Education and Globalization
Vol. XVI, No. 2
APRIL-JUNE 1998
Education and globalization
A
ccording to the definition given by Jacques Hallak during the conference on “Educational Reconstruction and Transformation of Education. Challenges for the 21st Century”, globalization is a combination of much freer trade in goods and services combined with free capital movements. The phenomenon dates far back in history with the development of international trade. However, for the past few years, we have observed a high acceleration in this trend due to a political and ideological environment eminently favourable to its development and rapid advances in technological innovation, especially in the area of telecommunications. Educational planners – wherever they come from – must think seriously about the consequences of such a phenomenon, particularly in terms of shifts in the job market, in order to better adapt their country’s training system.
In January 1998 at a conference organized by the University of Bristol’s Centre for International Studies in Education ,1 Jacques Hallak presented a paper on the following theme: Education and globalization. Later, in March 1998, the Director of IIEP again debated this theme with participants in IIEP’s Annual Training Programme. Some of the ideas that arose during these two conferences and ensuing discussions are outlined below. growing over the past three decades. It is estimated today at over a million individuals. All the same, in most cases, the teaching provided does not meet the new demands being created by globalization. Thus, as Mr. Hallak emphasized during his two presentations, the aim of most existing educational systems, which consists in serving a national economy by training an adequate workforce for definite tasks and allowing a limited elite to acquire management and administration responsibilities, appears somewhat out of step with changes affecting contemporary society. This is confirmed by new forms of illiteracy observed in some
APRIL-JUNE 1998
Education and globalization
A
ccording to the definition given by Jacques Hallak during the conference on “Educational Reconstruction and Transformation of Education. Challenges for the 21st Century”, globalization is a combination of much freer trade in goods and services combined with free capital movements. The phenomenon dates far back in history with the development of international trade. However, for the past few years, we have observed a high acceleration in this trend due to a political and ideological environment eminently favourable to its development and rapid advances in technological innovation, especially in the area of telecommunications. Educational planners – wherever they come from – must think seriously about the consequences of such a phenomenon, particularly in terms of shifts in the job market, in order to better adapt their country’s training system.
In January 1998 at a conference organized by the University of Bristol’s Centre for International Studies in Education ,1 Jacques Hallak presented a paper on the following theme: Education and globalization. Later, in March 1998, the Director of IIEP again debated this theme with participants in IIEP’s Annual Training Programme. Some of the ideas that arose during these two conferences and ensuing discussions are outlined below. growing over the past three decades. It is estimated today at over a million individuals. All the same, in most cases, the teaching provided does not meet the new demands being created by globalization. Thus, as Mr. Hallak emphasized during his two presentations, the aim of most existing educational systems, which consists in serving a national economy by training an adequate workforce for definite tasks and allowing a limited elite to acquire management and administration responsibilities, appears somewhat out of step with changes affecting contemporary society. This is confirmed by new forms of illiteracy observed in some