"Everybody else is part of the new global economy. It's time the schools joined in." So stated as a recent editorial in the Economist magazine.
That issue featured the findings of a piece of research on educational standards involving schools in 41 countries. Based on tests of 13-year-olds in maths and science subjects, the research showed Singapore, South Korea and the Czech Republic leading Europe and the United States in student scores.
The Czech Republic and South Korea, said the Economist, spend only a third as much per pupil on education as the US. Therefore, "spending more on schools is not a prerequisite for improving standards". Furthermore, because these countries have larger class sizes than the US, France or Britain, "larger is not necessarily worse", it argues. The Economist's conclusion?: Education should no longer be protected, but made part of the "free" market alongside all other commodities.
The articles carried no detailed information about the comparative study, no figures on education spending per student and as a percentage of the GDP and no reference to historical and other social factors that need to be taken into account.
They neither informed the reader about the age at which students in South Korea and the Czech Republic start studying science and maths compared to counterparts in other countries, nor that, from the 1940s to 1990, the education system in the former Czechoslovakia was not part of the "free" market, but state funded and freely accessible. Instead, the articles make sweeping assertions in order to justify a particular ideological viewpoint in favour of the privatisation of education.
Free, quality education was won through struggle, as the right of all in particular working people and the poor who were traditionally excluded from such "privileges". But the majority of people in the Third World still get no education and the right to education is now coming under heavy attack in advanced industrialised countries such as Australia.
Green Left Weekly campaigns for free, quality education as a right, not a privilege only accessible to those who can buy it on the free market and we call on all our readers to join us in actively supporting the student-initiated May 8 national day of action against the Howard government's education cuts.
As well, we are currently offering all students a 10-issue subscription to Green Left Weekly for only $10. Keep in touch with the campaign call our subscription hotline on 1800 634 206 (free call). Green Left Weekly it's your paper.