ED 806 Comparative Education

GLORIA C. TOLENTINO
PhDDEVED Student

a. Define Comparative Education and articulate its purpose.

Answer:
Comparative Education can be defined as a social science that deals with the
scrutiny and evaluation of educational systems in different countries. It is a wide
bounded field that inspects the sources, workings, and the outcomes such as education
issues from comprehensive, multidisciplinary, cross-national, and cross-cultural
perspectives (Arnove et al., 1992). It has also the fundamental belief that education has
the tendency to improve and serve to introduce the changes for the betterment of all
nations. This field is supported by the international agency (UNESCO) and national
education ministries (such as CHED, and DEPED for example) of different nations all over
the world.

The purpose of Comparative Education is entailed to emphasize its role in the

field of education. According to Harold Noah (1985), and Farooq Joubish (2009),
comparative education has five purposes:

1. To describe educational systems, processes, or outcomes.

-From this objective, comparative education has not only emphasized the
educational setup, curriculum, methods, organization, administration, and
teaching process but also the causes behind the educational issues and
provide solutions to get positive outcomes benefiting teachers, learners,
schools, and the nations, in terms of social, political, cultural and national
ideologies.
2. To assist in the development of educational institutions and practices.
- Comparative education can help educational institutions to determine
how people’s beliefs and values affect the educational system, and how
to provide appropriate strategies/methods for educating people. The
diversity of students can give an indication of the demand of how to
educate people from different races, cultures, and origins.

3. To highlight the relationships between education and society.

- Comparative education highlights the relationship between education
and society in which both sides should have to collaborate with one
another through the involvement of the students and parents in the
service rendered by the schools/universities to produce successful
graduates despite their differences
 ED 806 Comparative Education

4. To establish generalized statements about education that are valid in more

than one country.
- Comparative education enhances the evaluation of educational outcomes
by showing the performance in any area of education compared to other
countries that lead ideally to go beyond performance in national
examinations.
5. To help the current generation understand the nowadays education systems
with reference to the past.
- Comparative education sought evidence of educational system
reformation that can help to establish a more suitable education system
for the next generation that demands improvement and innovation to
enhance the learning skills of the students and teaching competence of
teachers. New types of schools and universities are born to change the
old educational system and traditional teaching for the betterment of
education as the world and technology are rapidly changing.

b. Determine and discuss at least seven (7) key areas in understanding trends, issues, and
concerns of an educational system.
Answer:
1. Cost of Education
-One of the most conflicting trends in education is the high cost of education
especially tuition fees. High expenses of formal education are now noticeably
increasing due to many additional levels of assessment or evaluation, requirements
given to the students. Emerging online classes are comparatively low and affordable.
There are cheap internet cafés that can help the students to access the virtual
classroom and facilitate learning at a low cost. That is why many students used to
find learning through a blended modality. They can attend face-to-face classes and
do activities online which is helpful to minimize their educational expenses.

2. Deteriorating quality of education

-Quality of education is the major concern of all schools and teachers. But it is very
uncommon to hear the cry of college teachers about why there are some students
who do not know how to construct paragraphs correctly. We all know that private
schools have been assailed as profit-making institutions producing graduates who
are not competitive to get good collar jobs or unemployed rather because of poor
quality of education.
Some reasons for low-quality education are low government budget for
education, poor quality of teachers, poor school management, lacking school
facilities like libraries, laboratories, etc., poor learning environment, inadequate
books, learning resources, shortages of classrooms, and others.
 ED 806 Comparative Education

3. Standardized tests
-One of the complicated issues regarding education is the taking of standardized
tests in which the prior concern of the people is the outcome of the test. We all
know that this test is very important to determine the performance and skills of the
students academically. In some countries, classroom teaching is shifting from
traditional instruction in order to help the students to pass the test. Teachers engage
the learners in technology-based- learning to make fast reviewing and learning the
concept. Like in Singapore, parents, and teachers initiated students to enroll in
additional courses to develop and improve their skills, and have a higher tendency to
pass the standardized test.

4. Equity in education
Quality education can be given to everybody despite the diversity. Every child
has the right to enjoy education from an early age as stated by the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. This means that anyone has an equal opportunity to go
to school and achieve what she/he needs to learn at a higher level as she/he can.
Not only rich students can go to school but also poor ones. Here in the Philippines,
President Rodrigo R. Duterte implemented the law of free education for all which is
under the Republic Act 10931. It is a Philippine law that institutionalizes free tuition
and exemption from other fees in state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local
universities and colleges (LUCs) in the Philippines (google.com). This includes the
education resources that support low-income families disregarding socioeconomic,
gender, race, and cultural differences.
5. Special Class Programs (Inclusive)
Another trend and concern of the educational system are recognizing children
who differ from normal children socially, mentally, or physically that they require
classroom teaching and learning modifications to common school practices. Schools set
a special learning environment for inclusive students to help them learn and discover
their skills and talents in the regular classroom. For example, disabled students can
acquire skills and knowledge according to their capabilities, and teachers provide
appropriate teaching techniques to teach students with special needs. Teachers then
are ready and well equipped to handle the class with inclusive students. The teachers
should orient the able students to give consideration from time to time to their inclusive
classmate/s.
6. Globalization in education
Globalization has brought innumerable positive and negative changes that lead to
struggling teachers and students in the changing world, especially with the rapid
growth of technology use in teaching and learning. With the new age of technology,
 ED 806 Comparative Education

various ways in the delivery of instruction are observed in the classroom. To attain a
high standard of education must adopt the basic tool, technology. According to
Chinnammai (2005), both children and adults can now take advantage of a new way
of learning even if they do not attend the class physically just to get an outstanding
education but instead learn on their own through e-learning. Students are easily
engaged with any e-learning tasks because they can access the internet faster.

7. Courses mismatch the job

In terms of employment, the word “mismatch” is the major problem that is
usually encountered by the graduates from tertiary level. Skills mismatch is a
discrepancy between the skills possessed by the worker and the sought by the
employer (www.ilo.org). Meaning to say, the obtained training from the school
differs from the actual job. This is also proved that education and training are not
providing the skills demanded in the labor market, or that the economy is not
producing available jobs for the graduates.
Businessmen and industrial leaders should address the mentioned problem
through collaboration with different colleges and universities. In a specific way, a
selective admission policy should be implemented which is useful to control the
enrolment in oversubscribed programs and increase enrolment in undersubscribed
ones.

REFERENCE
 ED 806 Comparative Education

Arnove, R. et al., 2019.Comparative Education. Oxford Bibliographies.

DOI:10.1093/OBO/9780199756810-0152
Chinnammai, S. (2005). Effects of globalization on education and culture. ICDE International
Conference, New Delhi, 19-23 November 2005.
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756810/obo-
9780199756810-0152.xml
www.google.com
www. wikipedia.com