ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of central government and local government in educational development and how this development is influenced by the nature of the balance between these two agencies.
Educational policy-making in Sweden is usually made by governmental commissions who investigate special questions of policy on behalf of the central government, and specify goals and measures for the improvement of education. An example (the 1960 Commission on Teacher Training) is described. Implementation of these decisions is effected by independent national authorities, one of which is the National Board of Education (NBE). Swedish experiences suggest that a change of education in schools has to be co-ordinated with a parallel change in the central administration. A special part of the reform machinery is educational research and development (R and D). Funds for R and D are allocated to NBE for the purpose of furthering policy goals determined by the government; R and D is therefore specifically decision-oriented. Another important part is the system of in-service training of teachers; this is centrally organized by the NBE as a means for the implementation of education policy.
Countries with a centralized school system seem to strive for decentralization, while countries with a decentralized system seem to look for a strengthening of central planning. These trends are, however, not simple and clear. In international studies by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) no simple relationships between decentralization and local autonomy were found. The hypothesis that central funding of education should result in a homogeneous school system was, on the whole, not verified when schools were studied on a national level. Nevertheless, it was found in a Swedish analysis of data from an international project that Swedish schools were more like one another in terms of student knowledge of science than schools in a group of other comparable countries. The conclusion is offered that centralization of educational policy and administration is necessary but not sufficient for equality of school standards.
