National Education Plans

Many nations are coming to understand that the mass education of the world's citizens is crucial for countries to be able to participate in a globalized economy. Since educational systems, focuses, and barriers vary widely around the world, nations have specific education policies to address unique concerns and goals: These goals may include everything from lowering maternal mortality to improving standardized test scores. Many nations have formulated recent educational policy changes in order to address specific concerns, and some nations cooperate with large-scale organizations such as UNESCO to create an effective national educational policy. However, these plans are sometimes formulated without the creators having a true understanding of the specific education challenges a country faces; therefore the plans may not produce the intended results. Good-intentioned educational plans sometimes have undesirable, unplanned effects and create their own difficulties for the education system of a country.

Keywords Democracy; Gender Parity; Globalization; National Education Plan; No Child Left Behind Act of 2001; Primary Education; Secondary Education; UNESCO

International Perspectives > National Education Plans

Overview

Law (2004) stated that there are three important trends that have appeared across the globe in the last two decades:

• The spread and popularity of democracy,

• The explosion of globalization,

• The increase in education reforms (p. 499).

Although Law argued that there has been little research done which judges the interactions of these three trends, it is clear that each of the trends is made possible by the influence of the other two. In particular, globalization and the spread of democracy have cleared the way for education reform and have influenced national education plans for many countries.

Not only have globalization and democracy encouraged nations to focus more on their education plans and policies, increased understanding of the importance of education has also created more interest in improving education. Mungazi (2001) stated that, "Countries all over the world, including those whose leaders do not observe democratic principles, have come to the recognition that governments stand to benefit more than anyone else from their educated citizens. Governments, therefore, have a major interest in educating their people as individuals" (p. 105). He also lists three reasons why educating the individual helps the state:

• The educated individual can seek employment and not be dependent upon the state,

• The individual can vote and further democracy, and

• The individual can participate in community activities which strengthens his culture and nation (p. 105).

Because of this, a vast percentage of nations around the globe are turning their attention to their education plans and seeking new policies and improvements to their education system.

Information Sharing & Collaboration

For nations who are working to formulate and improve their education plans, there is a wealth of information at their disposal. Technology and globalization has created a growing cross-cultural unity of educational ideas and an enthusiastic sharing of these ideas is occurring across the globe. Educators and researchers are able to disseminate knowledge about education and carry out research to judge education results. International standard tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) measure students around the world. These tests help countries judge how well their educational systems perform and track problems in specific areas.

Collaborative efforts and group knowledge also help nations create specific educational programs and policies. For example, the United Nations has its Education for All goal which aims to see all people in the world have access to a primary education by the year 2015. The achievement of this goal, carried out by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) has allowed nations to collaborate with different organizations and other countries in order to pinpoint specific barriers to education and create national education plans to achieve Education for All.

It is clear that many countries across the globe are sincerely interested in improving their national education plan and learning new ways to best serve the educational needs of their citizens and their government. However, doing so is a challenging undertaking because many diverse issues directly and indirectly affect the state of education in a specific country.

Barriers & Cultural Issues Affecting the Plans

Educational practices and standards are quite diverse across the globe because they are rooted in economic, social, environmental, religious, and cultural issues. For example, education ministers in war-torn countries such as Bosnia, rife with strife and poverty, have different challenges than education planners in relatively stable countries such as the U.S. The history of education in a country is also a factor: more advanced countries such as England, where education has long been mandatory and widely accessible, are more concerned with improving and strengthening existing educational structures while countries such as Malaysia are faced with providing basic education in a culture where there is little formal educational structures. Many underdeveloped nations have to create national education plans that include addressing issues such as extreme poverty and lack of sanitation, for these issues are serious barriers to education.

Cultural values and views of education play a significant role in a country's national education plan. Kai-ming (1997) gave an interesting example of this by discussing China's Miao communities. In these communities, a very small number of girls received an education in comparison to boys. This was because this particular culture placed great emphasis upon the elaborate embroidery that decorated their clothing; girls were expected to become highly skilled in this art and take great pride in it. For this culture, mandatory schooling meant that the girls had less time to devote to embroidery and thus the communities viewed the education process as a detriment, not a benefit to their culture (p. 77-78). Many nations must grapple with cultural barriers such as gender discrimination and tension between different ethnic groups as they work to form national education plans.

Other cultural issues affect national education plans. For example, the U.S. is well known for valuing creativity, personal growth, and individualism. It is no surprise that our school systems and goals allow instructors great freedom in designing lessons, emphasize developing both the intellect and the personality of the student, and place enormous emphasis on the creation of new ideas. By contrast, countries such as those in Asia that value a much more structured environment have more tightly regulated education plans which emphasize standards and keeping to a set plan. Because of this, different nations may value different outcomes of education and have different views as to what constitutes good education.

Finally, national education plans are often created or revised in response to how well a country is doing in comparison to another country. The U.S.'s No Child Left Behind Policy was one such plan, created to combat the failing international test scores of U.S. students in comparison to their peers in other industrialized countries. Better communication between countries and the increase of globalization has allowed educators around the globe to effectively "compare notes" and measure themselves against each other. This comparison and free exchange of ideas allows for new innovations and creative approaches to problems in education.

Further Insights

Challenges in the Third World

For discussion, we may roughly divide countries into two separate categories. First are the "third world" nations where historically, education has been limited to a select few. The majority of these nations, in recent decades, have come to the belief that mass, compulsory, free education (particularly primary) is an important goal. However, to achieve this goal, most of these countries must combat serious problems such as poverty, hunger, gender discrimination, lack of technological access and teaching resources, famine, environmental concerns, and martial conflict.

For many nations like these, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has banded together to help form action plans in order to improve education and achieve the goal of Education for All by 2015. UNESCO's seminal April 2000 World Education Forum helped many underdeveloped countries formulate specific education action plans. For example, sub-Sahara Africa, with UNESCO's assistance, identified several key goals to improving education such as needing to achieve gender parity in the classroom and teach students in their native dialect/language along with realizing that there is a desperate need for communication and mutual assistance between the nation's industry and education communities ("Education for All," 1999). For the vast majority of these underdeveloped nations, the national education plan is inseparable from plans to rebuild and improve the infrastructure, increase employment opportunities, and in general, move the nation into a more secure, sustainable future.

Education Plans in Industrial Nations: Japan

For industrialized nations, educational plans must, to some extent, deal with societal and economic issues such as poverty or lack of technological resources. Global mobility and language barriers also present their challenges to educational systems as an increasing number of non-native students find their way into U.S. classrooms. However, most industrialized nations are primarily concerned with such issues as low international test scores, curriculum standards, graduation rates, distribution of teaching resources, and student drop-out rate; their education plans are formulated to improve these areas.

Stevenson and Nerison-Low (1999) compared national education plans in three industrialized countries: the U.S., Germany, and Japan. Japan makes an excellent case study here. Stevenson and Nerison-Low (1999) stated that one of the main differences between the education systems of these three countries is who controls education. In Japan, national curriculum is created and monitored closely by the nation, and local schools have little freedom to modify and improvise the curriculum. The Japanese ministry of education is responsible for devising education standards and creating curriculum that upholds these standards. Japanese high schools are divided into vocational or academic tracks, and students attending academic high schools must choose between a humanities or a science track. The curriculum covers a great deal of material, and often information is cut or omitted in order to keep pace. Stevenson and Nerison-Low (1999) reported that both teachers and students interviewed often felt that the education process was rushed and demanding and teachers stated that they emphasized exposure to topics, not mastery of topics.

In order to further increase the proficiency of its students and keep education standards high, Japan recently implemented its "Rainbow Plan." This plan, begun in 2001, rests on seven principles:

• Improving student performance in basic classes,

• Encouraging young people to develop open-minded attitudes through community service,

• Creating a learning environment that is non-threatening and conducive to learning,

• Creating schools that are well-monitored and communicate with parents,

• Improving teacher "professionalism" and proficiency,

• Creating universities that maintain international-level standards, and

• Forming a philosophy of education that is applicable to today's world (MEXT, n.d.).

Reform in Hong Kong

Another nation that has seen changes in its education policy is Hong Kong. 1997 marked the date that the United Kingdom gave sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. With this change, says Kennedy (2004), education, particularly lifelong education, became a major focus. The Education Commission turned its focus to Hong Kong's education system in January 1999. This new call for lifelong learning meant that Hong Kong wished to see its schools set the foundation for learning, help students continue this learning through the secondary levels, and promote lifelong learning through the college levels (p. 592-593). To do so, Kennedy (2004) stated, Hong Kong created several policies to answer the challenge.

Legislation in the United States

The U.S. has undergone several recent changes in its national education plans. One is the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, implemented in 1994. This particular act focuses on high student achievement and standards, emphasizing that all students can reach these standards and schools must be held accountable. The Act called for six achievements to be reached by 2000:

• All students will be prepared for school

• High school graduation rates will be at 90% or better

• Students at 4, 8, and 12 grade levels will have competent knowledge of core subjects and be responsible citizens

• There will be more resources and better training available for teachers

• Us students will lead the world in knowledge about math and science

• Every adult in America will possess basic literacy ("Goals 2000," 1994).

Goals 2000 was followed by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, another movement focused on improving student performance and increasing school accountability. This act also gave parents more control over which public schools they may choose for their children.

Issues

In many ways, countries with national education plans across the globe are seeing positive results. UNESCO is seeing results from its Education for All plan, stating that out of 163 countries studied, 47 had achieved mandatory primary universal education for all citizens and an additional 20 countries are in position to achieve universal primary education by 2015 (UNESCO, Education for All, 2007). Because of the national education plans that UNESCO has helped numerous nations create, the citizens of the world today have access to education on a unparalleled level, and the number of children and adults around the world who achieve a primary level of education (or higher) than that continues to spread.

However, it is also easy to find research detailing the failures of education systems and national education plans around the globe. Many industrialized countries are concerned with their students' failing scores on international exams such as PISA. Additionally, research from the World Economics Forum has indicated that the overall quality of education in many wealthy countries is often lower than poor countries. For example, the World Economics Forum ranks Hong Kong in 6th place in terms of overall education quality, well ahead of Japan's 19th place ranking ("Education for the New Economy," 2006).

Misunderstanding the Culture

When it comes to national education policies, Kai-ming (1997) pointed out several major issues found in national policies and education improvement acts within a third world country. Kai-ming (2007) stated that creating a policy is a three-step process: problems must be identified, solutions to the problems must be created, and the correct solutions must be selected (p. 66). Additionally, when it comes to policies, Kai-ming writes, "policy is built upon interpretations of human perceptions" (p. 66) and like all interpretations, the true heart of the matter may go unnoticed. In most cases, research about these less-industrialized nations is produced by people from other countries; it does not originate from these nations, thus often giving an incomplete picture of the situations for that particular country. The difficulty lies in when people from other countries come into a country, do not fully understand the cultural nuances of the situation, and impose their ideas of what works upon the education policy for that country. The result, therefore, can be education policies and plans that do not give good results or actually produce more problems than they create.

Kai-ming (2007) went on to state that too often, foreigners coming into a country in order to bring about change view the underdeveloped nations as "backwards" in their attitudes about development, which usually results in the foreigners imposing change that will not work (p. 68). She stated that "policies are thus viable only when they are realistic, but they are realistic only when they are seen as realistic by the local community" (p. 79). An example of this is found in Kai-ming's (2007) prior discussion of Miao communities and their views on education, especially for girls. A foreigner coming to study this educational problem in the Miao communities would probably brush off the community's resistance to the education of girls as a deliberate repression of women and not comprehend the high value the communities placed on the girls' embroidery artwork. An effective education policy for these communities would first have to deal with community views of education. As long as education was seen as a nuisance preventing young girls from practicing their embroidery, education would be resisted and educational policies would not be effective.

National Challenges Must be Considered

National education programs that do not take into account the true challenges of a nation will incur problems, but sometimes even relatively effective educational plans programs can experience difficulty. For example, Reinke (2004) said that Mexico's education system's focus on nation-building has often had the effect of homogenizing students so that dialects and unique aspects of different community groups disappear. Mungazi (2001) mentioned the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which separated the South African education system into tribal schools so that different tribes were assigned separate educational facilities. Here, the schools and colleges basically taught only agriculture, not traditional education. While vocational skills and better agricultural practices are certainly valuable skills to learn, it is primary, secondary, and tertiary education mastery that the citizens of the world need today.

One national education policy that has been loudly decried is the U.S.'s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Detractors of this policy argue that it overemphasizes standardized tests, taking away too much time from classroom instruction, putting too much focus on test results (which is especially damaging for students that struggle with taking tests) and harming schools by denying funding to the schools that more desperately need it. Additionally, Viadero (2007) stated that recent research supports the claim that the NCLB primarily benefits middle level students (who tend to show the greatest test score increases) while the students Viadero (2007) called "high flyers and low flyers" have much more modest gains in test scores and often see a decrease in their test scores over time. Furthermore, Viadero (2007) said that recent research on this subject has indicated that schools may not be seriously pursuing the President's goals of all children being proficient by 2013-2014, which is what the NCLB act is supposed to accomplish.

Clearly it is a very positive thing that most nations of the world are becoming more focused on their educational policies and the educational achievements and failures of their citizens. Today, more than ever, nations are able to share their successes with other nations, bringing innovative ideas and insight to the discussion. Networks and partnerships across the globe are forming to help target problems and create specific plans for overcoming difficult areas in the education system of a particular country. However, good intentions and commitment must be regulated by understanding and realism - the true difficulties in a particular nation must be identified and unique policies and plans must be customized to address these issues.

Terms & Concepts

Democracy: A form of government in which the people rule either by voting for representatives or participating directly in the government of a nation. Democracy also emphasizes the rights of the individual and the philosophy that all people should be treated equally and fairly.

Gender Parity: Equality between the two sexes.

Globalization: The increased connection and cohesion of the world through the advance of technology, economic practices and trade between nations, as well as the spread of democracy.

National Education Plan: Either the specific system of education of a nation, including the goals and values a nation upholds in the area of education, or a new change and enactment brought about to improve the specific educational failings of a nation.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB): A U.S. education policy, made law in 1992, that was created in response to failures in the U.S. educational system. Specifically, this act called for more accountability among schools, better training of teachers, and more parental choice over schools.

Primary Education: Equivalent to six years of education or a 6th grade education.

Secondary Education: Equates to the 7th-12th grade learning levels.

UNESCO: The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization -one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world, focused specifically on improving education around the globe.

Bibliography

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Goals 2000: Educate America Act. (1994). Sec. 102: National Education Goals. Retrieved September 12, 2007, from U.S. Department of Educationhttp://www.ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/sec102.html

Godfrey, E.B., Osher, D., Williams, L.D., Wolf, S., Berg, J.K., Torrente, C., Spier, E., & Aber, J. (2012). Cross-national measurement of school learning environments: Creating indicators for evaluating UNICEF's Child Friendly Schools Initiative. Children & Youth Services Review, 34, 546-557. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=71683952&site=ehost-live

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Suggested Reading

A-Bataineh, A.T & Nur-Awaleh, M.A. Eds (2005). International education systems and contemporaryeducation reforms. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc.

Brooks-Young, S. (2011). Transforming American education: The new National Education Technology Plan. Today's Catholic Teacher, 44, 21-25. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=59901208&site=ehost-live

Bulmahm, E. (2003-2004). National education standards as part of a comprehensive quality management system for schools. European Education, 35 , 21-5. Retrieved September 14, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Abstracts. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qeh&AN=04108790&site=ehost-live

Spruce, G. (2013). “The National Music Plan” and the taming of English music education. Arts Education Policy Review, 114, 112-118. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=89358726&site=ehost-live

Teddlie, C. & Reynolds, D. (2000). The international handbook of school effectiveness research. London: Falmer Press.

UNESS Vietnam. (2006). UNESCO. Retrieved September 17, 2007, from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=51603&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Zajda, J. ed (2004) Decentralisation and privatisation in education - the role of the state. International Review of Education, 50 (3/4), 199-418. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Abstracts. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qeh&AN=05100103&site=ehost-live