ABSTRACT
The educational explosion results largely, of course, from a series of political upheavals. It is the concrete expression of a revolutionary mood which had been smouldering for many years in some parts of the world, notably in India, but which was fanned into an irresistible blaze in the immediate post-war period. The liberation of India and other Asian countries sparked a fuse which led swiftly to Africa, and that continent’s surge towards freedom. For most of the peoples of the world independence did not mean sudden affluence. On the contrary, substantial economic gains have remained extremely elusive in most areas. The main difference for the masses, who had grasped the portentous nature of the changes without acquiring positions of power in the new administrations, was that it had become reasonable to hope—if not for themselves, then for their children. In the past the members of a subject-race could hardly ever aspire to real authority in their own land, the leaders in virtually every sphere of administration being foreigners. Now, however, the humblest could, at least in theory, become the greatest. It was apparent to all that the rungs of the upward ladder were the various levels and examinations of the school system. Education became, in fact, the symbol of freedom and the focus of hope. This view of education spread, largely through the instrumentality of such agencies as UNESCO, even to countries which had not recently been liberated from colonial rule, such as those of Latin America. Throughout the world consequently, a great popular demand for education, frequently allied to an equally strong official belief in its economic or political necessity, has arisen.
