ABSTRACT
A number of related misconceptions have become fashionable in the field of educational planning and policy. A sort of perfectly competitive educational opportunity system is imagined in which relative prices genuinely reflect relative social costs. Development requires that the investment of resources and the application of new technical knowledge occur simultaneously. To be effective, technical knowledge must be introduced on a wide front; even a relatively small improvement can then be of decisive importance, while the highest standard of knowledge or training, if available only in a restricted area, will prove irrelevant from a global socioeconomic viewpoint and be likely to create an exclusive and privileged class. Moreover, the cost of 'quality' ipso facto inhibits its widespread introduction into the educational system of poor countries. Successful development thus demands new socio-technical solutions in the field of agriculture, as in that of education.
