Education in a Global Society

Moira Baldwin Education in a

Education in a Global Society

Moira Baldwin

Dr. Burlbaw

EDCI 658

4/19/03

Moira Baldwin

Dr. Burlbaw

EDCI 658

4/19/03

Education in a Global Society

From the Americas, I traveled to Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and, finally, to the Pacific Rim. Through the text, I visited some countries I never thought of traveling to in person. Two of the countries, Ireland and Spain, I visited several years ago. Ireland is the nation my great grandparents emigrated from and my uncle lived for many years.

I learned more about the school systems in the United States and about the school systems in the other countries. The primary focus was on public education which I found interesting since I attended parochial schools. My only experience with public education is as a teacher. The chapter on Ireland created an opportunity for conversation with my mother about her school experiences because she attended Irish schools in the Baltimore, MD. I also learned more about my uncle’s experience in the school system in Ireland as a school psychologist.

Each chapter was divided into four sections:

• Social fabric,
• Schooling,
• Major issues, controversies and problems, and
• The future of society and schooling.

The populations of the countries range from 1.2 billion, the world’s largest, in the People’s Republic of China to 55, 732 in Greenland, the world’s largest island. The areas range from Russia’s 17,075,200 square kilometers, the largest country in the world, to Israel with an area of 20,700 square kilometers. Palestine would be smaller but it is not recognized as a country at this time.

In the Americas unit, the United States of America has the largest population (275 million). It is followed by Brazil with 155.8 million, Mexico with 93 million, Canada with 29.9 million, and Chile with 14.4 million. Of these countries, Canada is the largest with an area of 9.9 million square kilometers, and is the second largest country in the world.

Of the countries in the Western European unit, France has the largest population (59,765, 983). The United Kingdom follows with a population of 46 million. Spain comes next with 39,209,711, followed by Greece with 10.2 million, Switzerland with 7 million, Ireland with 3,883,159 and Greenland with 55,732. Of these countries, Greenland, the world’s largest island, is the largest with an area of 2,166,086 square kilometers.

In the Central and Eastern Europe unit, Russia has the highest population (114,978,573). It is followed by Poland with 38,792,442, Hungary with 10,212,000, Croatia with 4,800,000, and Lithuania with 3.7 million. Of these countries, Russia has the greatest area, 17,075,200 square kilometers. Russia also has the largest area of all the countries in the world.

Of the countries in the Middle East and Africa unit, Pakistan has the largest population (119 million). Turkey has a population of 60 million, second largest in the unit. South Africa has a population of 40,648,574. Israel’s population is 5.5 million and is followed by Palestine with an estimated population of 4 million. South Africa has the greatest area, 1,219,912 square kilometers. In order to come up with an area for Palestine, I had to look up the areas of the West Bank (5,860 square kilometers) and the Gaza Strip (360 square kilometers) and add them together. Palestine is not a recognized country which is why I had to estimate its area to be 6,220 square kilometers.

The last unit was the Pacific Rim. The country with the largest population is the People’s Republic of China. Indonesia follows with a population of 197 million then Japan with 125,570,000. Malaysia comes next with a population of 20,096,007 with Papua New Guinea coming last with a population of 4 million. The People’s Republic of China also has the largest area of the counties in this unit (9,596,960 square kilometers).

The religions represented in each country extend from large majorities as in Greece (98% Christian Orthodox) and in Pakistan (97% Muslim) to a mix as in the United States (56% Protestant, 28% Roman Catholic, 2% Jewish, 4% other and 10% no religion). With the controversies over religion these days, it was interesting to see that the majority of the countries have some form of religion taught in their public schools.

In the Americas, the United States has a variety of religions represented within its population. Brazil’s population is 80% Roman Catholic. Canada’s population is 46% Roman Catholic, 36% Protestant, and 18% other. The population of Mexico is 89% Roman Catholic, 6% Protestant, and 5% other. Chile has a population that is 89% Roman Catholic, 11% Protestant, negligible Jewish.

Within Western Europe, the religion of the majority of the population is Christian. The vast majority of the French population (83%-88%) claims Roman Catholic as their faith. France also possesses the largest Jewish population in Europe, which is approximately 700,000 or about 1% of the French population. They also have a growing Muslim community, which is currently 5%-10% of the French population.

Ireland’s population is 91.6% Roman Catholic, 2.5% Church of Ireland, 2% Protestant and 5.9% other faiths. Switzerland’s population is 46.1% Roman Catholic, 40% Protestant, and 5% other religions. The official religion of the United Kingdom is Church of England, but there is also a substantial Roman Catholic community (40 million combined). Methodist (760,000), Presbyterian (800,000) and other religions such as Muslim (1.5 million), Sikh (500,000), Hindu (500,000), and Jewish (350,000) are significant as well. Greece’s population is 98% Greek Christian Orthodox, 1.3% Muslim and 0.7% other. Spain has a population that is 94% Roman Catholic, 6% other. Greenland’s population is a mixture of Inuit and Evangelical Lutheran.

Within Central and Western Europe, the majority of the populations are Roman Catholic with the exception of the Russians. Russians are predominantly Russian Christian Orthodox but there are also other forms of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, pagan religions, and new-religion followers. Interestingly, with the fall of the USSR the state pressure to profess atheism is gone and now 50% of the population claims to hold some form of religious belief.

Lithuania’s population is predominantly Roman Catholic but also represented are Evangelical Lutheran, Evangelical Reformer, Orthodox Church, Judaism, Church of Old Rite, and Baptist. Poland is 95% Roman Catholic with Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and other religions making up the remaining 5%. Roman Catholics make up 2/3 of Hungary’s population while Protestant is the second largest group. Croatia has a population that is 76.5% Roman Catholic, 11.1% Orthodox, 1.2% Muslim, 0.4% Protestant, and 10.8% other and unknown.

Religion plays an interesting part within the Middle East and Africa unit. Of the five countries studied, Turkey, Pakistan and Palestine contain a majority Muslim population. The population of Turkey is 99.8% Muslim, and 0.2% Christian and Jewish. Pakistan’s population is 97% Muslim with Christian, Hindu and other making up the remaining 3%. Palestine’s population is mostly Muslim (98.7% in the Gaza Strip, 75% in the West Bank) with the remainder being either Jewish (0.6% in the Gaza Strip and 17% in the West Bank) or Christian (0.7% in the Gaza Strip and 8% in the West Bank).

Israel is the standout in the Middle East. Israel’s population is 80.1% Jewish (4.5 million) and 19.9% non-Jewish. The majority, or 1 million people, of the non-Jewish population is Arab. South Africa, on the other hand, has a substantial Jewish, Muslim (2%) and Hindu (1.5%) population but the majority (68%) are Christian.

In the Pacific Rim, the religions are rather varied. In the People’s Republic of China the official religion is atheism but approximately 1%-2% of the population is Daosit, Buddhist, and Muslim while 3%-4% are Christian. The majority of Indonesia’s population is Muslim (88%) but there are also Protestants (5%), Roman Catholics (3%), Hindus (2%) and Buddhists (1%) living there. Papua New Guinea has a population which is 22% Roman Catholic, 16% Lutheran, 8% Presbyterian/Methodist/London Missionary Society, 5% Anglican, 4% Evangelical alliance, 1% Seventh-day Adventists, 10% other Protestant and 34% indigenous beliefs. In Japan, 84% of the population observes both Shinto and Buddhist while the remaining 16% are other religions including 0.7% Christian. Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, and Sikh are the religions of Malaysia, and Shamanism is practiced in East Malaysia.

Urbanization is another major factor in the twenty-seven countries. Brazil is characterized by rapid urbanization where 77.5% of the population lives in urban areas. In Canada, 77% of the population lives in urban areas. In fact 1/3 of the population lives in the largest three cities: Vancouver (2 million), Toronto (4 million), and Montreal (3 million). In the United Kingdom, the majority of the population lives in urban areas with 7 million living in Greater London. Living in aggregate town areas is 60% of Ireland’s population.

Within Greece, approximately 5.1 million, or half its population, lives in the two urban centers of Athinae and Thessalonike. Since Greenland’s climate is arctic, 90% of its population lives on the southwest coast where the climate is mildest. The capital city of Nuuk has a population of 13,148, which is 23.6% of its total population. Turkey has seen a migration from rural to urban areas over the last decade. In 1980 only 43.9% of its population lived in urban areas. By the mid-1990s 59% of its population lived in urban areas.

In contrast, 70% of Pakistan’s population lives in rural areas. Papua New Guinea has more than 80% of its population residing in traditional rural societies. In the People’s Republic of China, more than 70% of its population lives in rural, mountainous or remote regions.

In all but two countries schooling is compulsory for some period of a child’s life. Pakistan and Papua New Guinea currently have no laws which make schooling compulsory. Twelve of the countries make school compulsory for nine years. In five countries it is compulsory for ten years. Four have compulsory schooling for eight years. The least length of time that school is compulsory is five years in Turkey while the United Kingdom is the longest with eleven years.

The United States, France, Spain, Lithuania, and Malaysia compulsory schooling starts at the age of 6 and ends at age of 16. In both Hungary and Russia students can begin school at either 6 or 7 and are required to remain in school until 16. Both the United Kingdom and Israel compulsory schooling from age 5 to 16. Compulsory schooling lasts from age 6 to 15 in the People’s Republic of China, Japan, South Africa, Ireland, and Greece.

The schools in Switzerland start children at the age of seven but depending on the canton schooling is compulsory until either age 15 or 16. Poland has compulsory schooling from age 7 to 17. In Brazil compulsory schooling is between the ages of 7 and 14. Canadian schools are compulsory from first grade through eighth grade.

Mexico has compulsory schooling for nine years as do Indonesia and Greenland. In Croatia, students may begin their schooling at either age 6 or 7 and are required to remain until they are 15. Chile requires schooling for all children for eight years. Turkey currently requires schooling for five years but there are plans to increase the length to eight years.

All of the countries have some form of public education. Of the twenty-seven countries, only the United States and Greece do not offer vocational education at the secondary level. In nineteen countries private schools are mentioned within the chapter as being permitted. Greek law prohibits private education. Both Canada and the United States permit home schooling. In the People’s Republic of China, the official status of private schools and schools financed and operated mainly on their own funds outside the state budget was reinstated in the 1990s.

The school systems are similar around the world. All of the countries have some form of preschool, usually kindergarten. They can be either private or, as in most countries, public in most countries. Israel and Hungary are unique because both require one year of kindergarten before beginning first grade. In most of the countries preschool is voluntary and is for children between birth and age 6. The average age of a kindergartener is 5 years old.

All the countries have elementary or primary schools. For some of the countries primary schools are divided into parts. For example, in the United Kingdom primary school is divided into infant school for students between ages 5 and 7 and junior school for students between ages 7 and 11. In Spain, however, primary school is for students between ages 6 and 12 and is divided into three cycles of two years each.

All of the countries also have some form of secondary schools whether academic or vocational. For six of the countries secondary school is divided into two parts, usually upper and lower. Ireland, for example, has a three year junior cycle and a two year senior cycle at the secondary level.

In Malaysia and Pakistan, the Islamic religion is taught in the public schools. Roman Catholic religion is offered as a course in Poland at the elementary and secondary level and is an optional course in Croatia. In Lithuania, Chile and Brazil, students either study religion or ethics. In Ireland, almost all of the primary schools are either parish schools or schools with religious ethos and the majority of the secondary schools are run by religious orders. Israel offers religious state education as an optional school system. In contrast, in both the United States and France religious education is not part of the public school curriculum.

Nineteen of the countries have a national curriculum which the schools must follow. Only the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Chile and Russia do not have a set national curriculum. In Canada, for example, the provinces decide their own curriculum since there is no federal ministry of education. The development of the Canadian schooling has resulted in a highly differentiated set of education systems with varied jurisdictional authority residing in the provinces. By contrast, the curricula in France are determined by the Ministry of Education and the education system is highly centralized.

The major issues facing the twenty-seven nations are varied. Russia, for example, is dealing with a moral vacuum that has left the schools with no clear set of values to teach. In Papua New Guinea one of the major problems is the chronic lawlessness that characterizes life. Both countries, as well as many of the others, face income distribution issues. In the two or three years following the dissolution of the USSR a differentiation in income emerged that left the vast majority of Russian people poor, a few well off, and a very few rich and super rich. In Papua New Guinea, the minerals boom has benefited those in the urban centers and its proximity while some areas remain chronically underdeveloped.

In the United States, income distribution is also an issue. The richest 2% of the population control ten times more resources than the poorest 20%. In Russia the general estimate is that the income ratio of the richest 10% to the poorest 10% is 1 to 15. Similar disproportions exist in Canada as well. In Chile, one of the effects of uneven income distribution is that in wealthy areas spending per pupil in the public sector is twice that of schools in the poorer municipalities.

The regional disparities that exist in Chile are not unique. Most of the other countries also mention disparities that exist among schools in different areas. In France, the best tracks tend to be monopolized by students from high socioeconomic backgrounds. In Russian schools most of the funding comes from local budgets, which has resulted in gross differences between various regions in terms of percentages and real money. In Pakistan, as well, rural-urban imbalances exist in both availability and quality of educational facilities. Indonesian children who belong to very poor households or who are located in geographically isolated pockets are not in school.

Teacher pay and teaching conditions are issues in many of the countries as well. Russian teachers, according to the Law, should get a salary equal to the average in industry and university professors should get double the amount. However, teachers and professors barely get half of what they should and salaries are often two to five months in arrears. In Turkey, teachers have lost much of their prestige and relatively respectable salaries in the past 30 years. Average annual salaries are now US$3,700 for beginning teachers. “To give a comparison of wages, here is the US Dollar equivalent of some typical monthly salaries in Turkey: Nurse: $270; Newly Qualified Teacher: $300; University Research Assistant: $380; Doctor: $440; Newly Appointed Judge: $550; Specialist (Doctor) $590” (

The vast majority of Mexican teachers hold several teaching positions or they are employed in fields other than education because their salaries do not cover even subsistence needs. High-paid teachers earn “approximately $300 per month and their low remunerated colleagues are paid between 10 and 15% less per month” (Mazurek, K., Winzer, M., & Majorek, C, 2000, p.72). In Hungary, teachers’ pay conditions have steadily decreased since the early 1990s and their pay is the lowest of any other teachers in the OECD countries.

The future of schooling in all these countries is dependent on a variety of issues and the solutions each country utilizes. Economic issues will affect schooling in all the countries. In Brazil, for example, education must become a significant concern and, if that occurs, then the priority of elementary education will emerge as a coherent governmental option. In Russia, the state needs to put more money into education. Education needs to be made a priority in deed not just in words. The Mexican government needs to increase spending on education as does the private sector in Mexico. Financing must be increased if Spain is to achieve the quality of education corresponding to the rate of development of the country.