ABSTRACT
The term policy is an elusive concept. In the ideological sense, the concept refers to an official position that addresses a current set of issues. In the practical sense, policy refers to an official statement that is generated by various departments, which takes multiple forms and is implemented to varying degrees. In some countries, educational policy is generated by a national governing body and expressed in a written constitution that is universally adopted and applied to all regions of the country. In other countries, the policy is developed by the state but allows for considerable freedom to develop specific objectives for individual areas of the country that are created by divisions of the central government (such as a ministry) (Stromquist 1997).
