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 The process of globalization
is moving ahead so fast that it has reached heretofore public sector areas, such
as education.
True, the relationship between schools and the private sector goes back a long way.
Learning institutions have adapted some of the private sector’s operating methods,
and the public service has delegated teaching missions to private companies, but
a further step has been taken. The explosion of new technologies, which speeds up
the production and spread of “educational goods” and the globalization of markets,
spurs on their commercialization worldwide and eventually, irresistibly attracts
entrepreneurs, always on the lookout for new markets. Today education is a sector
weighing two trillion dollars and companies are continually expanding their choice
of “educational merchandise.” At the same time, the real or supposed shortcomings
of public education are turning parents and students away from it, and fuelling their
growing demand for quality services, which they are ready to seek elsewhere.
Everyone who believes that education is a basic right thinks that commercialization
carries acute risks. They argue that education must not only train workers, but also
citizens and responsible individuals. Therefore they question not only the effects
liberalization will have, which would lead to discrimination against the most disadvantaged
countries, groups and individuals, but also the impact a commercial approach will
have on the spread of “common values” or respect for the indispensable diversity
of learning content and methods, which take into account the language, culture and
teaching traditions of the people for whom they are intended.
Proponents of liberalization criticize the public school system’s ability to offer
equal access to education for all. They stress that it’s time to increase and diversify
offer in order to meet demand that the traditional systems can no longer meet, all
the less so because of budget cuts. They emphasize the necessity to introduce ideas
of productivity and responsibility, the lack of which, they argue, is the public
sector’s main shortcoming.
It is the opinion of UNESCO, and of its member states, that neither
a wholly public nor an entirely commercial education system can overcome the education
crisis, which is tangible. The organization is convinced that public and private
education sectors each have something valuable to contribute, and that by combining
their efforts and forging partnerships, they can boost the educational system’s overall
effectiveness–under one condition: primary responsibility for teaching must remain
in the hands of public authorities, because they alone are the guardians of the common
interest. Above all, education must be a means to train responsible citizens. It
goes without saying that the deregulation of educational institutions cannot be accompanied
by the decline of the basic rules which underpin the educational mission, and by
a lack of serious monitoring to ensure that those rules are observed.
This is just as valid on a worldwide scale. The commercialization of education requires
regional or international co-operation, especially to ensure that the acquisition
of universal values remains the primary objective of any educational system. The
World Trade Organization has started taking an interest in this issue. But we would
be straying from our mission by envisaging the impact of globalization only from
a business perspective, and therefore ignoring its effects on–and potential for–human
freedom and self-fulfillment through education, science and culture.
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