International institutions and educational policy: A review of education-sector policy

Abstract

In 1974, the World Bank published a study entitledEducation Sector Working Paper which set forth its policy in the field of education. This study, the second the Bank had published, was widely read, analysed and discussed for some time after its publication and had a considerable influence on thinking in education and development at the international level.

Prospects devoted four articles to the paper: one book review and three controversies (Vol. V, No. 2, 1975, p. 285; Vol. V, No. 4, 1975, p. 457–78; Vol. VI, No. 2, 1976, p. 209–20). Thus, the discussion in our pages, in which the Bank participated, lasted nearly a year.

Now the Bank has brought out another eagerly awaited policy paper on education which is to guide its thinking and action in the coming years. Its publication is an event of international importance and its impact will certainly be considerable.

The following article by Martin Carnoy is the first in a seriesProspects will publish reviewing the policies of the Bank as expressed in theEducation Sector Working Paper, and by extension, the foreseeable impact of these policies on the world of education in general. Martin Carnoy's paper is critical: readers familiar with his work (seeProspects, Vol. VIII, No. 1, p. 3–19) will know that his viewpoint on the international aspects of education diverges considerably from that of the Bank and of most international governmental and non-governmental agencies.

The debate is open again.