ABSTRACT
Education of the lower classes should be just sufficient to give them that sense of awe of higher education which the leaders of the nation demand. The main power as the people have seen lay with the middle tier in local government, although the curriculum and how it was taught was left very much to the schools and individual teachers. In this chapter, the author analyzes comparative success under the following four headings: governance structures; finance; accountability arrangements, examinations and testing, school improvement and the curriculum; and the supply and retention of teachers. Beyond that the danger of centralization has become all too apparent in the age of Markets and Managerialism. If the first post-war age of Optimism and Trust was too relaxed on issues affecting accountability, examinations tests, school improvement and curriculum, the latest period has been too tightly prescriptive.
