International Education Policy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
International Education Policy
After the Second World War, significant economies embarked on building their human resources through education. This was also a period where a majority of third world countries were experiencing independence from western influence. Countries agreed to support the marginalized countries in the Breton Wood meeting to ensure that quality education was accessible. Like the Marshal plan in the United States, a program that ensured that marginalized countries received quality education was implemented. Education has also received significant critiques where some say it is a coercion of the western world among developing countries. The development of education has been explained using the modernization and the Human capital theory. The role of international aid and its link to coercion has also been discussed exhaustively. Though there exists significant criticism of education, the essay argues on the role of Globalization, International Education Policy, and Local Policy Formation in developing countries.
The development of education can be explained through the Modernization theory. The theory was developed in the 1960s and discusses how education is related to modernization. In the study, industrialized states experience better quality education than less developed countries. The modernization theory postulates that schooling leads to decreased gender inequalities and increased occupational and economic returns. This theory can also be supported by Brown (2015), where the Bretton wood meeting was converged to seek ways of helping underdeveloped countries to access quality education. The increased occupational returns stand out in this book, where colonialists selectively administered training to improve Africans’ productivity in their labor works. Though the theory has received criticism from the World cultural theory, which states that education is method coercion, it explains how economic development is linked to better education.
The internationalization of education inhibits creativity and intelligence among learners,
as postulated by (Griffin 2014). In the study, westernization discouraged the adoption of
aboriginal culture and skills in the curriculum. Government policy regarding the recruitment of teachers plays a vital role in determining the quality of education. Some governments place a lot of academic qualifications for teachers as compared to other states. Griffin further advocates for the education of arts in schools since it increases intelligence among students. In his research, Griffin (2020) shows how some countries abolish the grading system to create an inclusive environment for all learners. States must develop policies aimed at the welfare of learners instead of capitalistic motives (Apple, 2012). This study is backed by Brown (2015), who advocates for the inclusion of skills in the modern curriculum to enhance quality education.
International education policy has been created as a result of coercion, borrowing, and cultural enactment. Education policy from the West and the North have been implemented through compulsion where developing countries have to meet certain conditions. These policies were enacted in the 1970s and sought to formulate strategies aimed at women and children. This has been viewed as coercion despite the numerous benefits derived. Countries would have maneuvered to ensure female education was implemented even if the West never coerced them. Despite the coercion, developing countries should consider all the ecological facets before the formulation and implementation of policies (Weaver-Hightower, 2008). Home-based schooling that was supportive of women and children was also established to increase female participation in school. International funding has been beneficial to develop countries where scholarships to advance tertiary education are given to youths.
The development of international education policy was formulated at the Bretton woods, where a global architecture for international cooperation was formed. The meeting’s goal was to establish the means of helping undeveloped countries to access formal education. Most third-world countries were coming from colonization, and the need to develop an education system was of great concern. Education served as a modernization tool where schools would help the countries grow as postulated by the Human Capital Theory (Brown, 2015). Developing countries needed to develop policies that enhanced education to steer human resource development (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). Before colonization, education was served to a few elites who were mandated to run their colonizers’ businesses. Female participation in school was also achieved after the meeting, where many developing countries received aid based on some conditions such as female education.
Financial aid has been associated with international policy, especially after the debt crisis in 1980. Developing countries lacked financial muscles to build an effective education system. Development aid was formed as a Marshall plan to make the developing countries that faced financial, human, and technical difficulties (Rizvi, 2014). Localization of education also increased budget spending among developing nations, which prompted the intervention of UNESCO. The “Fast Track Initiative” was formulated in the year 2000 to speed up and eliminate bureaucracy in funding. The First Track initiative ensured that millennial goals were achieved on time (Codd, 1988). However, due to increased corruption and mismanagement, a “Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness” was formed to spearhead educational aids’ accountability among the developing countries.
Various policies have been implemented over time in support of education, such as the Education for All initiative (EFA). The goal of the initiative was to achieve universal primary education by the year 2000. However, the timeline was revised in the Dakar meeting and extended to 2015. The EFA recommended abolishing primary education fees to have all pupils enroll in school despite financial constraints (Connell, 2013). Early childhood education was also encouraged in the EFA to ensure pupils transition efficiently to primary schools. The initiative also sought secondary and tertiary education subsidized across developing countries (Gunter, 2016). Life skills were also included in the curriculum to equip young people with adequate knowledge if they failed to continue with secondary education (Brown et al., 2016). Developing countries were mandated to boost their economies to ensure job transition existed after school. Also, gender disparities were eliminated, and female literacy was emphasized.
Conclusively, international and local education policy has experienced significant improvements since the Bretton Wood meeting. Proper policies have been put in place to ensure the Education for All goal is achieved within the postulated time. The Modernization theory explains the internationalization of education policy. In the modernization theory, education is related to states’ development where advanced states possess superior education systems compared to the less developed. Equally, the role of the government in education policy is discussed exhaustively. The government participates in providing equal access to education to all learners under the EFA initiative. The state eliminates discrimination in access to education and provides financial support by giving free primary education. The development of international education policy is also associated with coercion. The West and North countries force the developing countries to implement specific policies to receive aid. Such strategies include the education of females.
References
Apple, M. (2012). Knowledge, power, and education (pp. 1-16). Routledge.
Brown, C. A. (Ed.). (2015). Globalization, international education policy, and local policy formation: Voices from the developing world, Vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 9-23.
Brown, C., Williams, J., & Kwan, S. (2016). Globalization, international education policy, and local policy formation (pp. 25-35). Springer.
Codd, J. (1988). The construction and deconstruction of educational policy documents. Journal of Education Policy, 3(3), 235-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093880030303
Connell, R. (2013). Confronting equality (pp. 73-88). Polity Press.
doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-4165-2
Griffin, D. (2016). Education Reform (pp. 209-228). Springer International Pu.
Gunter, H. (2016). New public management and the reform of education (pp. 65-93). Routledge.
Rizvi, F. (2014). Encountering education in the global (1st ed., pp. 111-147). Routledge.
Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy (pp. 1-22). Routledge.
Weaver-Hightower, M. (2008). An Ecology Metaphor for Educational Policy Analysis: A Call to Complexity. Educational Researcher, 37(3), 153-167. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189×08318050