Abstract
This chapter is a plea for doing the obvious: considering people as the most important ingredient of the quality of education.
Contemporary anxiety about quality of education seems to focus principally on its practical societal functions: preparing people to participate in the economy and educating people against dangers and behaviours that have negative societal consequences (violence, war, gender inequality, substance abuse and so on). Powerful sources of finance, whether they be international institutions, bilateral donors or national parliaments, scrutinize education policies for evidence that they contribute to economic growth. Many reforms address institutional structures and mechanisms, management rather than philosophy and material changes rather than people. Debates rage about financing, school choice, increased competition, standardized measurement, management information and techniques and especially about methods of organizing education that can be teacher-proof, notably through the use of technologies.
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Notes
- 1.
Even the impeccably credentialed right-wing thinkers, Gary Becker and Richard Posner observed recently on their blog that ‘analysis of the PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment], results has revealed … that higher teacher salaries dominate small class size as a factor in high PISA scores. Another finding … is that private schools on average do not outperform public schools after adjusting for the quality of students upon entrance and that competition for students does not seem to improve average performance either’ (February 2011).
References
Paine, S. L. & Schleicher, A. (2001). What the U.S. can learn from the world’s most successful education reform efforts. Policy Paper: Lessons from PISS, McGraw-Hill research foundation. New York, USA
McPike, E. (2003). Education for democracy. Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute.
Schleicher, A. (2011). “How the U.S. educational system looks to a leading expert abroad” by Justin Snider in the Hechinger Report, May 10.
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Draxler, A. (2013). A Humanistic Education. In: Hughes, P. (eds) Achieving Quality Education for All. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5294-8_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5294-8_32
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