Education is as complex as the world in which we live

Teachers, school boards and ministers of education make decisions all the time about what they will teach pupils. They also decide on the way they will pass on that knowledge. They choose a book or a method. They design programmes for education in the various subjects and lay down what will be tested in the final examintation. They set up schools for vocational education and universities, and agree on the amount of knowledge and skill the students must have when they receive their certificates.

This happens all over the world and globally teachers and governors regularly ask themselves: How should this be done?

It is obvious that there are differences with respect to the way the responsibility for education is arranged in all countries and that the emphases in educational policy differ considerably. One country wishes for vocational training that is well geared to the local labour market, whereas an other country wishes for young people to learn already in school how democracy works. A third country may wish to train students for the needs of trade, industry and banking in a free-market economy. Elsewhere the authorities wish for modern language education to yield better results than presently.