10 1.10 THE MODERN ERA

Since the end of the Second World War, education has become the world’s biggest activity as far as over all spending is concerned. In budgetary terms, it ranks a close second in world expenditure of public funds, coming just after military budgets. It is being asked to carry out increasingly vast and complex tasks that bear no com¬parison with those allotted to it in the past. It constitutes a vital component in any effort for development and human progress and occupies an increasingly important position in the formulation of national and international policies.

Three widespread current phenomena deserve particular attention, from both a doctrinal and a practical point of view:

1. Education Precedes Economic Development The first point to consider is that for centuries educational development, especially in the countries of Europe, which initiated the industrial revolution, had generally followed economic growth. Now, probably or the first time in the history of humanity, development of education on a world wide scale is tending to precede economic development. This trend first emerged, boldly and successfully, in countries such as Japan, the former U.S.S.R. and the United States. Many other countries, especially developing nations, have chosen to follow this path in the last few years,’ despite the heavy sacrifices and all the difficulties involved.
2. Education Foresees the Needs of Society Another no less important fact for the future, of a sociological order, is that for the first time in history, education is now engaged in preparing men for a type of society which does not yet exist. This presents educational systems with a task, which is all the more novel in that the function of education down the ages has usually been to reproduce the contemporary society and existing social relationships. The change can be easily explained if the relative stability of past societies is compared with the accelerated development of the contemporary world. At a time when the mission of education should be to train ‘unknown children for an unknown world’, the force of circumstances demands that educationists do some hard thinking, and that in so doing they shape the future. This trend may be seen in countries, which are endeavoring to organize a radically different society, following profound changes and the accession to power of new social or political leaders. It also appears in countries possessing ample technological resources; which without having undergone abrupt political changes have devised a new ‘human project’. Elsewhere, the political situation, domestic difficulties and conflict make it harder to achieve an overall vision of social targets. As a general rule, what is lacking is not willingness or clarity of vision, but necessary structures and re-sources.
3. The third significant fact is the contradiction arising between the products of education and the needs of society. Whereas, in the past, societies evolved slowly (except for brief mutations) and absorbed the products of education easily and willingly, or at least managed to adapt to them, the same is not always true today. Societies Reject School Leavers For the first time in history some societies are beginning to reject many of the products of institutionalized education. This social, economic and psychological phenomenon is due to the fact that accelerating development and structural change tend to accentuate the gap, which normally exists between structures and infrastructures and superstructures. This shows how easily educational systems can become out of phase. A system designed for a minority when knowledge was slow to change and man could, without undue presumption, hope to ‘learn’ in a few years everything to satisfy his intellectual and scientific needs quickly becomes out of date when employed for mass education in times of whirlwind change and when the volume of knowledge increases at an ever faster pace. The effects of multiple conflicts unequal growth, discrepancies in social and economic development, move¬ments and counter movements all have a tremendous impact on education. The system finds it difficult to keep up with the demands of an expanding society; the people it educates are not properly trained to adapt themselves to change, and some societies reject the qualifications and skills being offered when these no longer answer direct needs. This is the consequence of unbalanced growth stop and go development, which creates equilibrium in one sphere by upsetting it in another. Even so, this process is not totally negative, although the readjustment and change it demands are distressing and tiring. The world of education today reflects these dilemmas. Hence the need for change felt at the beginning of this century and especially since the end of the Second World War. Education had to adapt more to social and economic demands and to learners’ wishes and aptitudes. At the same time, it had to provide more equal opportunities.