Stephen P. Heyneman

The history and problems in the making of education policy at the World Bank 1960-2000

Abstract The reports seem contradictory. With about three billion dollars per year in new loan commitments, the World Bank has become the single largest source of development capital in the field of international education. These resources help expand educational opportunities for young women in South Asia and rebuild primary schools following civil conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. They support textbooks, school meals, new curriculum, and teacher training in thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of locations in over 100 countries in six regions. But ‘the Bank’ as it is commonly referred to, is also the object of considerable criticism. Some argue that its loan covenants are too restrictive. Its policy reforms are based on narrow, neo-liberal assumptions about the role of the state. Local policy makers have become passive recipients of the Bank’s agendas. To obtain loans, countries have agreed to raise education fees, which has exacerbated divisions between rich and poor. How is it that a multilateral UN lending institution, managed by its owners in proportion to shares of equity, has become involved in education? How are educational lending priorities and policies actually established and how have they changed over time? Is there validity to the many criticisms of the World Bank in the field of education, and how has the Bank responded? Finally, what changes and recommendations might be considered to ameliorate the long standing tension between the interests which generate lending and those which stand for more intelligence or effectiveness of that lending? This article discusses how Bank lending priorities are established and loans designed and approved. It attempts to illustrate how and why the Bank, as opposed to other international organizations, has increasingly influenced the global education agenda. It highlights why the Bank’s policies on education have not been as effective as postulated, and in some cases have created significant educational distortions in a nation’s education sector. This analysis is predicated on the Bank’s tendency to become ‘captured’ by single methodologies beginning with manpower forecasting and later rate of return techniques. This tended to bias its views with respect to particular sub-sectors, educational functions and purposes. Some of these distortions can be traced back to its entry into the sector in the 1960s. The article raises the question of who should be held accountable when over time Bank policies prove to be dysfunctional. The article concludes that in spite of the importance of having intelligent education policies for social and economic development, there is no single international organization to effectively provide them. The article suggests three options for changing international organizations so as to deliver better analytic work, more intelligent policies and more effective programs of education assistance.

The Cost of Corruption in Higher Education

Corruption was symptomatic of business and government interactions in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union before and during the economic transition of the 1990s. Corruption is difficult to quantify, but the perception of corruption is quantifiable. Nations can even be arranged along a hierarchy by the degree to which they are perceived as being corrupt, for instance, in their business practices or in the administration of public responsibilities. Based on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005, a world map (see online appendix fig. A1) shows how pervasive corruption remains in the public sector. According to this index, countries in the former USSR region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus, were among the most corrupt countries in the world in 2005. With the breakup of the USSR and decentralization, ministries and local governments operated more independently than under the planned economy. The central government’s enforcement mechanisms weakened, and rent-seeking (using administrative position for personal gain) activity was not as effectively monitored as under central planning. The result, at least in the earliest years of independence, was an increase in overall corruption and inefficiency at many levels of government and administration, and the education sector was not immune from these forces (Shleifer and Vishny 1993; Shleifer and Treisman 2005). Ministry of Education officials began to demand bribes for accreditation and procurement. Administrators demanded bribes for admission, housing, book rental, grades, exams, and transcripts. Teachers demanded bribes for admission, grades and exams, and book purchases. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the level of education corruption in the USSR was lower than in other sectors. The “fairness” of the system, particularly to children of proletarian origins and minorities, was manifest as a philosophy. During the economic transition, the central authority in education broke

Third World School Quality: Current Collapse, Future Potential

Eager to boost literacy, economic growth, and national institutions, Third World governments and international aid agencies have greatly expanded schooling since the 1950s. Enrollments have quintupled since the late ‘50s, from 100 million children to now more than 500 million. The sharp economic decline felt over the past decade throughout the developing world, however, has led to deep cuts in education budgets. Child populations are doubling every 20 years in many countries. Popular demand for primary schooling, as manifest in enrollment rates, continues to skyrocket. This conflict between ever-rising enrollments and falling resources is severely eroding school quality. We detail and illustrate this collapse of educational quality, calling on North American educators to recognize this quiet crisis and to contribute to its remedy. In addition, we map out a strategy for attacking the problem, drawing on the growing body of Third World research and new initiatives coming from international organizations.

From the Party/State to Multiethnic Democracy: Education and Social Cohesion in Europe and Central Asia

Can educational mechanisms lower social tension and help achieve social cohesion ? If so, how are these mechanisms defined and measured? What is the experience to date with the social utility of education mechanisms? How can one differentiate between an education system that is doing a good job of rein- forcing social cohesion and one that is doing a poor job? In this paper, I attempt to respond to these questions by (a) briefly reviewing some concepts of institutional and organizational economics so that the economic implications of educations social cohesion functions can be more clear, (b) reviewing the origins of public schooling so that the reader may place todays educational challenges in historical context, (c) reviewing the anecdotal and field experience to date in the European and Central Asian (ECA ) region in meeting the challenges of social cohesion, and (d) drawing some comparisons between the social cohesion performance of education systems in the ECA region and that of the U.S. In sum, I argue that social cohesion has significant economic benefits; that since its invention in the 17th century, public education has been one of the main contributions to social cohesion in the west; but that countries of the ECA region are having a difficult time replicating the western education experience. In fact, when compared to other parts of the world, the U.S. school system seems to perform rather well with respect to its social cohesion functions.

The quality of education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Abstract The quality of education is an issue in every region undergoing economic change, hence it is a universal issue. Where the quality of education is already low, the need to raise it is more urgent. In the Middle East and North Africa, data on educational quality are scarce. Nevertheless, available data would suggest that the quality of education is low. The cause of the problem, however, is not a scarcity of monetary resources but the inefficiency of managing the resources already allocated. Many of the regulations and traditions for managing educational systems in the Middle East and North Africa have their origin in the era of central economic planning. Changes are suggested in six areas. These include: an end to early vocational tracking; coherence in content between curriculum, examinations, textbooks and classroom teaching; a shift in textbook production away from state monopolies; a professionalized teaching force with higher salaries differentiated by mandatory re-licensing; creative financing and provision of higher education; and a significant improvement in education statistics and indicators of progress.

The transition from party/state to open democracy: The role of education☆

Abstract One common characteristic shared by the countries of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe was the manner by which education in the party/state was expected to provide ideological cohesion. Today the challenge of cohesion has changed. No longer does a single party monopolize the state apparatus; religious worship is now practiced freely; and central-administration has diminished. Today individuals have a wide choice of occupations, unrestricted travel, and freer access to international information. What have these changes meant for education? The article responds to this question, and is divided into five parts. The first tries to identify unique characteristics about education under the Party/State. The second summarizes the changes which have occurred so far in the transition. The third outlines additional changes which may be required. The latter sections describe the influence of the transition on the economic arguments surrounding education and finally on Comparative Education generally.

Uses of examinations in developing countries: Selection, research, and education sector management

Abstract In September 1984, The Chinese government asked if the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank would be interested in assisting the officials in the Ministry of Education to think through some of the policy options in the field of examinations and standardized testing. In response, in April 1985 a meeting was held in Beijing. Attending the meeting were all officials in charge of examinations at the provincial and national levels, technicians and psychometricians in charge of designing examination items, and senior university officials and planners in the Ministry of Education. Attending from outside the country were the chief executive officers of examination agencies in three OECD countries: from the United States, Robert Solomon (ETS); from Japan, Tadashi Hidano (National Center for University Examinations); and from the United Kingdom, John Reddaway (Cambridge University Examination Syndicate); directors of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement; and experts on the examination systems in Sweden, Australia and Kenya. This article summarizes the comments given to the Chinese Government following that meeting. The amount of attention devoted to problems of logistics and economies of scale is perhaps more pertinent to large, heterogeneous nations like China, but many of the comments could be applied to developing countries generally. These comments cover three areas (1) specific testing issues such as aptitude vs achievement tests, multiple choice vs other formats, etc.; (2) management issues within the system of selection such as whether government agencies or universities should make the selection decision, and whether a testing agency should be autonomous from government control; and lastly, (3) the uses of testing to perform necessary research and education sector management functions.

Education, Social Cohesion, and the Future Role of International Organizations

Although they have many important functions, The European Union, many federal governments, and the United Nations (UN) have few areas where their mandates call for them to dictate, adjudicate, or legislate education policy. Education, for the most part, has traditionally been viewed as relevant to local culture and hence subject to local control. This is now changing. Traditional interest in mathematics, science, and language remain, and although there are distinct influences drawing school systems into cross-national interests and endeavors, the main focus of attention is not on this area. Today, the main focus of attention is on the citizenship function of education, that purpose of public schooling that transcends curriculum and helps to create social cohesion, the basis of a stable democracy. This article summarizes some of the social cohesion issues involving education, the concerns over how education performs this function, and the implications for international organizations. It begins by reviewing the purposes of public education, then it discusses some

Student Background and Student Achievement: What Is the Right Question?

For half a century there have been reports that children of the poor or of some ethnic minorities on average perform worse in school. Some have suggested that these findings demonstrate a failing of education to reduce gaps in adult income and differences in adult socioeconomic status. This article reviews the research internationally and concludes that the debate is outdated. School children in the United States make up only 2 percent of the world’s school children. When considering this question globally, it is discovered that social status is a consistent determinant of school performance, but it is not necessarily true that children of the poor perform systematically worse in school than do children of the rich; results vary by subject, student age, gender, and other factors. Perhaps more important, academics seem to hold schools accountable for the wrong function. The more important purpose of public schooling is to help foster social cohesion. Schools and school systems should be held accountable for their true purpose, and the debate should shift from whether schools narrow the gap in adult incomes to whether schools are effective in fostering social cohesion.

Education and the Crisis of Social Cohesion in Azerbaijan and Central Asia

Of the 15 republics that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, six have predominantly Muslim populations. These nations are Azerbaijan, in the southern Caucasus, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, with a combined population of approximately 65 million people. As Soviet power declined and then finally collapsed, these six newly independent nations found themselves confronted with a world of competing philosophies ranging from the liberal secularism of Russia and Turkey to various moderate and reformist religious movements to varieties of fundamentalism and Islamist political movements emanating from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. During the transition period since 1991, the region has been afflicted by acute problems, including endemic state crisis, crime and narcotics, ethnic tensions, corruption, and competition over energy resources. Some analysts have argued that these problems were exacerbated if not caused by the failings of the regimes themselves, which have been too often unable or unwilling to address the various “fault lines” of persistent or potential violent conflict (Rashid 2002; Oliker and Szyana 2003; UNDP 2006). In Kyrgyzstan, the political situation has become more volatile and polarized as the government struggles to assert control after the March 2005 uprising that ousted President Askar Akayev. A confrontation between Uzbek security forces and antigovernment protesters in the town of Andijon in May 2005 resulted in many deaths and raises the possibility of further conflict in the densely populated Fergana Valley, which is divided between repressive Uzbekistan, impoverished Kyrgyzstan, and fragile Tajikistan (International Crisis Group 2005b). In the early 1990s, the general consensus among Western, Russian, and many local analysts was that the region would be politically stable and that extremist movements would gain little traction in Azerbaijan and Central