Introduction

Abstract

Historically, education has been both parent and child to the developing nation state. The national education system as a universal and public institution first emerged in post-revolutionary Europe as an instrument of state formation. It provided a powerful vehicle for the construction and integration of the new nation state and became one of its chief institutional supports. Since then few nations have embarked on independent statehood without recourse to its ideological potential; even the older states, at least in periods of war and crisis, have continued to view education as a valuable source of national cohesion and a key tool for economic development. However, the role of the nation state is now changing, and with it the place of education.