A new report, Beyond the Mirage: How Pragmatic Stewardship Could Transform Learning Outcomes in International Education Systems, prescribes a shift in the leadership role of education ministers – from providers and guarantors of education to pragmatic stewards of education systems.
Frank Adamson, of California State University, Sacramento, reviewed the
report and found that its use of questionable evidence and possible
conflicts of interest were enough to “render the report’s
recommendations unsubstantiated.” While the report appears to have
strong funding behind it, no information is available about the
publisher or organization producing the publication.
Focusing on the
organization of education sectors in the Global South, the report
contends that this shift from “provider” to “steward” will address the
need for higher quality education, rather than simply providing access to
education. The “pragmatic stewardship” advocated in the report involves
strategies that increasingly incorporate private actors. Accordingly,
the report draws on four case studies of different types of
private-sector involvement in education as examples of a recommended
broader shift by education ministers.
Professor Adamson argues
that all four cases contain limitations – some discussed, others not –
that undermine their suitability as successful examples of divesting
public education systems of their primary role as guarantors and
providers of education.
Moreover, while the report
claims to be “non-ideological” and “beyond the mirage” of the education
privatization debate, the funders of the report have a material stake
in a main program cited as evidence, raising concerns about conflicts of
interest. For these reasons, Professor Adamson concludes that education
ministers should “take the suggestions in this report with a grain of
salt.”
Find the review, by Frank Adamson, at:
Find Beyond the Mirage: How Pragmatic Stewardship Could Transform Learning Outcomes in International Education Systems, written by Katelyn Donnelly, Arvind Nagarajan, and Ross Lescano Lipstein, at:
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