The UK and American Educational Systems - Essay Example

Manifestation of the Features of Globalisation in American Educational System: A Comparison with the Educational System of England Introduction: Globalisation has affected the entire socio-economic system of the world. A general understanding of globalisation points to the growing inequality between the social classes and nations, and increase of competition and resultant instability among individuals and organisations. Globalisation has a multi-dimensional impact on education. Economic growth and technological advancement of a nation depends upon the quality of its education. So, education can be considered as an investment to build a strong human capital. Several international organisations and treaties consider education as a service industry. Therefore, it is not possible for education sector to escape from the effects of globalisation. A close examination of educational system of America proves that the impact of globalisation on the trends and developments of education sector is more evident here than in any other country. Even though the impact is more apparent in the United States, Latin America and Canada also have not escaped from the consequences. A comparison of American educational system with that of England will help to analyse the uniformity in the rate globalisation affecting the values, culture, politics and economic situation of world nations. Globalisation and American Educational System Public education plays a vital role in societies that respect democratic values and social equality. For those people who try to make their country more democratic and equitable, supporting public education is an essential part of their programme. Many social scientists in American states believe that globalisation, in its current form, is a threat to the public education system which supports and tries to reflect the democratic values and social equality. The chief feature of neo-liberal policies is commoditisation and mercerisation of all the activities. (Kuehn 1999). So, when this neo-liberal policies peep into public services, the activities that are previously associated with the benefit of the public are moved into the market. On the application level, the services that are once given free of cost began to be charged. A remarkable change happened in the area of free education. Free education served the purpose of maintaining equality in the society. Free public education ensured that all children are educated without considering their socio-economic status. When the Universal Public education is lost, it will affect the equality. The globalisation policies not only reduced the expenditure for the public, it also mercerised the areas that were previously managed and supported by the government. The effects of globalisation is still worse when it comes to a situation where any one can determine how education is delivered, what is the content of education, and who has the access to education. The new words like 'modernisation', 'efficiency', 'total quality', 'free market' etc., has changed the focus of educational system in the country. The education tried to form new kind of citizens with new perspectives. The above parameters are no longer applied to the workforce of the country, but it comprises the entire individuals of the society. The educational aims are made to fit to the new needs. International agencies like The World Bank, the IMF, and the IDB are trying to identify the different categories of workforce that are needed in the future job market, and the education is designed with this market demand. They aim at creating a "global policy community, constituted by an overlapping membership of globalising bureaucratssenior public servants, policy-makers and advisers" (Lingard & Rizvi 1998, P. 262). Now, the aim of education has contracted to limit human capacity to the possibilities of the market, instead of ensuring the all-round development of individuals. In other words, the training and preparation of the citizens will be based on the rules of the market. This will lead to exploitation of human resources. The education system is seen by many agencies, as the ideal ground to build the type of work force that is needed for the future. They felt that the aim of education is to increase productivity with the help of advanced technology. However, increase in productivity never ensures increase in wages, which means, the new development will lead only to exploitation. The effects of such a development are evident through many recent problems such as increase of informal labour and unemployment. Education is no longer seen as a right of the citizens. It is diminished in value to an investment. So, like other investments, it doesn't deserve further investments without profit. Education adapts itself to the needs of the market and yields interest. The World Bank's proposal to decentralise education to the hands of communities, municipalities and private companies is significant in this regard. International agencies are putting up their pressure in Latin America to enforce this proposal. It is clear from the fact that about 80 percent of technical education institutions in Chile is now under the hands of private agencies. The situation is not different in Brazil also. There, the teacher education sector is handled by SENAI, SENAC or SENAR. It is clear that decentralisation is the beginning of privatisation. Then the school is viewed as a business company that gives education. The approach to teacher training proves that the intention of the 'global interests' is to make a team of low qualified teachers. This would certainly lead to low wages and to exploitation. (Lpez 2000, P 1). When analysing the educational developments in America, it would be better to see it separately. The situation of US and Canada is different from other countries. In US and Canada, many students receive quality education in both arts and science streams. The majority in US finishes high school, and in Canada, the majority of the youth go for higher education. But it is not possible to neglect the inequalities prevailing under the surface. The globalisation policies have led to the pathetic condition where nearly 20% of the children now suffer poverty. In the US, the money invested per capita on the middle and upper class children is much more than in the case of children of lower classes or the ethnic minorities, who reside in the inner cities. Many analysts view the situations as savage inequality within the wealthy society. Even though the system is not so corrupted in Canada, there too exists inequality. Native children face many barriers to get quality education as compared to the higher class children. The neo-liberal policies and several free trade agreements such as NAFTA have resulted in cutting down budgets for service sectors including education. Even though Canada and U.S have achieved more progress than the Latin American countries, the fact cannot be denied that the growing population of these superior countries have been ignored and left behind. (Lpez 2000, P 1). They are becoming more and more marginalised, while the economy is directed and controlled by a wealthy minority. These issues will be dealt in detail later in this study. There have grown a difference in educational quality among urban and rural areas. Due to the loss in tax revenues and the reduction of state and local funds, the public schools in rural areas are cutting down staff and faculty. These schools are forced to reduce many of the academic programmes, such as art, craft, music and other extracurricular activities that may result in high achievement. The inadequate instructional facilities force these institutions to send their students to community colleges where they are entangled with remedial programmes. The educational condition in Latin America is backward, except in Cuba where equality prevails among social classes. Here education is declared as a universal right and it has given priority among the social development projects. In the English speaking Caribbean Islands, most countries have adopted a school system based on the British Public Education Model. Even though these countries have became successful in imparting basic education and higher education to these citizens, the developments that affected the Latin American countries over the last two decades seems to have affected them also. The cases of youth leaving the schools and colleges without completing the course have increased in these countries. The concept of modern public school system has never reached anywhere in Latin America. Even though some attempts have been made in these countries for developing such school system, they could not achieve it successfully. The neoliberal policies have a deepened impact on these countries with the result of growing inequalities and anti-democratic style of education. (Lpez 2000, P 1). Education in America is being subordinated to the neoliberal policies, which may be the result of several objectives. Public education is privatised, and state responsibility is replaced by communities, NGOs, private companies, or individuals. Some suggestions have been made that the thrust is to be given to improve efficiency, effectiveness and quality rather than democratizing the system. The nineteenth century leaders such as Bolivar in South Africa and Francisco Morazan in Central America have tried to democratise education, but the ongoing processes have challenged these principles. New curriculum based on flexible syllabus gives importance to technical education and disregards humanities subjects. It also tends to take away the humanist aspects of education. Some proposals have been made that internal competition should be encouraged among the students as well as the teachers. Teachers' contracts and salaries are flexible with the development of social systems of evaluation. The majority of the Latin American governments lessen their budget expenses in education. Investing in education is considered as non-productive expense without instant result. New teachers are not being hired, and no funds are granted for teaching materials, school repairs or other equipments related to school. The responsibility of providing these facilities falls upon the shoulders of parents, teachers and the community. Now, the World Bank has suggested that cost of education should be decreased by increasing the number of students per classroom. They maintain that adding some more students to a class will not affect the quality of the education received. It is considered uneconomical if a teacher teaches only twenty or twenty two students at a time. So, two classes are mixed together to form a big class. This is badly affecting the standard of the students, especially in the primary classes. In many places the work of teachers has declined due to the unavailability of educational materials in the schools. Yet, teachers are always blamed for the decline of standards. (Sriram ) Throughout the education sector - from community colleges to largest research universities - the need to internationalize the courses is growing. As a result, some positive outcomes are seen at US universities. In US research universities, at the advanced graduate levels, the collaboration of international faculty and graduate students with US faculty and graduate students produced good outcomes in the academic level. Both the parties are benefited since the knowledge produced is used for further research in both countries, both academically and regionally. These researches are focussed on a wide spectrum of disciplines such as environment, health, poverty, education community development, and economic growth. Some of these research coalitions go beyond the faculty collaborations to integrated strategic alliances. One example of such a successful alliance is the strategic institutional alliance between Michigan State University and Can Tho University. Most students, faculty, staff and the government accept the fact that international exchange programmes are very crucial in determining the standard of a university. Now, the paradigm has shifted to knowledge economy. In the advanced nations, national growth is now depended upon education and creativity than on natural resources. So, the value and demand of quality education is growing world wide. Students from 47 states and 76 countries are studying at a mid sized university of Maine. Robert A. Kennedy, the president of University of Maine thinks that "international students and faculty members add a vital aspect to our curriculum and our community. The corporations that hire our graduates have themselves become globalised. They expect that our graduates will be capable of working in Tom Friedman's flattened world, which means that our graduates need new skills and increased exposure to multiple cultures" (Kennedy 2007, p. 1). A survey conducted by the American Council on Education reported that more that 70 percent of the students like to attend universities that offer international and foreign language courses, openings to interact with foreign students and study abroad programmes. Around 80 percent supported the view that mingling with foreign students will enhance their learning experience. Now, the universities in the U S have realised that the public and the students are more aware of the importance of academic exchanges. So, only those universities that have international exchanges can attract students. Even though these coalitions and collaborations give a new direction to the academic goals the stark globalisation realities affect this system also. Competition among the US universities and between US universities and other universities is growing fast. But educationalists argue that this competition will help to promote change and growth in the educational sector. The new developments put some challenges also. The main challenge of US higher educational institutions face in implementing new practices with respect to the global needs is to increase awareness among the students, their parents and the community about the need of a change. The higher education institutions are also undertaking changes, which are both organisational and behavioural. They go to the international market for financial resources, prepares to face strong competition and achieve a prestigious position domestically and internationally. In the higher education sector globalisation has affected largely due to a change in governmental policies, which includes the revisions done by international political organizations like the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. The changes that happen in international trade treaties are also affecting the higher education. Compared to the past, all the universities tend to adopt international higher education models. Government's role as a partner in higher education has changed to an advisory with higher education community. The national or regional accreditation and quality review has changes into international accreditation and quality review. (Conference Focus. 2007. P 1). As a result of the above mentioned changes, the cost of higher education has rapidly increased in the US since 2000. According to the statistics of the College Board, the lower and middle income students of the US are paying more money for public education than ever. This tremendous growth of income inequality makes the higher education inaccessible for majority of Americans. Even though there was a decrease in rise of average tuition fees and fees for four- year public colleges, the average college costs are mounting up to 35 percent over the last few years. During the academic year 2006-2007 the tuition fees has increased by 6.3 percent. The burden of the lower and middle class students has increased or by the government decreasing students aids. The student aid during 2000-2001 was around $134.8 billion, while it was tremendously lowered during 2005-2006. The lower income students suffered due to cutting down the advantages that they had earlier. For example, the average Pell Grant Award, one of the largest monitory awards for lower income students, was lowered by $120 during 2005-2006 academic year. The decrease of money was applied not only by lowering the amount, but also by decreasing the number of eligible candidates. (Trends in College Aid. 2006, P 1). The economical disadvantages of the lower- and middle-income students continue when they need to take remedial courses. The report of College Board Supplement says that "over one-third of first- and second-year college students have taken remedial courses since high school graduation" (Bogel 2006, P. 1). Due to these remedial courses, the students have to over stay in colleges, and it will lead to more financial burdens. Many of the students are forced to take more loans as they owe more money for doing graduation. There are many reasons behind only lower- and middle-income students under go remedial courses. They are often coming from districts with minimum tax revenues which have led the schools to pitiable conditions such as inadequate infrastructure, bare instructional materials or unequipped instructors. So, it becomes very difficult for these students to prepare effortlessly as their rich counter parts for the college-level works. As a result, they are frequently forced to take remedial courses to come up with bright students. The non-traditional students, who are returning to schools after a long gap, are also confronted with the remedial courses, and consequently the additional cost for education. Tax benefits also favour only middle- and upper-income students. College Board fails to give adequate solution for this decreasing gap in access to higher education. They blame the state and local governments for this situation. In a race to stand up in the competition among colleges and universities, they are spending more money on health benefits, technological developments and other utilities. Higher salaries are to be paid to the faculty to ensure quality and standard. The government support and funds are being tremendously reduced at a time when they need support. (Bogel 2006, P. 1). The curriculum and method of teaching has changed a lot in America during the recent years. The new endeavours focus on making the curriculum more engaging and interesting to the students by developing the content materials that are related to their daily life experiences, and by combining vocational training with academic subjects. There are many examples of real-world teaching curriculum including the micro-society school, experimental learning projects, and action learning projects, the algebra project, and various community service programmes. Some national groups try to make a complete curriculum change which is based on higher order competencies, and, at the same time, based on real world applications. But one major crisis with these efforts is that of funds. An increased amount of funds are needed to put these strategies into practice. So, now the schools in backward areas find it difficult to accumulate money for the implementation, or they are forced to raise tuition fees. Consequently, the ambitious curriculum revisions are not adequately becoming beneficial for the poor children and the children of the ethnic and coloured people. (Rossi & Montgomery 1994). It is found by many educational researchers that students will be more interested to work hard if their class room are useful in there real world work. The inadequacy of traditional vocational institutions are highlighted by many educationalist , since these institutions are lacking sufficient academic content, and thus failing to groom the students with proper skills. The upgrading of the vocational schools includes developing programs that combines essential academic skills, proper vocational training and job experience (Rossi & Montgomery 1994). Bottoms and Presson think that "learning to know and learning to do are linked, allowing students to use academic materials to perform real-life' tasks or address real-life' problems is appealing as a method for increasing students' motivation to learn higher level academic concepts in high school" (Bottom & Presson 1989, p. 2-3). The most creditable effort to incorporate academic education with vocational training was done by the 13-state Vocational Education Consortium of the Southern Regional Education Board in 33 secondary schools. (ibid) To make the students at risk more engaging, some changes are made in the traditional modes of instructions. Here a shift of paradigm in instructional strategies is seen from the passive lecture mode to the activity oriented classes. The new ideologies stress the point that effective transaction of learning is possible even out side the class room. The specific approaches include the use of non-traditional teachers, cross-grade peer tutoring and use of technology as a medium for instruction. Cooperative and collaborative learning and peer group evaluation are also adopted to improve transactional standard. (Rossi & Montgomery 1994). The development of communication facilities, especially the internet has had an effect on globalisation, and globalised education. In the US, internet increased accessibility and it gave rise to new strategies in learning teaching methodologies and doing research. Increased accessibility led to new opportunities. The universities of the late 20th century were formed by nationalism, whereas the universities at the present time are formed by globalism. According to the estimate of the World Bank, the worldwide spending on higher education is $300 billion per year. There are about 80 million students doing higher education around the world with more than 3.5 million people working directly in these institutions. Some reports predict that the enrolment of students in higher education will mount up to 120 million within three years. In the U. S. statistics show that the enrolment of older adults in higher education increases. But this growth is accredited to online courses and distance education courses. (Kennedy 2007, p. 1). In 1958, American Congress passed the National Defence Education Act, which ensured that money and grants are given to universities, high schools, middle schools, and even private schools. Most of this money is been utilized to teach science and math, and set up research labs. Dr. Jim Goodnight observes that "kids were going off to college like they were going off to war" (Goodnight 2007, P. 1). But the neoliberal policies have changed the condition. The emphasis on math and science, which helped the U.S. to produce this much technological advancements, has collapsed. The new system gives the children a lot of choices. Choices lead them to make the easiest one. Now a days, children don't want to study math and science, because they think that it is very difficult to study. Both the students and their parents do not want them to study a subject that they think are difficult. Reports say that SAT scores has again declined in 2007. The great legacy of education has declined to a situation where the US posses the seventeenth rank in the percent of children graduating from high school. One third of the children who has attended ninth grade do not finish their high school. (Goodnight 2007, P 1)Studies conducted by TIMSS and other international agencies prove that "the U. S is lagging behind many countries in Europe and Asia" (Sriram P. 81) These factors point to a dangerous social situation that the US may face in the near future. A comparative study conducted in 2006 indicates that the number of college graduates in the US was 1.3 million during the year. On the contrary, Indian graduates were 3.1million, and Chinese graduates were 3.3 million. Majority of the Indian graduates speak English. It means that, in the near future millions of workers from Asia will step over the position of American workers. (Goodnight 2007, P 1) Globalisation affected not only trade and production, or public services such as education. It has long effecting impacts on culture. A commercialised and homogenous international culture or a global culture will take the place of the local culture. There are no legal barriers for the entry of such a transnational commercial culture. These cultural transactions can be seen in educational culture also. United Kingdom and Globalisation When the higher education system of United Kingdom is examined, it is seen that not much changes have happened in the modem schooling system, as it has affected the higher education system. The school system in UK had reached the height of changes during the post war period itself. Even though neoliberal policies have brought a changed in thought and approach to the entire systems, the schooling seems to be trudging with its old patterns. David Hargreaves thinks that "when compared with professions like medicine; the organization of schools and the nature of teachers' practices are remarkably similar to those of more than a century ago" (Robertson 2007, p. 4). But it is difficult to deny the fact that some changes have happened to the total system as it happened in the American educational sphere. In Britain, the liberalisation of trade, freer movements of money around the world, increased competition both in the public and private sectors, denial of responsibility by the state in various service sectors, and the redefinition of state-citizen relationship has produced a flux in the education system. As in America, Britain also advanced towards the privatisation and commoditization of education. The government's move towards a choice model or a market model in educational coordination changed the earlier structure of universalism, which was strong enough to anchor a firm state-citizen relationship. With the emergence of markets, choice, individualism, and competition as the dominant ideas, the various components of the education sector such as audit and inspection, curriculum preparation, management, special education services are outsourced. In UK, these developments grew further when public-private partnerships were established and encouraged by the government. Private operators like MORI, PricewaterhouseCoopers, K Peat Marwick Group began to emerge as new forces in providing research, preparing curriculum materials and teacher training. Mahoney et al give the operational style of and "involvement of private operators in education, particularly under the Excellence in Cities programme" (Mahony et al 2004, P. 279). These private consultancy firms held a intricate and unhealthy relation with each other and to the public. So, their policies and programmes became closed before the public, and so, it badly affected their public accountability. (Robertson 2007, p. 4-5). In the universities, new managerial strategies and fee structure are introduced, and, like the universities in US, they also started internationalising their functioning. Exchange of students and faculties strengthened the standard and quality of higher education centres. Researches got new dimension and new vigour with the advent of foreign students and scholars to the universities. It also meant accumulation of good revenues for the universities. This move started in Britain in the late 1990s when education has undergone privatisation and commoditization. Various developed nations such as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom entered into the market with service goods like education. These new developments were the results of the pressure exerted by World Trade Organisation. Before the 1990s, the U.S was the leading force in recruiting overseas students to their universities. But with the new developments, countries like UK, Australia, and New Zealand entered into the educational market and thus reduced the US share. "By 2004 there were around 270,000 students studying in UK universities (both off-shore and in the UK), paying around GB1.5bn in fees and contributing to GB3 to the economy" (Robertson 2007, P. 7-8). Mercerisation and commoditization in Britain has happened almost in the same pace and same intensity as in America. In Britain and Northern Ireland, a restructuring of higher education took place in the name of expansion of higher education. New courses like MBAs were marketed, and distance education programmes and part-time courses were launched to capture the emerging markets. As in US, the course fee was raised and as a compensation for this, student loans were increased. Unlike in US, enrolment in the universities (other than in distance courses) has increased. But this is viewed as a result of changing trends in the labour market. (Wolf 2002: 178) A transformation happened in the labour force also of the higher education of UK. Salary of the teachers decreased compared to the other fields. Bureaucracy pressurised the universities to become more self dependent, reduce costs, and cut down scholarships. The number of students per teacher is doubled, and it has led to a decline in the quality of education. At the same time consumerism in education resulted in increase of competition and thus, the use of standardised models of teaching. The thrust on equality and community has been shifted to individual advancement and costumer satisfaction. Educational institutions "'looks like it is about to become big businesses" (Monbiot 2000, P. 336). While in the United States, the for-profit educational market in as huge as $600 billion, over 1000 schools in Britain have signed contracts with private firms. In 1999, Kings Manor School, Guildford handed over its authority to a private company, and became the pioneers in this regard. Later many other private companies like Shell and Haskins involved in education. The government of US have given considerable freedom to the educational agencies. But in Britain it is seen that the intervention of government has increased during the last decade. But a close analysis of this situation reveals that, the intervention of the monitoring authorities are not focussed on the governance, management or curriculum, instead, are directed towards the economic growth and international competition. The politicians, who intervene frequently upon the education system forgets the fact that education has something more to do than mere economic growth. (Monbiot 2000, P. 336). Since the advent of globalisation has coined new terminologies like 'global market', and 'internationalise', a de-localizing of schools happened in UK. While admission to the primary school is local, the admission to secondary level was de-localized. So, the idea of community schooling is disappearing in UK. The growing security concerns further helped to de-localize the schools. A gate and security became a normal sight with any schools. The students were not allowed to interact with the neighbours of the school. This strengthened the idea that school is a separate entity away from the society. The use of education technology, especially internet strengthened the higher education. It paved way for distance learning and adult learning. More number of adults enrolled in these distance education courses as there emerged a growing interest in adult education "however unorganized, episodic or experimental" (Courtney 1989, P. 19). Conclusion This was an endeavour to analyse the educational system that is prevailing in America on the light of globalisation. The centre of focus was the United States, even though a reference to Latin America and Canada also is included. The growing changes in the educational system of US are then compared with the current educational system of education in UK. It is proved without doubt that, as in other fields, globalisation has a drastic impact on international education also. There are no considerable differences in its impacts on any particular country. Only some variations are there in statistics. The global community is very concerned over the perversion and exploitation that has happened in the field of education during the past ten years. More liberal ideas of education lull us to the think that education is a commodity like any other commodities that can be bought and sell in the market. But hopefully, some alternatives have emerged out of this darkness, which identify some methods to regain the lost light. 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