ABSTRACT
Randall Collins is a leading specialist in the comparative and historical study of educational systems. In this article, Collins delineates and examines three fundamentally different types of educational systems, which he calls education for practical skills, status-group education, and bureaucratic education. Education for practical skills arose first among the earliest states and civilizations and involved primarily the transmission of such useful skills as literacy and mathematical ability. This type of educational system has continued to exist right up through modern times, and much primary education in industrial societies is practical-skill education. Status-group education is markedly different. It involves the learning of esoteric bodies of knowledge that become part of the status culture of social elites. This form of education is marked by its highly ritualistic and ceremonial character. It has been common in agrarian civilizations, but has also continued to exist right up through modern times. Bureaucratic educational systems also arose in the agrarian world. These systems function mainly as occupational recruitment devices, setting standards for individual performance that must be met for entrance into a particular occupation. Such systems generally give much emphasis to examinations and attendance requirements.
