week 8 - Education Policy (only readings)

Question 1

What are the three categories to measure education policies according to Ben Ansell article?

Answer 1

enrollment capacity, cost of education, state subsidization

Question 2

Country by country on what education policy choices depend on?

Answer 2

democratization, openness, as well as economic development of country

Question 3

Did national school systems exist all the time?

Answer 3

No, it is a recent phenomenon

Question 4

Describe educational systems in South Korea, Japan, Singapore?

Answer 4

Hard work/societal pressure (“no excuse to fail”) large class size, strong competition

Question 5

What is PISA test score?

Answer 5

average of maths, reading and science

Question 6

Describe educational systems in Nordic countries?

Answer 6

Flexibility and ‘low stress’ “learning happens outside of classroom” Smaller classes, wide range of extra activities

Question 7

Name the components of Soviet legacy left in the post-Soviet countries

Answer 7

Strong educational foundation and comprehensive system;
Almost universal literacy (despite some disparities); Centralized system, with Ministry of Education (implemented directives from Moscow);

Focus on science and mathematics programs;
Social sciences and humanities heavily loaded with Marxist ideology;
Teacher-dominated model, little room for critical thinking and discussion skills; Based on memorization of knowledge rather than analytical skills

Question 8

Describe Soviet Union university education

Answer 8

Higher education as a public good:
Society benefits overall with more educated people (quality of labor force);
Higher education as a right: Everyone must have access to education
Equal opportunity provider

Question 9

Why in UAE, Qatar, China, university education is an economic driver?

Answer 9

Education is an engine of economic development (not of social integration); International (‘world-class’) universities (for specific knowledge areas); Universities to transfer experience to industry and academia

Question 10

How did US and UK transfer education into globalizing force?

Answer 10

Liberal economic tradition;
Recruiting best talents: many international students;
Competition between universities

Question 11

Why does higher education become costly?

Answer 11

Since college degree becomes necessity - Education becomes business - Costs of running a university are too high (research facilities)

Question 12

Describe education system in Central Asia

Answer 12

Multitude of schools and universities
From world-class facilities to very poor ones with little access to technology and double shifts (huge inequality gap) Significant educational reforms on paper, but slow implementation and deep stratification; Education is considered as part of broader societal change

Question 13

Why does education reforms fail in Central Asia?

Answer 13

“Education systems do not change just because there’s a change in government”; Limited human and financial resources;
Severe underfinance for many years; Different visions of the eventual goals in transforming education systems

Question 14

What happened in education sphere after 1991?

Answer 14

Establishment of national systems; Market-oriented education; Independent national curricula and content;
Early years: De-Russifying education;
 Rewriting history textbooks;
 Changes in the language of instruction;
Later: structural changes and reforms

Question 15

Name strong and weak points of current education system condition in Central Asia

Answer 15

Strengths: Indicators are generally still strong; Close to 100% literacy; Enrollment and completion rates are high
Issues: Underfunded systems; Lack of internal capacities; Inconsistent policy decisions; Substantial rural-urban differences

Question 16

How Do Central Asian countries deal with access and quality of education?

Answer 16

secondary education guaranteed by their constitutions; Underfunding remains an issue; Schools force parents to assume the costs that the Govts no longer cover;
Increased disparity between schools

Question 17

Kazakhstani School education can be described by:

Answer 17

+3.4 percent of GDP; -About 7,500 schools in the country; about 6,000 located in rural areas with limited facilities/capacity; +Private schools and excellent resources and well-equipped facilities: -risk of a 2-tier system
?Shift to 12-year school education (in line with OECD) -?Trilingual education: debates and controversies

Question 18

Kazakhstani University system can be described by:

Answer 18

About 120 universities, (50 state, 70 private) Unified National Test as an entrance;
Bologna process (1999-2004); Changes in degree system (2007-2009) Kandidat nauk/Doktor nauk --> BA/MA/PhD; Resistance from academic community; Criticism persists over quality issues; International aspect

Question 19

Kyrgyzstani Education system features:

Answer 19

Some progressive policies but severe underfunding;
Reduction of compulsory education to 9 years;
About 2,200 schools;
Shift to 12-year announced in 2002;

62 Universities, 45 state and 17 private; ‘Common Republican Test”; Degree reform started, hybrid system existed for a while Hopes that the market would fix the system;
Many universities charge fees for low-class education

Question 20

Tajikistani Education system

Answer 20

Civil war legacy and infrastructural challenges;
Lower enrollment rate: about 60%; Education expenditures: 2.5% of the GDP;
Shift to 12-year planned for 2020; Gender aspect: families send boys to school over the girls (value of a boy’s education over a girl’s);
Student absenteeism

Question 21

Uzbekistani education system

Answer 21

About 10,000 schools;
Shift to 12-year announced in 2004; experiments with merging 10-12 grades with vocational training; 64 universities, mostly state-run; Admission tests administered by universities Degree reform: Master, PhD and SC.D (2017)

Question 22

Turkmenistan Education system:

Answer 22

About 1,800 schools and 20 universities (all except 3 located in Ashgabat);
Under Turkmenbashi: drastic cuts of funding;
number of years of compulsory schooling decreased;
More emphasis on vocational training; Shifted to 12-year in 2013;
No degree reform

Question 23

What is Ben Ansell’s argument on university education policies in OECD countries?

Answer 23

Countries cannot cover three components, that is why choose two; mass enrollment, full subsidization, and relatively low total public cost.

Some governments will choose mass, partially private, inexpensive higher education systems - the partially private model.

Others will choose mass, fully public, expensive higher education systems - the mass public model.

Finally, some governments will retain the status quo of inexpensive, publicly funded - elite model

Question 24

According to Ben Ansell’s article, how do democratization and economic openness influence education policy choices?

Answer 24

Democratization should be associated with higher levels of public education spending, lower private education spending, and a shift from tertiary education spending toward primary education spending.

Integration with the international economy should lead to higher public education spending, conditioned on regime type and income, and should push the balance between tertiary and primary education toward states’ particular comparative advantages.