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Education in a period of social upheaval: Educational theories and concepts in Central East Europe
452
BOOK REVIEWS
schemes can be expensive enterprises. Moreover they are based on a false assumption, namely that there is a close correlation between education, employment and earnings. A payroll tax (i.e. payable by employers) might be theoretically sound, but could depress demand for graduate labour, while an education tax can be administratively complicated. Perhaps the most equitable form of cost recovery without the stigma of student indebtedness is the graduate tax. However, as Tilak concludes, 'progressive taxation, and funding education out of general tax revenues and financing of higher education out of general and specific tax revenues may still be the best option. All others are only second best solutions' (p. 39). I wonder how many economists in the World Bank would share this view? KEITH WATSON
The University of Reading
Literacy in Nepal: Looking Through the Literature: A. RobinsonPant. Education for Development Occasional Papers No. 1, Reading 1995.13 pp. £3. Women and Literacy in India: A Study in a Re-Settlement Colony: A. Dighe. Education for Development Occasional Papers No. 2, Reading, 1995. ISBN 1 870447-15-8, 24 pp., £3. Women Literacy Income Generation: A..Roger~ Education for Development, Reading, 1994. ISBN I 870447-12-3, 84 pp. These three short monographs can usefully be read together. One should read Rogers' work first, as it provides a very good framework within which the other much shorter works can be considered. It focuses on aspects of women's literacy in relation to income-generating activities, which are often promoted in literacy classes. First, we are presented with an argument that women in development programmes should no longer be treated as if they are a single class or category. Rather it must be recognised that they have as widely diverse interests as men. Accordingly, we should not offer development programmes to 'women' in general, but specify groups of women according to their common interests. Because these vary so much, any programme of learning designed to help them achieve their developmental goals should be tailormade for their felt needs and wants. Secondly, discussion of the meaning of 'literacy' follows. We are told that most adult literacy classes follow schoolbased approaches; literacy is seen as a set of relatively neutral technical skills which, once learned, can be used in any situation where the learner needs to read, write or use written figures Freirean approaches to literacy are recognised, but Rogers argues for a socio-cultural approach which encourages people to read and write in order to achieve their goals, rather than to 'read' or 'write' in general terms. Thirdly, Rogers argues that income-generation programmes provide the best possibility for building literacy programmes on a 'literacy comes second' model, but that this opportunity does not seem to have been taken advantage of to any great extent. He offers several examples to demonstrate how skilltraining programmes which are attached to women's literacy programmes have been used to enable the women to become at least more independent, even if they do not earn more income. Rogers' central thesis is that by entering into the cycle of women's everyday life and identifying those points at which their dependency is greatest, it is possible to help them acquire greater independence by learning to cope with such situations. However, he is not optimistic about general trends. Many
of the income-generating activities he has observed in 'functional literacy' classes produce low incomes and need little literacy. While women are often taught how to make things, they are rarely taught how to sell them. Rogers' major recommendation is more training for instructors. The major contribution of Digbe's study is to highlight the need for systematic and concerted research based on four associated questions: (1) What are women's needs to become literate? (2) What are their expectations from literacy? (3) What are their expectations for continuing their education? (4) What is the impact of literacy on their lives? The design of research projects in these areas would be enhanced greatly by an examination of the studies outlined in Robinson-Pant's review of the literature on Nepal. Overall, these works constitute a worthwhile read. Rogers' work could be faulted for being based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence rather than on statistical and qualitative data collected as part of a comprehensive research project. Nevertheless, it provides much food for thought. Future publications in the 'Education for Development' series would be enhanced by the inclusion of a note on the research centre responsible for their production, its location and status, and the type of work in which it is engaged. A brief note on the authors of the works would also provide a better context for the reader. THOMAS A. O'DONOGHUE
University of Western Australia
Education in East Central Europe: Educational Changes After the Fall of Communism: S. Karsten and D. Majoor (eds). European Studies in Education No. 1. Waxman, Miinster and New York, 1994. 177 pp. Education in a Period of Social Upheaval: Educational Theories and Concepts in Central East Europe: S. Sting and C. Wulf (eds). European Studies in Education No. 2. Waxman, Miinster and New York, 1994. 173 pp. These volumes provide an introduction in English to what has been happening to education in the Baltic republics, Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, eastern Germany, Hungary and Poland since they achieved independence from Russia. They draw on a seminar in Berlin in 1994, funded by TEMPUS and the Dutch Ministry of Education. The series is organised by the Network Educational Science Amsterdam. The first volume provides detailed chapters on Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, with an introduction and epilogue which put the findings into a comparative framework. Each author gives an introduction to education and democracy in his country, then examines what has happened in primary, secondary and vocational schools, teacher training and the universities; problems of inadequate resources and the lack of public trust in government initiatives; the development of teacher and school autonomy; and plans for the future. These countries differ considerably in how their educational systems developed and how much leeway the state is willing to allow for private schools, local authority control and the expression of parental aspirations. Overall, many of the problems faced are by no means unique to east central Europe, and specialists in other countries might well contemplate how their own countries have faced similar problems. Much less has been accomplished than was hoped, partly because of economic problems. Vocational education seems to have suffered most,
BOOK REVIEWS with declining state commitment and rising unemployment. Teachers feel less secure, since many have been made redundant (especially teachers of Russian) and not much has yet been done to develop new skills - - either in new areas of the curriculum or in new teaching techniques. A future report is needed, covering the next 10 years, to provide a clearer picture of how these varied systems of education cope with change. The second volume is broader than the first and more focused on theories of 'educational science'. (One paragraph in the introduction uses this term five times.) Jargon (Marxist and educational) is much more common in this than in the first volume, making reading hard-going for the non-specialist reader. There are three sections: 'Reviews and new approaches'; 'Problems of the transformation process'; and 'Concepts and paradigms'. There are four 'reviews', focusing on 'Pedagogical Anthropology and Axiology'; Socialist 'practical' education and pedagogy in Poland; the past, present and future of educational science in Lithuania; and pluralism in Hungarian education. The four papers in the second section examine changing educational science, values, the role of the state and the teaching profession in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and the former East Germany respectively. National regulation and unified curricula remain important; much time is wasted waiting for bills to be formulated and passed by national legislatures. The links between democracy and educational autonomy and flexibility have yet to be developed, and the potential popularity of such change varies considerably. While educational science can contribute to this process, what happens continues to reflect local assumptions about what education should be and the resources which can be provided. A survey of German teachers found considerable discouragement at declining standards of achievement by students, especially in science. East Berlin teachers had considerable difficulty adjusting to unification, as they had little say in the adoption of West Berlin practices. The third and longest section has six papers, dealing with democratisation, self-education, national and regional components of the curriculum as a route to European integration, system pedagogy, societal paradigms and the development of educational theory. There is less emphasis on individual countries in this section and more consideration of what generalisations can be made. There are calls for deeper philosophical, especially epistemological, thinking, clearer conceptualisation of the role of politics in education, the development of children's moral personality, and humanism, incorporating the child into nature and culture. Estonia, in particular, is concerned about the ideological vacuum resulting from the collapse of Russia and the problem of choosing an educational model which suits local conditions. Overall, readers will need to be selective, as some papers will be of far wider interest than others. Those concerned with social, political and educational change will find considerable food for thought. MARGARET PEIL
University of Birmingham
Journal of Higher Education: University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India. $60 foreign yearly subscription. This quarterly journal has been published for many years; Volume 17, No. 1 has come to our attention. There are seven
453
papers plus a book review and documentation - - a Report on UGC funding. The papers cover a wide range, from excellence and accountability in science and problems of global warming through resource problems and self-financing to teaching English at tertiary level and agricultural/environmental research. Thus, readers are kept abreast of developments in India's large and complex university sector. MARGARET PEIL
University of Birmingham
The Epsilon Index: Measuring Efficacy in Textbook Provision: Charles McGregor. Latimer Lion (UK), Leatherhead, 1995, ISBN 1 9004006, 74 pp., £12.50. Cost-effective education is becoming increasingly important as the world approaches the end of a century that some see as characterised by high spending, wastage of resources and poor management techniques, Getting more for the 'dollar' is rightly a priority in the developing world where there is often a problem finding money for education, coupled with the rapid expansion of access to places for more people. Educational planners and administrators need reliable and useable methods to evaluate the cost-effectivenessof diverse projects and there is a current trend to identify strategies that maximise student learning outcomes for the cheapest price. Such strategies might lead to improvements in teacher education, curriculum reform, management, the building of new facilities or the provision of materials such as textbooks. A commonly held view is that the provision of textbooks is one of the most cost-effective strategies for improving the quality of education in developing countries. This is illustrated by the current popularity of textbook provision projects with donor and loan agencies. In his document, The Epsilon Index. Measuring Efficacy in Textbook Provision, Charles McGregor makes a contribution to the improvement of textbook management by proposing a unit of measurement to help quantify the cost-effectivenessof textbook projects. He suggests that the target audiences of such an instrument would be Ministries of Education in developing countries and donor agency personnel. If such an index were viable, it would be of particular use to the World Bank, a main target of the author's writing. To cite his own words ' . . . . what we want is a measure of textbook effectiveness and of a cost constraint which can be fairly easily calculated.' To define epsilon, the effectiveness of the project, McGregor has isolated six related factors, listing them as: stock level, physical quality of stock, availability of stock, stock treatment, pedagogic quality of stock and preparation of teachers. He describes how these six factors can be measured in quantitative terms and combined to form the value (epsilon) which can then be used with sustainable cost (alpha) to obtain a single measure to describe the efficacy of a project. Epsilon, it is argued, could be used as a focus for planning and evaluating projects in an international context. An advantage of the Epsilon Index is that by helping to make explicit the factors involved in managing textbook projects, planners may gain a better understanding of the complexities and effects of their decisions. Education cannot afford to be cost ineffective, and improving accountability is important. Ministries of Education, faced with austerity, will inevitably be attempting to build these factors into their own planning systems and procedures.
BOOK REVIEWS
schemes can be expensive enterprises. Moreover they are based on a false assumption, namely that there is a close correlation between education, employment and earnings. A payroll tax (i.e. payable by employers) might be theoretically sound, but could depress demand for graduate labour, while an education tax can be administratively complicated. Perhaps the most equitable form of cost recovery without the stigma of student indebtedness is the graduate tax. However, as Tilak concludes, 'progressive taxation, and funding education out of general tax revenues and financing of higher education out of general and specific tax revenues may still be the best option. All others are only second best solutions' (p. 39). I wonder how many economists in the World Bank would share this view? KEITH WATSON
The University of Reading
Literacy in Nepal: Looking Through the Literature: A. RobinsonPant. Education for Development Occasional Papers No. 1, Reading 1995.13 pp. £3. Women and Literacy in India: A Study in a Re-Settlement Colony: A. Dighe. Education for Development Occasional Papers No. 2, Reading, 1995. ISBN 1 870447-15-8, 24 pp., £3. Women Literacy Income Generation: A..Roger~ Education for Development, Reading, 1994. ISBN I 870447-12-3, 84 pp. These three short monographs can usefully be read together. One should read Rogers' work first, as it provides a very good framework within which the other much shorter works can be considered. It focuses on aspects of women's literacy in relation to income-generating activities, which are often promoted in literacy classes. First, we are presented with an argument that women in development programmes should no longer be treated as if they are a single class or category. Rather it must be recognised that they have as widely diverse interests as men. Accordingly, we should not offer development programmes to 'women' in general, but specify groups of women according to their common interests. Because these vary so much, any programme of learning designed to help them achieve their developmental goals should be tailormade for their felt needs and wants. Secondly, discussion of the meaning of 'literacy' follows. We are told that most adult literacy classes follow schoolbased approaches; literacy is seen as a set of relatively neutral technical skills which, once learned, can be used in any situation where the learner needs to read, write or use written figures Freirean approaches to literacy are recognised, but Rogers argues for a socio-cultural approach which encourages people to read and write in order to achieve their goals, rather than to 'read' or 'write' in general terms. Thirdly, Rogers argues that income-generation programmes provide the best possibility for building literacy programmes on a 'literacy comes second' model, but that this opportunity does not seem to have been taken advantage of to any great extent. He offers several examples to demonstrate how skilltraining programmes which are attached to women's literacy programmes have been used to enable the women to become at least more independent, even if they do not earn more income. Rogers' central thesis is that by entering into the cycle of women's everyday life and identifying those points at which their dependency is greatest, it is possible to help them acquire greater independence by learning to cope with such situations. However, he is not optimistic about general trends. Many
of the income-generating activities he has observed in 'functional literacy' classes produce low incomes and need little literacy. While women are often taught how to make things, they are rarely taught how to sell them. Rogers' major recommendation is more training for instructors. The major contribution of Digbe's study is to highlight the need for systematic and concerted research based on four associated questions: (1) What are women's needs to become literate? (2) What are their expectations from literacy? (3) What are their expectations for continuing their education? (4) What is the impact of literacy on their lives? The design of research projects in these areas would be enhanced greatly by an examination of the studies outlined in Robinson-Pant's review of the literature on Nepal. Overall, these works constitute a worthwhile read. Rogers' work could be faulted for being based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence rather than on statistical and qualitative data collected as part of a comprehensive research project. Nevertheless, it provides much food for thought. Future publications in the 'Education for Development' series would be enhanced by the inclusion of a note on the research centre responsible for their production, its location and status, and the type of work in which it is engaged. A brief note on the authors of the works would also provide a better context for the reader. THOMAS A. O'DONOGHUE
University of Western Australia
Education in East Central Europe: Educational Changes After the Fall of Communism: S. Karsten and D. Majoor (eds). European Studies in Education No. 1. Waxman, Miinster and New York, 1994. 177 pp. Education in a Period of Social Upheaval: Educational Theories and Concepts in Central East Europe: S. Sting and C. Wulf (eds). European Studies in Education No. 2. Waxman, Miinster and New York, 1994. 173 pp. These volumes provide an introduction in English to what has been happening to education in the Baltic republics, Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, eastern Germany, Hungary and Poland since they achieved independence from Russia. They draw on a seminar in Berlin in 1994, funded by TEMPUS and the Dutch Ministry of Education. The series is organised by the Network Educational Science Amsterdam. The first volume provides detailed chapters on Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, with an introduction and epilogue which put the findings into a comparative framework. Each author gives an introduction to education and democracy in his country, then examines what has happened in primary, secondary and vocational schools, teacher training and the universities; problems of inadequate resources and the lack of public trust in government initiatives; the development of teacher and school autonomy; and plans for the future. These countries differ considerably in how their educational systems developed and how much leeway the state is willing to allow for private schools, local authority control and the expression of parental aspirations. Overall, many of the problems faced are by no means unique to east central Europe, and specialists in other countries might well contemplate how their own countries have faced similar problems. Much less has been accomplished than was hoped, partly because of economic problems. Vocational education seems to have suffered most,
BOOK REVIEWS with declining state commitment and rising unemployment. Teachers feel less secure, since many have been made redundant (especially teachers of Russian) and not much has yet been done to develop new skills - - either in new areas of the curriculum or in new teaching techniques. A future report is needed, covering the next 10 years, to provide a clearer picture of how these varied systems of education cope with change. The second volume is broader than the first and more focused on theories of 'educational science'. (One paragraph in the introduction uses this term five times.) Jargon (Marxist and educational) is much more common in this than in the first volume, making reading hard-going for the non-specialist reader. There are three sections: 'Reviews and new approaches'; 'Problems of the transformation process'; and 'Concepts and paradigms'. There are four 'reviews', focusing on 'Pedagogical Anthropology and Axiology'; Socialist 'practical' education and pedagogy in Poland; the past, present and future of educational science in Lithuania; and pluralism in Hungarian education. The four papers in the second section examine changing educational science, values, the role of the state and the teaching profession in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and the former East Germany respectively. National regulation and unified curricula remain important; much time is wasted waiting for bills to be formulated and passed by national legislatures. The links between democracy and educational autonomy and flexibility have yet to be developed, and the potential popularity of such change varies considerably. While educational science can contribute to this process, what happens continues to reflect local assumptions about what education should be and the resources which can be provided. A survey of German teachers found considerable discouragement at declining standards of achievement by students, especially in science. East Berlin teachers had considerable difficulty adjusting to unification, as they had little say in the adoption of West Berlin practices. The third and longest section has six papers, dealing with democratisation, self-education, national and regional components of the curriculum as a route to European integration, system pedagogy, societal paradigms and the development of educational theory. There is less emphasis on individual countries in this section and more consideration of what generalisations can be made. There are calls for deeper philosophical, especially epistemological, thinking, clearer conceptualisation of the role of politics in education, the development of children's moral personality, and humanism, incorporating the child into nature and culture. Estonia, in particular, is concerned about the ideological vacuum resulting from the collapse of Russia and the problem of choosing an educational model which suits local conditions. Overall, readers will need to be selective, as some papers will be of far wider interest than others. Those concerned with social, political and educational change will find considerable food for thought. MARGARET PEIL
University of Birmingham
Journal of Higher Education: University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India. $60 foreign yearly subscription. This quarterly journal has been published for many years; Volume 17, No. 1 has come to our attention. There are seven
453
papers plus a book review and documentation - - a Report on UGC funding. The papers cover a wide range, from excellence and accountability in science and problems of global warming through resource problems and self-financing to teaching English at tertiary level and agricultural/environmental research. Thus, readers are kept abreast of developments in India's large and complex university sector. MARGARET PEIL
University of Birmingham
The Epsilon Index: Measuring Efficacy in Textbook Provision: Charles McGregor. Latimer Lion (UK), Leatherhead, 1995, ISBN 1 9004006, 74 pp., £12.50. Cost-effective education is becoming increasingly important as the world approaches the end of a century that some see as characterised by high spending, wastage of resources and poor management techniques, Getting more for the 'dollar' is rightly a priority in the developing world where there is often a problem finding money for education, coupled with the rapid expansion of access to places for more people. Educational planners and administrators need reliable and useable methods to evaluate the cost-effectivenessof diverse projects and there is a current trend to identify strategies that maximise student learning outcomes for the cheapest price. Such strategies might lead to improvements in teacher education, curriculum reform, management, the building of new facilities or the provision of materials such as textbooks. A commonly held view is that the provision of textbooks is one of the most cost-effective strategies for improving the quality of education in developing countries. This is illustrated by the current popularity of textbook provision projects with donor and loan agencies. In his document, The Epsilon Index. Measuring Efficacy in Textbook Provision, Charles McGregor makes a contribution to the improvement of textbook management by proposing a unit of measurement to help quantify the cost-effectivenessof textbook projects. He suggests that the target audiences of such an instrument would be Ministries of Education in developing countries and donor agency personnel. If such an index were viable, it would be of particular use to the World Bank, a main target of the author's writing. To cite his own words ' . . . . what we want is a measure of textbook effectiveness and of a cost constraint which can be fairly easily calculated.' To define epsilon, the effectiveness of the project, McGregor has isolated six related factors, listing them as: stock level, physical quality of stock, availability of stock, stock treatment, pedagogic quality of stock and preparation of teachers. He describes how these six factors can be measured in quantitative terms and combined to form the value (epsilon) which can then be used with sustainable cost (alpha) to obtain a single measure to describe the efficacy of a project. Epsilon, it is argued, could be used as a focus for planning and evaluating projects in an international context. An advantage of the Epsilon Index is that by helping to make explicit the factors involved in managing textbook projects, planners may gain a better understanding of the complexities and effects of their decisions. Education cannot afford to be cost ineffective, and improving accountability is important. Ministries of Education, faced with austerity, will inevitably be attempting to build these factors into their own planning systems and procedures.