International encyclopedia of national systems of education (2nd ed.).

International encyclopedia of national systems of education (2nd ed.)

Edited by T. Neville Postlethwaite Oxford: Pergamon, 1995. 1105pp. $255.00. ISBN 0 08 042302 7

This encyclopedia contains overviews of 152 systems of education, arranged alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Each description follows a common structure covering: general background, politics and goals, the formal system (from pre-school to tertiary education), administrative structure and operation, finance, personnel, curriculum and teaching, student assessment and reporting, research and evaluation, reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, major problems for the year 2000, and a list of references.

Most of the reviews in this publication are based on updated material previously published in the International encyclopedia of education (2nd ed.) by Pergamon (1994). It is essentially the second edition of an earlier publication: The encyclopedia of comparative education and national systems of education (1988).

The authors of the reviews are mainly from the national ministries of education or are experts or academics nominated by them. Where this was not possible, `expatriate' authors, known to the editor to be knowledgeable on the system concerned, have been invited to contribute. The chapter on Australia, compiled by Philip McKenzie of the Australian Council for Educational Research, was used as an exemplary guide for the other contributors. The material submitted was assumed to be accurate, though it was recognised that the `independent' authors might be more prepared to take a critical approach than would formal representatives from ministries. Variations in approach are most evident in the sections on major reforms and problems.

Although almost all of the material published in this encyclopedia is deemed to be factual, sections 10 and 11 of each chapter, on Major reforms in the 1980s and 1990s and Major problems for the year 2000, respectively, reflect the personal understandings, emphases and views of the individual contributors. For example, in outlining the major education system reforms of the 1980s and 1990s in Australia, McKenzie has focused on higher retention to Year 12 and its effects, the Dawkins reforms to the higher education system, training initiatives, and economic rationalism. No reference is made to the national reforms under the Australian Education Council (such as national goals of schooling, national competencies and the national curriculum frameworks), to programs dealing with educational disadvantage, to devolution, to privatisation, to increasing choice and diversity, or to the politicisation of educational decision making.

In outlining the major problems for the year 2000, he has focused on issues of human and physical resourcing to meet new and changing demands, problems of distance and isolation, and issues to do with centralisation and decentralisation and equity. The impact of technology on educational management, the effects of demographic and social change including ethnic diversity, and the increasing impact of the media on education policy are among the issues not mentioned. The point here is not to be unduly critical of the Australian formulation, but to emphasise the need for awareness as the reader passes from the first nine `factual' sections of the reviews to the last two, which are subjective assessments. In these sections, it is particularly important to examine the position and status of the author in relation to the system under review.

This encyclopedia suffers from all of the limitations inherent in such works. Most of the material relates to 1994, and in many instances, in a rapidly changing world, would be somewhat out of date by the time of publication, in some cases radically. (No doubt in the future, material such as this might best be maintained in a constantly updated form, on the Internet.) Not all nations are represented, particularly some of those which have recently emerged from the break up of the USSR (such as Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine) and Yugoslavia (such as Croatia and Bosnia), and those from the Domaines Outre-Mers of France (except for Guadelope and Martinique). All systems are treated equally, with tiny organisations such as those of American Samoa and Malta, afforded almost equal space with the huge systems of China and the United States. This creates problems of balance.

In reporting nationally, it has not been easy for contributors from federal nations in which the constitutional responsibility for education has remained with the states and provinces (such as Australia, Canada and the United States) to offer a proper balance between initiatives and problems at state and national levels. State activities tend to be diminished by the need to focus on the nation as a whole. There is also a tendency to focus on the public as opposed to the private sector.

Although no attempt has been made in this publication to engage in any comparative analysis of the various national systems of education, the common format and sections of each review and the common example (Australia) from which they were drawn have ensured that such comparisons are facilitated. Particular care, however, needs to be taken in comparing statistics, which are presented as provided by the various systems, without any common assumptions, procedures or formats.

Nevertheless this encyclopedia remains an extremely useful, easily accessed and reasonably up-to-date and authoritative reference for academics and students of comparative educational administration, for teacher educators, for policy and research officers in education ministries and departments around the world, and for politicians and educational leaders engaged in the restructuring of education systems and operations. It would also be a useful reference for familities relocating from one country to another in our increasingly mobile international society. It should find a place in all major libraries in Australia and on the personal shelves of educational researchers and policy makers.

Fenton Sharpe

University of New South Wales