early childhood care and preschool education became increasingly important in preparing children for success in school. Although preschool enrollments more than doubled to approximately 100 million between 1975 and 2000, in many countries access was not always guaranteed to the poorest and most marginalized members of society, and private preschools frequently accounted for a majority of the options available to parents. Some countries, however, have attempted to provide universal preprimary education to all children for purposes of both child development and the socialization of individuals toward a national identity. France, for example, possesses a strong notion of a national, secular identity that was forged in the French Revolution. Debates at the beginning of the 21st century about the right of French students to wear religiously symbolic clothing or jewelry were, in fact, rooted in the values that emerged from the revolutionary period. In Italy an emphasis on early schooling was the result of social movements of the early 1960s. According to the American sociologist William Corsaro and the Italian psychologist Francesca Emiliani, the massive migration to cities and the active participation of women in labour protests brought demands that the state provide basic social services—including education and publicly funded child care.

Contemporaneous experiences in other parts of the world were quite different. Political revolution in China, for example, changed the very nature of education. Although traditional Chinese culture had attached great importance to education as a means of enhancing a person’s worth and career, by the end of the 1950s the Chinese government could no longer provide jobs adequate to meeting the expectations of those who had acquired some formal schooling. Furthermore, the anti-intellectualism inherent in the mass campaign periods of the Great Leap Forward and, especially, the Cultural Revolution diminished the status and quality of education. The damage done to China’s human capital was so great that it took decades to make up the loss.

A shift to rapid and pragmatic economic development occurred in the late 1970s, when China’s educational system increasingly trained individuals in technical skills so that they could fulfill the needs of the advanced, modern sectors of the economy. The overall trend in Chinese education reflected a combination of fewer students and higher scholastic standards, resulting in a steeply hierarchical educational system. At the turn of the 21st century, slightly more than one-third of the total population had completed primary schooling while roughly one-tenth of all Chinese had finished a secondary school education; fewer than 4 percent had earned an advanced degree. By the end of the 20th century, however, higher-education enrollments in China had grown rapidly. The government had permitted the opening of private educational institutions and had begun to decentralize the overall governance of education.

Higher education in China has expanded dramatically from nearly 7 percent of students in tertiary education in 1999 to nearly 22 percent in 2006. In 2007 almost 19 million students were enrolled in universities, and another 5 million were receiving some form of adult higher education at either the bachelor- or the associate-degree levels. In the same year, approximately 16 percent of students receiving higher education were enrolled in private institutions. Forty-eight percent were female. Literacy as a measure of success

Between 1950 and 2000 the worldwide illiteracy rate dropped from approximately 44 percent to 20 percent of the population aged 15 and older. Yet the number of illiterate people, according to UNESCO data, increased from approximately 700 million in 1950 to some 860 million in 2000 due to rapid population growth in less-developed countries with inadequate education coverage. In the early 21st century South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remained among the regions with the highest illiteracy rates, at about two-fifths. India and China—each with populations exceeding 1 billion and illiteracy rates of approximately two-fifths and one-sixth, respectively—accounted for a majority of the world’s illiterate adults. Even in developed countries, illiteracy rates of less than 2 percent continued to mask sizable populations who could not understand written communications or use various forms of print material in their everyday lives. Global commitments to education and equality of opportunity

Countries increase the social and economic opportunities for their citizens by increasing access to a basic education that includes instruction in math, language skills, science, history, civics, and the arts. The right of individuals to an educational program that respects their personality, talents, abilities, and cultural heritage has been upheld in various international agreements, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child; and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Other international declarations further promote the rights of adults and special groups—including disabled individuals as well as ethnic minorities, indigenous and tribal peoples, refugees, and immigrants—to an appropriate education. UNESCO became a driving force toward the goal of universal education, especially through its sponsorship of the World Conference on Education for All (held in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990), which established 2000 as the target date for universal primary education. In UNESCO’s follow-up World Education Forum (held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000), that goal was postponed until 2015—a realistic reflection of the difficulties of both enrolling and retaining students through a complete primary education. The target date of 2015 also became one of eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) drafted in 2000. Steps toward the achievement of universal education and other MDGs were to be tracked by specific indicators, such as literacy rates and enrollment ratios. Access to education

Despite these international conferences, treaties, and goals, by the end of the 20th century more than 120 million primary-school-age children worldwide remained outside formal education systems. Depending on the country, and especially its level of economic development and its political system, the number of children not attending school ranged from fewer than 5 percent to well over 30 percent of the relevant age group. Moreover, it is important to note that high aggregate enrollment rates for any one region or country do not reveal how many children successfully complete the legally required years of schooling. In developing countries repetition of grade levels and dropout rates take their toll, with frequently less than half of a student cohort completing primary schooling. The initial experience of many children is often one of failure. The problem may be as general as the enrollment of children who have never been exposed to formal schooling and who simply do not understand what is occurring in the classroom. Most frequently, the problem is inappropriate curricula and foreign languages of instruction. Even though the drive to extend schooling to greater numbers of students is a universal phenomenon that does not necessarily represent a Western agenda, Western content and languages of instruction are nonetheless employed in countries whose citizens would prefer their education systems to reflect their own cultures and national goals.

For those who complete the initial stages of schooling, examinations commonly serve as a filtering device for determining who shall go on to postprimary education. As countries develop economically, compulsory schooling is extended, and selective examinations are consequently instituted for entry into upper secondary and higher education (as, for example, in South Korea and Japan). Countries with greater wealth tend both to expand education to a greater number of students and to extend the number of years of compulsory schooling. But even expansive systems eventually introduce selection devices for the most advanced and prestigious levels and types of education.

Central questions concerning the role of education in reproducing social status or opening up opportunity to everyone revolve around who has access to what levels and types of education; what is learned; and how the postschool outcomes of education affect occupational attainment, income, social status, and even power. A predominant theme in discussions of education in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was that of equality of educational opportunity (EEO). Some analyses of EEO liken opportunity to a footrace by asking the following three questions: (1) are the contestants equally prepared at the starting line?; (2) are they running on the same course?; and (3) do they all have a fair chance of crossing the finish line? EEO does not necessarily mean, however, that the educational outcomes will be the same for every student. Implications for socioeconomic status

In the West a commonly used measure of social class is an index of socioeconomic status (SES), which usually takes into account the occupational status, income, and education levels of children’s families. To determine whether education systems are truly meritocratic in their workings and outcomes, several hypotheses need to be tested using the SES index. In The Limits and Possibilities of Schooling (1993), the American sociologist Christopher Hurn proposed one method of evaluating education systems over time. Hurn identified the following set of relationships between variables: first, the correlation between adults’ educational attainment (years of schooling and degrees completed) and socioeconomic status should grow stronger over time; second, the correlation between parents’ SES and the educational attainment of their children should diminish over time; and, third, the correlation between the SES of parents and that of their offspring should also decrease over time.

Not all of Hurn’s tests of meritocracy, when applied to actual outcomes, have proved true. In the first case, international experience supports the proposition that education has become the strongest determinant of individuals’ occupational status and chances of success in adult life. For the two other variables, however, the evidence does not demonstrate a decrease over time in the relationship between family background and children’s educational attainment. Rather, the correlation between family SES and school success or failure appears to have increased worldwide in recent decades. Moreover, long-term trends suggest that, as societies industrialize and modernize, social class becomes increasingly important—compared with the role of school-related factors—in determining educational outcomes and occupational attainment. Social consequences of education in developing countries

Evidence is similarly mixed with regard to gender equality in access to high-quality education and opportunities to enter nontraditional fields of study. Although international agencies and national governments have been active since the late 1980s in promoting education rights for girls and women, complex changes were not adopted swiftly. Of the 120 million children excluded from education systems at the turn of the 21st century, for example, approximately 60 percent were girls and nearly three-fourths were living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, of the nearly 900 million illiterate adults in the world at the beginning of the 21st century, almost two-thirds were women. Again, the greatest number and percentage of illiterate female adults were located in the poorest regions. If geographic location and ethnicity are taken into account, as many as two-thirds to three-fourths of rural indigenous women in the least-developed countries lack the basic literacy skills to claim their citizenship rights—for example, the right to vote. In some contexts there are strong cultural, economic, and political obstacles to women’s access to education. Despite these negative patterns, there have been indications of gains made by women. In many countries a majority of secondary-education graduates and university entrants are women. In the 1970s and ’80s women also began entering technical and professional fields such as engineering and computer sciences in greater numbers, although these advances had plateaued by the turn of the 21st century. In developed and developing countries alike, however, higher educational attainment for women does not necessarily translate into thorough equality in occupational status and income. Education nonetheless leads to healthier, more productive populations, which is why many international organizations argue that the best long-term strategy in the fight against AIDS is universal primary education. The role of the state

Equality of educational and occupational opportunity and outcomes for women as well as for other previously underprivileged groups (working-class, rural, and minority children) is greatly dependent on mutually reinforcing economic and education policies. Comparative studies suggest that government policies favouring overall poverty reduction and wage equity can contribute to overcoming past educational and economic disadvantages. At the same time, there are strong convergent policies internationally that call for a diminished role for the state in the provision of social services such as education; for decentralization of educational governance and financing structures; for privatization of public education through school-voucher programs or by charging fees for services once provided free; and, generally, for the application of a market logic to the overall workings of public schooling.

Critics of these decentralized, more market-oriented approaches acknowledge that they are well-intentioned and are aimed at increasing the equity, quality, and efficiency of education systems through greater local participation in decision making about school standards, competitiveness, and accountability. But critics believe such policies may contribute to disappointing and contradictory results. For example, in countries with great disparities in the wealth and resources of different regions, the transfer of funding and administrative responsibilities to subnational governmental units (on provincial, departmental, municipal, and even specific-school levels) may lead to increasing gaps between educational outcomes for the rich and the poor. Moreover, scores on standardized achievement tests tend to reflect differences in family background and community resources; test results tend to show that urban children from affluent backgrounds attending better schools (whether public or private) typically outperform less-well-off rural children in public schools, and achievement tests similarly document the continuation of past inequities in educational opportunities for ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. Furthermore, some government policies that reduce basic social services have increased the overall level of poverty and the distance between top and bottom income earners within and between countries. In poorer countries the rate of school expansion is decreasing, and in some cases a process of “deschooling” (keeping children out of school) is occurring not only for economic reasons but also because of the inappropriateness of education systems that do not recognize the particular needs stemming from local cultural values and languages. In the long run, however, there is the possibility that local values will be complemented or supplanted by more cosmopolitan ones.

Despite these constraints, there are poor countries that have nonetheless achieved outstanding results on international standardized achievement tests in the areas of language, mathematics, and science while also providing near-universal secondary education. One such example is Cuba, where education and health have been viewed as fundamental components of the Cuban Revolution (1959). Alternatively, Finland exemplifies a wealthier country whose students on average have performed well on various measures of achievement and where differences between top- and bottom-scoring schools and between various categories of students have been minimal. Such successes tend to occur in countries that give priority to investments in education, health, and other social services, while other positive academic results can be seen from governments that are willing to experiment with alternative forms of education and to support innovative programs.

A number of examples from around the world indicate that governments can improve the educational achievement of the great majority of students—even those most at risk of academic failure. Studies such as Unequal Schools, Unequal Chances: The Challenges to Equal Opportunity in the Americas, edited by Fernando Reimers (2000), identify measures governments have implemented with successful results. These can range from the provision of health care services and supplemental nutrition to improvements in school infrastructure that provide poorer children with basics such as school desks and chairs, electricity, and running water. Other solutions may involve flexible academic calendars that mesh with the socioeconomic needs of students and their families in different parts of a country. Also important are adequate numbers of books and teaching materials that are culturally sensitive, socially relevant, and written in “home” languages. Measures that improve the quality of instruction include teaching guides to accompany new curricula, active pedagogies that involve teamwork as well as one-on-one attention, relevant certification and ongoing education programs for teachers, and professional development opportunities and extra pay for teachers serving in challenging settings.