Review

Reviewed Work(s): The World Educational Crisis: A Systems Analysis by Philip H. Coombs
Review by: C. O. Taiwo
Source: International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 17, No. 2, Educational
Trends in Some Developing Countries / Tendenzen des Bildungswesens in Einigen
Entwicklungsländern / Tendances Pedagogiques Dans Quelques Pays en Voie de
Developpement (1971), pp. 227-229
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3442779
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 ANALYSES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES 227

COOMBS, PHILIP H., The World Educational Crisis: A Systems Analy

Oxford: University Press, 1968. pp. 241. 21/6.

The World Educational Crisis by Philip H. Coonibs, the former Director of

CO's International Institute for Educational Planning, comes as a welcome ad-
dition to the growing literature in the new field of educational planning. The author
is well qualified in his own right as an expert and as head of a research team in
planning to illuminate afresh the intricacies of educational planning. In The World
Educational Crisis, he addresses the whole world, developed and developing nations,
on what he calls a crisis in education. He assembles the relevant facts, suggests a
strategy for controlling or resolving the crisis and pleads constructively for dealing
with an educational system in its entirety, as a whole system.
The seven chapters bear challenging or topical titles: "Angle of Vision," "The
Inputs of Educational Systems," "The Outputs of Educational Systems," "Inside
the Educational System," "Nonformal Education," "International Co-operation,"
"Conclusions for Strategy." Each chapter opens with a succinct summary of its
contents, which is a useful device for revision.
The first chapter draws attention to the facts of widespread expansion in student
enrolments and rising expenditure. Rapid as the progress in educational develop-
ment is, the events of the respective environments grow faster, leading to a yawning
gap. The fact that educational systems are unable to match their respective rapidly
changing environments is called the educational crisis. Because this picture of dis-
parity between the systems and the environments cannot be said to be confined to a
few countries, the book deserves its title: The World Educational Crisis. Four factors
- a sharp increase in popular aspirations for education, an acute scarcity of resources,
the inherent inertia of educational systems, and the inertia of societies themselves -
are postulated as contributors to the current crisis and a programme is outlined for
examining these causes in relation to the existing systems. The chapter concludes
with the definition of the major components of education in economic terms as
inputs processed into outputs, while stressing the interaction between an educational
system and its environment, and the mutual interdependence of educational systems
throughout the world.
The next two chapters are devoted to considering the students as they enter the
educational systems, as inputs, and as they go out of the systems into their respective
environments, as outputs. The fourth chapter describes the process inside the system,
outlining possible aims and priorities and the hard choice between popular education
and the education of a functional elite. It then discusses the crucial problems of
quality and content, the topical subjects of technology, research and innovation,
and the administrative problems of management, costs and efficiency. Then follow
seven principles for analysing an educational system with a view to strategic action.
These are the principles of individual differences, self-instruction, combining human
energy and physical resources, economies of scale, division of labour, concentration
and critical mass and finally optimizing. These economic terms are then spelt out in
relation to educational situations and problems.
The fifth chapter takes up the vital problem of nonformal education which serves
to complement formal education in a good educational system. It urges making a
distinction between the needs for nonformal education of the more industrialised
nations and those of developing countries. Many an expert in adult education has

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228 BOOK REVIEWS - BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN

gone to a developing country with the "answers in the bag" and has fa
because the problems are different and therefore require different tr
solutions. There is, however, the broadly common need to assess exis
harmonise formal and nonformal education and undertake continual research into
nonformal education. Chapter 6, on strategy, considers international co-operation,
as a key to meeting the crisis, and uses the analogy of the regional common market
in economic goods to draw attention to the gains that could be made through a
world-wide common market in education. What are the commodities ? The author
lists knowledge and ideas, individuals (whether teachers, students, experts, researc
workers or others) and, thirdly, the physical facilities including equipment and
supplies. He argues forcibly that the common market in education is of mutual
benefit to the developed and the developing nations through the enrichment gene
ated by the two-way flow. The next chapter turns to external assistance from the
developed to the developing nations and concludes with a discussion of the role o
universities in resolving the crisis. Universities can help to establish or spur the
growth of new higher educational institutions in developing countries, to develo
planning and the implementation of educational systems, and to strengthen researc
capability and the dialogue among universities. It is suggested that they should
assume leadership in educational innovation at all levels, encourage and help smal
neighbouring countries to collaborate in co-operative educational endeavours, assist
in reducing drainage of needed talent from developing regions and help to establis
institutional arrangements that will facilitate and encourage collaboration among
scholars in various countries. The seventh and last chapter recapitulates the factor
of the crisis and the essential features of the strategy to meet it. It sets down fiv
priority targets of strategy and re-emphasises that "the educational crisis is every
body's business."
The Epilogue recalls the book's origin as a basic working paper presented by th
author to the International Conference on the World Crisis in Education, held at
Williamsburg, Virginia, in October 1967. It consists of the Summary Report of the
Conference Chairman and President of Cornell University, Dr. James A. Perkins,
which concludes with a proposal for an International Education Year. "It is not that
concerted world attention in a single year would solve the crisis in education, for
this crisis will endure at best for years to come, but a common effort could mobilize
energies and inspire world-wide initiatives that would give this subject the priority
it deserves."

The World Educational Crisis states its two aims explicitly in the Preface. The fi
is to assemble the facts of a world educational crisis, indicating the tendencies
inherent in those facts and proposing a strategy for resolving the crisis. The seco
aim is an analysis of an educational system. Both aims are successfully achieved
The charts, diagrams and statistical tables throughout the book reinforce the arg
ments. The thirty-four appendices of comparative statistical data with copious
references to sources add to the quality of the book as a source-book in compara
education and educational administration.
Dr.Coombs' approach is primarily that of an economist, for he is an educational
researcher and a one-time Professor of Economics. This brings to his subject a re-
freshing and wider view, and follows the trend of widening the language and vision
of education. One advantage of using such an economic lens is the fact that the
implementation and funding of educational planning often rests on the understand-

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 ANALYSES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES 229

ing and sympathy of an economic planning

planning unit
unit and
and it
it is
is as
as well
well to
to put
put the
the case
case in
in
the language which the tribunal understands.
understands.
The book is written in a good, readable style.
style. The
The index
index isis comprehensive
comprehensive andand
adequate and the annotated bibliography is aa useful
useful guide
guide toto research
research students
students and
and
librarians.

The World Educational Crisis can be highly recommended as supplementary

reading in comparative education and educational administration, to students of
Institutes of Education and University Departments of Education, and in particular
to research students in educational administration and planning. Policy makers in
developing countries will find in the book useful material for their deliberations on
educational programmes. It is also to be recommended to the general reader who
wishes to be informed on current educational problems and proposed action for
solutions. He should find that, as Dr. Coombs says, "the educational crisis is every-
body's business."
C. O. TAIWO, Lagos

CZYCHOLL, REINHARD; MOLZAHN, HANS, Die Schulbuchsituation in Boli-

vien. Berichte und Expertisen des Vereins zur F6rderung der Bildungs-
hilfe in Entwicklungslandern. Bad Godesberg: Forschungsinstitut der
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1966. 122 S.

Dieser von Czycholl und Molzahn vorgelegte Forschungsbericht ist das Ergebnis
einer Forschungsreise durch Bolivien mit dem Ziel, Material fiber die Herstellung,
Verbreitung und Anwendung von Schulbiichern zu sammeln. Die gezielte Befragung
der mit dem bolivianischen Schul- und Druckereiwesen verbundenen, einflul3reichen
Personen, sogenannte Experteninterviews, bringt klare Ergebnisse, da die Verfasser
die verbalen AuBerungen mit kritischer Distanz analysiert haben.
Damit der Leser den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Zuammenhang der Schulprobleme
Boliviens und auch der Schulbuchsituation besser versteht, geben die Autoren eine
kurze Einfiihrung in die sozio-okonomische Situation Boliviens. Es schlieBt sich eine
umfangreiche Schilderung des Aufbaus des bolivianischen Schulwesens an, sodaB die
spanische Provenienz und andere Eigenheiten des bolivianischen Schulwesens in
ihrem gesellschaftlichen Bezug deutlich werden. Die nicht nur statisch, sondern auch
im Zeitablauf geschilderten Ausbildungsprozesse lassen die vielfaltigen Ursachen
erkennen, die eine mit europaischen Verhaltnissen nicht vergleichbare Schulbuch-
situation stiitzen, Verbesserungen verhindern (ohne da3 bei Verbesserungen gleich
an eine Angleichung an Schulsysteme der industrialisierten Welt gedacht ist), und
die Arbeit fur die Lehrkrafte ungeheuer erschweren. In den Kapiteln III und IV
wird die Nachfrage nach schulischem und auBerschulischem Lesematerial darge-
stellt. Kapitel V beschaftigt sich mit Gesetzen und Erlassen der Schulbuchherstel-
lung, und in Kapitel VI sind das Schulbuchangebot und die Versorgung mit Lehr-
und Lernmitteln analysiert. Im letzten Kapitel werden die Konsequenzen des Schul-
buchmangels fur das Schulsystem und die daraus resultierenden methodisch-
didaktischen Fachprobleme geschildert. Der Anhang gibt den Text des Schulbuch-
abkommens zwischen Bolivien und den USA in englischer Sprache wieder. Das an-
schlieBende Literaturverzeichnis enthalt nur die im Text verarbeiteten Ver6ffent-
lichungen, vor allem aus Zeitungen und Zeitschriften.

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