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CHAPTER EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN THEl970's

In the l960's educational growth was regarded as being ultimately for economic growth. When economic growth had reached a high level, however, it became clear that it alone was not the final goal of human society.

The May 1970, Ministerial Council of OECD made it clear that the goal of thel970's is to improve the quality of life through the remarkable economic developments of the 1960's, and the Conference on Policies for Educational Growth called for a growth in quality during the 1970's just as quantitative expansion had been made during the 1960's. It is also considered very important that educational growth be conceived in terms of the overall qualitative growth of the society. Thus there can be no educational goals apart from overall social goals, and without such goals there can be no specific policies or plans. Therefore the educational goals and objectives of the l970's should be considered in relation to each nation's overall goals and objectives.

In thinking about education in the 1970's the concept of "recurrent education", i.e. education beyond formal school education, must be considered. The basic idea of recurrent education is that in a rapidly changing society it has become insufficient merely to attend school for a limited number of years, learning a specified amount of information; rather, it is essential to continue learning from childhood to the end of life.

In light of this, pre-school education, out-of-school education, and post-school education are all very important. School education should be conceived of as a single link in a lifetime of education.

When public education was available to only a limited number of people the great objective was to expand the opportunities to receive public education. NOW, however, at least in terms of elementary and secondary education, almost the entire population in most major nations has access to public education. In this sense the objective or expanding public education has been achieved. In terms or higher education too, as a percent of the total age group, those receiving higher education has grown tremendously during the 1960's and this will probably increase, but at present there seems to be a general balance between social demand and opportunity.

Equality of access to public education does not necessarily mean equality in benefit from public education. This' raises the question of providing equality of achievement, meaning that the problem is no longer one of quantity but one of quality. The present task is to secure true educational equality by creating opportunities for each individual to obtain equal achievement.

In order to achieve the goals of education, educational effectiveness must be a major objective. When economic growth was being emphasized, training manpower as rapidly as possible was considered an educational objective by some people. But just as quality of growth is seen as more important in the l970's, so effectiveness of education must also be reemphasized.

The most important factor in improving the effectiveness of education is the teacher. Training high quality teachers and improving their status is imperative if.1effectiveness is to be improved, and this is a primary task for all countries in carrying out educational reform.

Education acts as a bridge between the individual and society. Rapid economic growth, technological advances and social change have, during the last three decades, entirely transformed the relationship between the individual and society, and changed the social framework for the individual as well. Therefore it is necessary to reform curriculums, teaching methods and the relationship between school and society so as to provide an education stressing subjectivity and autonomy while enabling youth to adapt to society.

Whether an individual can play a constructive role in the society of the future depends on his self-consciousness and educational achievement much more than was true in the past. In other words carrying out the socializing role of education to a great extent means carrying out a process of individualization.

The objectives pointed out above are all related to the central problem of individual development. One of the most important problems of contemporary education is an educating individual to fit in with the new era. Educational structure, curriculum, and teaching methods should all focus on the education of creative individuals within this new pattern.