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Abstract

For several years education seems to have been under pressure with regard to its content, organisation and funding. National education systems are being challenged because of shortcomings in teaching and learning. ‘Are students well prepared for future challenges?’2 the OECD is asking, and it assesses the knowledge and skills of students near the end of compulsory education every three years. In the countries that participate in this exercise, a low ranking often translates into a national disaster. At the same time, national governments have ceased to regard education as a core public activity and begun to stress individual responsibility. Consequently, liberalisation, deregulation, privatisation and marketisation have spread in diverse forms and to various extents on different levels of the educational systems of EU member countries — from pre-elementary to higher education and vocational training institutions. This is the topic of the current chapter.

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Marica Frangakis Christoph Hermann Jörg Huffschmid Károly Lóránt

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© 2009 Wolfgang Blaas, Elsa Hackl and Birgit Mahnkopf

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Blaas, W., Hackl, E., Mahnkopf, B. (2009). Privatisation of Education. In: Frangakis, M., Hermann, C., Huffschmid, J., Lóránt, K. (eds) Privatisation against the European Social Model. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230250680_10

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