ABSTRACT
Regardless of the position adopted, one component of scientific method involves the systematic collection and classification of information. The classification of data about educational institutions is placed in the general framework of critical dualism. Static national profiles should describe in simplified form the major formal organisations involved in the administration of education. In Relevant Data in Comparative Education agreed models suggested that attention should be drawn to at least four levels of schooling. All too frequently the assumption is, and finds expression in official statements, that the minister of education lays down the curriculum in national schools. The revision of curricula and examination systems has tended to follow the universalisation and reorganisation of free, compulsory and extended schooling. In summary, comparisons of the resources raised for and allocated to school systems are valuable indicators of the value placed on education.
