introduction for education system

Educational System

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• Adrian Hatos 3  

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Educational organization

Patterns of organization of education provision approached usually at country (or nation) level, the most important level where formal education is regulated.

Description

Introduction.

The concept of education systems refers to the patterns of organization of education provision approached usually at country (or nation) level, the most important level where formal education is regulated. Systematic description, comparison, and analysis of evolution of education systems are the main subjects of comparative education, an interdisciplinary field developed at the border of education sciences, history, economics, and philosophy.

In this chapter, I will treat education systems applying the following blueprint: I will start discussing the models of convergence and divergence in education systems, then I will refer briefly to theories of change in educational organization and will end the section by referring to contemporary tendencies in the...

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Department of Sociology, Social Work and Philosophy, University of Oradea, Universitatii, 410311, Oradea, Romania

Adrian Hatos

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University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

Alex C. Michalos

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Hatos, A. (2014). Educational System. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_844

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SUMMARY VERSION

Education systems

Hmong girls line up after their exercise during breaktime at a Primary School in Lao Cai, Vietnam.

CREDIT: Nguyen Thanh/UNESCO

A broad range of validated, largely qualitative indicators of education systems and policies is needed to support monitoring of the Education 2030 agenda. While a global framework might be desirable, in practice a regional or subregional approach is more feasible.

While a global framework for reviewing education systems and policies might be desirable, in practice a regional or subregional approach is more feasible Click to Tweet

GLOBAL TOOLS FOR MONITORING EDUCATION SYSTEMS

In 1996, the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) established the World Data on Education series. It has been a valuable source of information on education systems at the global level, but resource constraints plagued its development and there is no plan to update the series, which was last published in 2011.

UNESCO does provide other global databases of education systems related to compulsory and free education or TVET systems.

A more in-depth look into policies is provided by the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER), launched in 2011. It examines 13 aspects of national education systems. For it to serve as a global monitoring tool, at least two issues need to be addressed: agreement on the scope, coverage and regularity of the reviews; and greater country ownership.

REGIONAL TOOLS FOR MONITORING EDUCATION SYSTEMS

Monitoring may be best served at a regional rather than global level. Members of a regional entity are more likely to voluntarily exchange information on their education systems. Three examples stand out. The Eurydice Network on Education Systems and Policies in Europe, established in 1980, has grown into a network of 40 national units in 36 countries. The OECD’s Indicators of Education Systems (INES) programme was introduced in 1992. One of its three networks evolved in 2009 into the INES Network for System-Level Indicators (NESLI). The Organization of Ibero- American States has an education strategy and a specialized body to review progress on indicators, some of which are system-related.

The GEM Report makes a strong case for education system indicators to be monitored to facilitate dialogue and encourage governments to learn from one another at the regional level.

Introduction

Dear students, colleagues, and readers,

As we delve into the pages of this comprehensive history of education textbook, we are honored to introduce a work that not only chronicles the evolution of educational systems but also sheds light on the contemporary challenges that our students confront. Our journey through the annals of education is not just a recounting of facts, but an exploration of the transformative power of knowledge and the intricacies of a system that shapes societies and individuals alike.

Education has always been a dynamic force, adapting to the changing needs of societies and the aspirations of individuals. In the pursuit of knowledge, students have always been at the center, eager to unravel the mysteries of the world and better themselves in the process. However, the modern landscape of education presents us with both opportunities and obstacles that warrant thoughtful consideration.

One pressing concern faced by our students today is the soaring cost of textbooks. As educators, we recognize that the availability of resources is vital to the learning process. The burden imposed by exorbitant textbook prices can hinder students’ ability to access essential learning materials, potentially limiting their academic success. This textbook, in its digital form, aims to contribute to the solution by embracing electronic formats that are more accessible and affordable. Through this choice, we hope to ease the financial strain on our students and foster a more inclusive learning environment. We must be mindful that the digital divide still persists, and not all students have equal access to technology. As we celebrate the advantages of e-books, let us also advocate for equitable distribution of resources, ensuring that all students can harness the potential of digital learning.

Our exploration of the history of education would be incomplete without addressing the disparities that plague the American educational landscape. The United States, a land of diversity and opportunity, has unfortunately witnessed the perpetuation of inequities within its education system. The disparities in funding, resources, and educational quality have deep-rooted implications, perpetuating cycles of disadvantage that hinder social mobility. It is incumbent upon us, as educators and scholars, to raise awareness of these issues and advocate for meaningful reforms that strive for a more just and equitable education system for all.

Furthermore, the restriction of curriculum in certain states within the U.S. is a topic that cannot be ignored. Education, often considered a pillar of societal progress, should encourage critical thinking, diverse perspectives, and open discourse. Yet, the imposition of rigid curricular limitations stifles creativity and narrows the educational experience. This textbook serves as a testament to the importance of exploring a broad range of topics, fostering intellectual curiosity, and nurturing a generation of learners who are unafraid to question and explore.

This textbook is not a mere compilation of historical facts, but an invitation to critically examine the multifaceted dimensions of education. As we turn its pages, let us reflect on the challenges our students face, from financial burdens to the digital divide and educational inequalities. Let us acknowledge the immense potential of electronic resources while advocating for their widespread accessibility. And let us remain steadfast in our commitment to a more inclusive, equitable, and intellectually enriching education system.

This has not been a small undertaking- and while we did not write this text from scratch, we spent hundreds of hours across a two-year period to create an open and applicable textbook which we hope better meets the needs of our students. Creating an Open Educational Resource (OER) text is a fluid process, involving many months of writing and re-writing, and critical collaboration amongst colleagues.

We are especially grateful to the following OER Foundations of Education textbooks for their original work in the following texts:

• Jacqueline M. DiSanto , Hostos Community College. (n.d.). Foundations of education. Pressbooks. https://library.achievingthedream.org/hostoseducation/
• Wells, M . (n.d.). Foundations of American Education: A Critical Lens. Pressbooks. https://viva.pressbooks.pub/foundationsofamericaneducation/

We recognize the enormous amount of work that went into these OER texts. Thanks to their having created the original OER texts, we had the great privilege to build on their work and offer newer texts for our students. Other future authors may additionally recreate a text for their students as this is the iterative process of creating OER texts and for this open creative academic process, we are immensely grateful.

We also wish to acknowledge Amy Hofer, Jen Klaudinyi , and all the library staff across the state who support and promote OER through workshops and grants. This is a critical equity initiative which increases access for all, and notably historically-underserved communities across the state. It also allows everyday teachers and faculty to engage in textbook creation, and this is no small feat.

We could not have published this OER if it was not for our amazing readers: Andreina Velasco, Dot McElhone, Nadia Raza, Hugo Nava- Sanchez, Gabe Hunter-Bernstein, Lorraine Adams and Pam Morse . We are grateful for their thoughtful comments during the writing and rewriting process. Last, but not least, a huge thanks to Jennifer Margolis for reviewing the entire text at the end. Your thoughtful feedback helped us to make this a better textbook!

Tanya, Kanoe, Lisa and Ceci

Foundations of Education Copyright © 2023 by Lisa AbuAssaly George; Dr. Kanoe Bunney; Ceci De Valdenebro; and Tanya Mead is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The turning point: Why we must transform education now

Global warming. Accelerated digital revolution. Growing inequalities. Democratic backsliding. Loss of biodiversity. Devastating pandemics. And the list goes on. These are just some of the most pressing challenges that we are facing today in our interconnected world.

The diagnosis is clear: Our current global education system is failing to address these alarming challenges and provide quality learning for everyone throughout life. We know that education today is not fulfilling its promise to help us shape peaceful, just, and sustainable societies. These findings were detailed in UNESCO’s Futures of Education Report in November 2021 which called for a new social contract for education.

That is why it has never been more crucial to reimagine the way we learn, what we learn and how we learn. The turning point is now. It’s time to transform education. How do we make that happen?

Here’s what you need to know. 

Why do we need to transform education?

The current state of the world calls for a major transformation in education to repair past injustices and enhance our capacity to act together for a more sustainable and just future. We must ensure the right to lifelong learning by providing all learners - of all ages in all contexts - the knowledge and skills they need to realize their full potential and live with dignity. Education can no longer be limited to a single period of one’s lifetime. Everyone, starting with the most marginalized and disadvantaged in our societies, must be entitled to learning opportunities throughout life both for employment and personal agency. A new social contract for education must unite us around collective endeavours and provide the knowledge and innovation needed to shape a better world anchored in social, economic, and environmental justice.  

What are the key areas that need to be transformed?

• Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools

Education is in crisis. High rates of poverty, exclusion and gender inequality continue to hold millions back from learning. Moreover, COVID-19 further exposed the inequities in education access and quality, and violence, armed conflict, disasters and reversal of women’s rights have increased insecurity. Inclusive, transformative education must ensure that all learners have unhindered access to and participation in education, that they are safe and healthy, free from violence and discrimination, and are supported with comprehensive care services within school settings. Transforming education requires a significant increase in investment in quality education, a strong foundation in comprehensive early childhood development and education, and must be underpinned by strong political commitment, sound planning, and a robust evidence base.

• Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development

There is a crisis in foundational learning, of literacy and numeracy skills among young learners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text. Children with disabilities are 42% less likely to have foundational reading and numeracy skills compared to their peers. More than 771 million people still lack basic literacy skills, two-thirds of whom are women. Transforming education means empowering learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to be resilient, adaptable and prepared for the uncertain future while contributing to human and planetary well-being and sustainable development. To do so, there must be emphasis on foundational learning for basic literacy and numeracy; education for sustainable development, which encompasses environmental and climate change education; and skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

• Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession

Teachers are essential for achieving learning outcomes, and for achieving SDG 4 and the transformation of education. But teachers and education personnel are confronted by four major challenges: Teacher shortages; lack of professional development opportunities; low status and working conditions; and lack of capacity to develop teacher leadership, autonomy and innovation. Accelerating progress toward SDG 4 and transforming education require that there is an adequate number of teachers to meet learners’ needs, and all education personnel are trained, motivated, and supported. This can only be possible when education is adequately funded, and policies recognize and support the teaching profession, to improve their status and working conditions.

• Digital learning and transformation

The COVID-19 crisis drove unprecedented innovations in remote learning through harnessing digital technologies. At the same time, the digital divide excluded many from learning, with nearly one-third of school-age children (463 million) without access to distance learning. These inequities in access meant some groups, such as young women and girls, were left out of learning opportunities. Digital transformation requires harnessing technology as part of larger systemic efforts to transform education, making it more inclusive, equitable, effective, relevant, and sustainable. Investments and action in digital learning should be guided by the three core principles: Center the most marginalized; Free, high-quality digital education content; and Pedagogical innovation and change.

• Financing of education

While global education spending has grown overall, it has been thwarted by high population growth, the surmounting costs of managing education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the diversion of aid to other emergencies, leaving a massive global education financial gap amounting to US$ 148 billion annually. In this context, the first step toward transformation is to urge funders to redirect resources back to education to close the funding gap. Following that, countries must have significantly increased and sustainable financing for achieving SDG 4 and that these resources must be equitably and effectively allocated and monitored. Addressing the gaps in education financing requires policy actions in three key areas: Mobilizing more resources, especially domestic; increasing efficiency and equity of allocations and expenditures; and improving education financing data. Finally, determining which areas needs to be financed, and how, will be informed by recommendations from each of the other four action tracks .

What is the Transforming Education Summit?

UNESCO is hosting the Transforming Education Pre-Summit on 28-30 June 2022, a meeting of  over 140 Ministers of Education, as well as  policy and business leaders and youth activists, who are coming together to build a roadmap to transform education globally. This meeting is a precursor to the Transforming Education Summit to be held on 19 September 2022 at the UN General Assembly in New York. This high-level summit is convened by the UN Secretary General to radically change our approach to education systems. Focusing on 5 key areas of transformation, the meeting seeks to mobilize political ambition, action, solutions and solidarity to transform education: to take stock of efforts to recover pandemic-related learning losses; to reimagine education systems for the world of today and tomorrow; and to revitalize national and global efforts to achieve SDG-4.

• More on the Transforming Education Summit
• More on the Pre-Summit

Related items

• Future of education
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

More on this subject

Other recent news

The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 94 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion.

For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction. Globally, there is a  9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling . For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion.  Education is further a powerful catalyst to climate action through widespread behavior change and skilling for green transitions.

Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and more children worldwide are now in school. But learning is not guaranteed, as the  2018 World Development Report  (WDR) stressed.

Making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty. At the core of this strategy is the need to tackle the learning crisis, put an end to  Learning Poverty , and help youth acquire the advanced cognitive, socioemotional, technical and digital skills they need to succeed in today’s world. 

In low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  (that is, the proportion of 10-year-old children that are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text) increased from 57% before the pandemic to an estimated  70%  in 2022.

However, learning is in crisis. More than 70 million more people were pushed into poverty during the COVID pandemic, a billion children lost a year of school , and three years later the learning losses suffered have not been recouped .  If a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, they are unlikely to become fluent readers. They will fail to thrive later in school and will be unable to power their careers and economies once they leave school.

The effects of the pandemic are expected to be long-lasting. Analysis has already revealed deep losses, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year of schooling.  These losses may translate to a 0.68 percentage point in global GDP growth.  The staggering effects of school closures reach beyond learning. This generation of children could lose a combined total of  US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings  in present value or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss. 

Action is urgently needed now – business as usual will not suffice to heal the scars of the pandemic and will not accelerate progress enough to meet the ambitions of SDG 4. We are urging governments to implement ambitious and aggressive Learning Acceleration Programs to get children back to school, recover lost learning, and advance progress by building better, more equitable and resilient education systems.

Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024

The World Bank’s global education strategy is centered on ensuring learning happens – for everyone, everywhere. Our vision is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to a quality education and lifelong learning. To reach this, we are helping countries build foundational skills like literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills – the building blocks for all other learning. From early childhood to tertiary education and beyond – we help children and youth acquire the skills they need to thrive in school, the labor market and throughout their lives.

Investing in the world’s most precious resource – people – is paramount to ending poverty on a livable planet.  Our experience across more than 100 countries bears out this robust connection between human capital, quality of life, and economic growth: when countries strategically invest in people and the systems designed to protect and build human capital at scale, they unlock the wealth of nations and the potential of everyone.

Building on this, the World Bank supports resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. We do this by generating and disseminating evidence, ensuring alignment with policymaking processes, and bridging the gap between research and practice.

The World Bank is the largest source of external financing for education in developing countries, with a portfolio of about $26 billion in 94 countries including IBRD, IDA and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. IDA operations comprise 62% of the education portfolio.

The investment in FCV settings has increased dramatically and now accounts for 26% of our portfolio.

World Bank projects reach at least 425 million students -one-third of students in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Bank’s Approach to Education

Five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system underpin the World Bank’s education policy approach:

• Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
• Teachers are prepared, skilled, and motivated to facilitate learning and skills acquisition;
• Learning resources (including education technology) are available, relevant, and used to improve teaching and learning;
• Schools are safe and inclusive; and
• Education Systems are well-managed, with good implementation capacity and adequate financing.

The Bank is already helping governments design and implement cost-effective programs and tools to build these pillars.

Our Principles:

• We pursue systemic reform supported by political commitment to learning for all children. 
• We focus on equity and inclusion through a progressive path toward achieving universal access to quality education, including children and young adults in fragile or conflict affected areas , those in marginalized and rural communities,  girls and women , displaced populations,  students with disabilities , and other vulnerable groups.
• We focus on results and use evidence to keep improving policy by using metrics to guide improvements.   
• We want to ensure financial commitment commensurate with what is needed to provide basic services to all. 
• We invest wisely in technology so that education systems embrace and learn to harness technology to support their learning objectives.   

Laying the groundwork for the future

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options to build forward better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

Countries are facing an education crisis that requires a two-pronged approach: first, supporting actions to recover lost time through remedial and accelerated learning; and, second, building on these investments for a more equitable, resilient, and effective system.

Recovering from the learning crisis must be a political priority, backed with adequate financing and the resolve to implement needed reforms.  Domestic financing for education over the last two years has not kept pace with the need to recover and accelerate learning. Across low- and lower-middle-income countries, the  average share of education in government budgets fell during the pandemic , and in 2022 it remained below 2019 levels.

The best chance for a better future is to invest in education and make sure each dollar is put toward improving learning.  In a time of fiscal pressure, protecting spending that yields long-run gains – like spending on education – will maximize impact.  We still need more and better funding for education.  Closing the learning gap will require increasing the level, efficiency, and equity of education spending—spending smarter is an imperative.

• Education technology  can be a powerful tool to implement these actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/ TV / Online learning resources; and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead

We must seize this opportunity  to reimagine education in bold ways. Together, we can build forward better more equitable, effective, and resilient education systems for the world’s children and youth.

Accelerating Improvements

Supporting countries in establishing time-bound learning targets and a focused education investment plan, outlining actions and investments geared to achieve these goals.

Launched in 2020, the  Accelerator Program  works with a set of countries to channel investments in education and to learn from each other. The program coordinates efforts across partners to ensure that the countries in the program show improvements in foundational skills at scale over the next three to five years. These investment plans build on the collective work of multiple partners, and leverage the latest evidence on what works, and how best to plan for implementation.  Countries such as Brazil (the state of Ceará) and Kenya have achieved dramatic reductions in learning poverty over the past decade at scale, providing useful lessons, even as they seek to build on their successes and address remaining and new challenges.  

Universalizing Foundational Literacy

Readying children for the future by supporting acquisition of foundational skills – which are the gateway to other skills and subjects.

The  Literacy Policy Package (LPP)   consists of interventions focused specifically on promoting acquisition of reading proficiency in primary school. These include assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; ensuring effective literacy instruction by supporting teachers; providing quality, age-appropriate books; teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and fostering children’s oral language abilities and love of books and reading.

Advancing skills through TVET and Tertiary

Ensuring that individuals have access to quality education and training opportunities and supporting links to employment.

Tertiary education and skills systems are a driver of major development agendas, including human capital, climate change, youth and women’s empowerment, and jobs and economic transformation. A comprehensive skill set to succeed in the 21st century labor market consists of foundational and higher order skills, socio-emotional skills, specialized skills, and digital skills. Yet most countries continue to struggle in delivering on the promise of skills development. 

The World Bank is supporting countries through efforts that address key challenges including improving access and completion, adaptability, quality, relevance, and efficiency of skills development programs. Our approach is via multiple channels including projects, global goods, as well as the Tertiary Education and Skills Program . Our recent reports including Building Better Formal TVET Systems and STEERing Tertiary Education provide a way forward for how to improve these critical systems.

Addressing Climate Change

Mainstreaming climate education and investing in green skills, research and innovation, and green infrastructure to spur climate action and foster better preparedness and resilience to climate shocks.

Our approach recognizes that education is critical for achieving effective, sustained climate action. At the same time, climate change is adversely impacting education outcomes. Investments in education can play a huge role in building climate resilience and advancing climate mitigation and adaptation. Climate change education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Technical and vocational education and training can also accelerate a green economic transformation by fostering green skills and innovation. Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. 

Examples of this work are projects in Nigeria (life skills training for adolescent girls), Vietnam (fostering relevant scientific research) , and Bangladesh (constructing and retrofitting schools to serve as cyclone shelters).

Strengthening Measurement Systems

Enabling countries to gather and evaluate information on learning and its drivers more efficiently and effectively.

The World Bank supports initiatives to help countries effectively build and strengthen their measurement systems to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. Examples of this work include:

(1) The  Global Education Policy Dashboard (GEPD) : This tool offers a strong basis for identifying priorities for investment and policy reforms that are suited to each country context by focusing on the three dimensions of practices, policies, and politics.

• Highlights gaps between what the evidence suggests is effective in promoting learning and what is happening in practice in each system; and
• Allows governments to track progress as they act to close the gaps.

The GEPD has been implemented in 13 education systems already – Peru, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sierra Leone, Niger, Gabon, Jordan and Chad – with more expected by the end of 2024.

(2)  Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP) : LeAP is a one-stop shop for knowledge, capacity-building tools, support for policy dialogue, and technical staff expertise to support student achievement measurement and national assessments for better learning.

Supporting Successful Teachers

Helping systems develop the right selection, incentives, and support to the professional development of teachers.

Currently, the World Bank Education Global Practice has over 160 active projects supporting over 18 million teachers worldwide, about a third of the teacher population in low- and middle-income countries. In 12 countries alone, these projects cover 16 million teachers, including all primary school teachers in Ethiopia and Turkey, and over 80% in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

A World Bank-developed classroom observation tool, Teach, was designed to capture the quality of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. It is now 3.6 million students.

While Teach helps identify patterns in teacher performance, Coach leverages these insights to support teachers to improve their teaching practice through hands-on in-service teacher professional development (TPD).

Our recent report on Making Teacher Policy Work proposes a practical framework to uncover the black box of effective teacher policy and discusses the factors that enable their scalability and sustainability.

 Supporting Education Finance Systems

Strengthening country financing systems to mobilize resources for education and make better use of their investments in education.

Our approach is to bring together multi-sectoral expertise to engage with ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders to develop and implement effective and efficient public financial management systems; build capacity to monitor and evaluate education spending, identify financing bottlenecks, and develop interventions to strengthen financing systems; build the evidence base on global spending patterns and the magnitude and causes of spending inefficiencies; and develop diagnostic tools as public goods to support country efforts.

Working in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent (FCV) Contexts

The massive and growing global challenge of having so many children living in conflict and violent situations requires a response at the same scale and scope. Our education engagement in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context, which stands at US$5.35 billion, has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the ever-increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. Indeed, these projects now account for more than 25% of the World Bank education portfolio.

Education is crucial to minimizing the effects of fragility and displacement on the welfare of youth and children in the short-term and preventing the emergence of violent conflict in the long-term. 

Support to Countries Throughout the Education Cycle

Our support to countries covers the entire learning cycle, to help shape resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. 

The ongoing  Supporting  Egypt  Education Reform project , 2018-2025, supports transformational reforms of the Egyptian education system, by improving teaching and learning conditions in public schools. The World Bank has invested $500 million in the project focused on increasing access to quality kindergarten, enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders, developing a reliable student assessment system, and introducing the use of modern technology for teaching and learning. Specifically, the share of Egyptian 10-year-old students, who could read and comprehend at the global minimum proficiency level, increased to 45 percent in 2021.

In  Nigeria , the $75 million  Edo  Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST)  project, running from 2020-2024, is focused on improving teaching and learning in basic education. Under the project, which covers 97 percent of schools in the state, there is a strong focus on incorporating digital technologies for teachers. They were equipped with handheld tablets with structured lesson plans for their classes. Their coaches use classroom observation tools to provide individualized feedback. Teacher absence has reduced drastically because of the initiative. Over 16,000 teachers were trained through the project, and the introduction of technology has also benefited students.

Through the $235 million  School Sector Development Program  in  Nepal  (2017-2022), the number of children staying in school until Grade 12 nearly tripled, and the number of out-of-school children fell by almost seven percent. During the pandemic, innovative approaches were needed to continue education. Mobile phone penetration is high in the country. More than four in five households in Nepal have mobile phones. The project supported an educational service that made it possible for children with phones to connect to local radio that broadcast learning programs.

From 2017-2023, the $50 million  Strengthening of State Universities  in  Chile  project has made strides to improve quality and equity at state universities. The project helped reduce dropout: the third-year dropout rate fell by almost 10 percent from 2018-2022, keeping more students in school.

The World Bank’s first  Program-for-Results financing in education  was through a $202 million project in  Tanzania , that ran from 2013-2021. The project linked funding to results and aimed to improve education quality. It helped build capacity, and enhanced effectiveness and efficiency in the education sector. Through the project, learning outcomes significantly improved alongside an unprecedented expansion of access to education for children in Tanzania. From 2013-2019, an additional 1.8 million students enrolled in primary schools. In 2019, the average reading speed for Grade 2 students rose to 22.3 words per minute, up from 17.3 in 2017. The project laid the foundation for the ongoing $500 million  BOOST project , which supports over 12 million children to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

The $40 million  Cambodia  Secondary Education Improvement project , which ran from 2017-2022, focused on strengthening school-based management, upgrading teacher qualifications, and building classrooms in Cambodia, to improve learning outcomes, and reduce student dropout at the secondary school level. The project has directly benefited almost 70,000 students in 100 target schools, and approximately 2,000 teachers and 600 school administrators received training.

The World Bank is co-financing the $152.80 million  Yemen  Restoring Education and Learning Emergency project , running from 2020-2024, which is implemented through UNICEF, WFP, and Save the Children. It is helping to maintain access to basic education for many students, improve learning conditions in schools, and is working to strengthen overall education sector capacity. In the time of crisis, the project is supporting teacher payments and teacher training, school meals, school infrastructure development, and the distribution of learning materials and school supplies. To date, almost 600,000 students have benefited from these interventions.

The $87 million  Providing an Education of Quality in  Haiti  project supported approximately 380 schools in the Southern region of Haiti from 2016-2023. Despite a highly challenging context of political instability and recurrent natural disasters, the project successfully supported access to education for students. The project provided textbooks, fresh meals, and teacher training support to 70,000 students, 3,000 teachers, and 300 school directors. It gave tuition waivers to 35,000 students in 118 non-public schools. The project also repaired 19 national schools damaged by the 2021 earthquake, which gave 5,500 students safe access to their schools again.

In 2013, just 5% of the poorest households in  Uzbekistan  had children enrolled in preschools. Thanks to the  Improving Pre-Primary and General Secondary Education Project , by July 2019, around 100,000 children will have benefitted from the half-day program in 2,420 rural kindergartens, comprising around 49% of all preschool educational institutions, or over 90% of rural kindergartens in the country.

In addition to working closely with governments in our client countries, the World Bank also works at the global, regional, and local levels with a range of technical partners, including foundations, non-profit organizations, bilaterals, and other multilateral organizations. Some examples of our most recent global partnerships include:

UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  Coalition for Foundational Learning

The World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the  Coalition for Foundational Learning  to advocate and provide technical support to ensure foundational learning.  The World Bank works with these partners to promote and endorse the  Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning , a global network of countries committed to halving the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 by 2030.

Australian Aid, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Echida Giving, FCDO, German Cooperation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, LEGO Foundation, Porticus, USAID: Early Learning Partnership

The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) is a multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank.  ELP leverages World Bank strengths—a global presence, access to policymakers and strong technical analysis—to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children around the world.

We help World Bank teams and countries get the information they need to make the case to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD), design effective policies and deliver impactful programs. At the country level, ELP grants provide teams with resources for early seed investments that can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity and generate public goods.

UNESCO, UNICEF:  Learning Data Compact

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank have joined forces to close the learning data gaps that still exist and that preclude many countries from monitoring the quality of their education systems and assessing if their students are learning. The three organizations have agreed to a  Learning Data Compact , a commitment to ensure that all countries, especially low-income countries, have at least one quality measure of learning by 2025, supporting coordinated efforts to strengthen national assessment systems.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS):   Learning Poverty Indicator

Aimed at measuring and urging attention to foundational literacy as a prerequisite to achieve SDG4, this partnership was launched in 2019 to help countries strengthen their learning assessment systems, better monitor what students are learning in internationally comparable ways and improve the breadth and quality of global data on education.

FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  EdTech Hub

Supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EdTech Hub is aimed at improving the quality of ed-tech investments. The Hub launched a rapid response Helpdesk service to provide just-in-time advisory support to 70 low- and middle-income countries planning education technology and remote learning initiatives.

MasterCard Foundation

Our Tertiary Education and Skills  global program, launched with support from the Mastercard Foundation, aims to prepare youth and adults for the future of work and society by improving access to relevant, quality, equitable reskilling and post-secondary education opportunities.  It is designed to reframe, reform, and rebuild tertiary education and skills systems for the digital and green transformation.

Bridging the AI divide: Breaking down barriers to ensure women’s leadership and participation in the Fifth Industrial Revolution

Common challenges and tailored solutions: How policymakers are strengthening early learning systems across the world

Compulsory education boosts learning outcomes and climate action

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A brief introduction to the Chinese education system

This content is associated with The Open University Childhood and Youth Studies qualification .

Structure of the Chinese education system

In China, education is divided into three categories: basic education, higher education, and adult education. By law, each child must have nine years of compulsory education from primary school (six years) to junior secondary education (three years). 

Basic education

Basic education in China includes pre-school education (usually three years), primary education (six years, usually starting at the age of six) and secondary education (six years).

Secondary education has two routes: academic secondary education and specialized/vocational/technical secondary education. Academic secondary education consists of junior (three years) and senior middle schools (three years). Junior middle school graduates wishing to continue their education take a locally administered entrance exam, on the basis of which they will have the option of i) continuing in an academic senior middle school; or ii) entering a vocational middle school (or leaving school at this point) to receive two to four years of training. Senior middle school graduates wishing to go to universities must take National Higher Education Entrance Exam (Gao Kao). According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, in June 2015, 9.42 million students took the exam.

Higher education

Higher education is further divided into two categories: 1) universities that offer four-year or five-year undergraduate degrees to award academic degree qualifications; and 2) colleges that offer three-year diploma or certificate courses on both academic and vocational subjects.  Postgraduate and doctoral programmes are only offered at universities. 

Adult education

Adult education ranges from primary education to higher education. For example, adult primary education includes Workers’ Primary Schools, Peasants’ Primary Schools in an effort to raise literacy levels in remote areas; adult secondary education includes specialized secondary schools for adults; and adult higher education includes traditional radio/TV universities (now online), most of which offer certificates/diplomas but a few offer regular undergraduate degrees.

Term times and school hours

The academic year is divided into two terms for all the educational institutions: February to mid-July (six weeks of summer vacation) and September to mid/late-January (four weeks of winter vacation).  There are no half-terms.

Most schools start in the early morning (about 7:30 am) to early evening (about 6 pm) with 2 hours lunch break. Many schools have evening self-study classes running from 7 pm-9 pm so students can finish their homework and prepare for endless tests. If schools do not run self-study evening classes, students still have to do their homework at home, usually up to 10 pm. On average, primary school pupils spend about seven to eight hours at school whilst a secondary school student spends about twelve to fourteen hours at school if including lunchtime and evening classes. Due to the fierce competitiveness to get into good universities, the pressure to do well for Gao Kao is intense.  Many schools hold extra morning classes in science and math for three to four hours on Saturdays. If schools do not have Saturday morning classes, most parents would send their children to expensive cramming schools at weekends or organise one-to-one private tuition for their children over the weekend.

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The Evolution of Education: Past, Present and the Future

May 6, 2022, editor(s): jade chen, writer(s): hirushi muthukumarana, jana chalhoub, stanley chen.

Introduction

Education has evolved drastically over time. Humanity began storing and transmitting knowledge through word of mouth, passing down information about animals, plants and the land to each succeeding generation. Formal education is said to have begun in Greece at around 4 BCE. In fact, the word “school” comes from the Greek word “schole”, which means “leisure”. This provides insight into how education was perceived back then; as an enjoyable activity rather than a chore. Today, the likes of Elon Musk have criticised formal education, deeming college degrees as a means of “prove(ing) that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning” (Aratani, 2020). Educational tools have advanced. Wax tablets were amongst the earliest learning instruments used by the Romans. Today, digital tablets and an electric stylus fill our classrooms and have almost completely replaced pen and paper. Digital technology, comprising computers and the internet, represents the second main wave of disruptive technology since the printing press. Such technology has completely revolutionised the potential for learning and teaching in more engaging and accessible ways, paving the way for “leisurely learning” as the Greeks intended it to be. Journey with us as we travel through time to uncover the evolution of education and glimpse into the exciting future of pedagogy.  

A Brief History of Education

As humankind settled down from nomadic life, our ancestors began to specialise. Rather than performing generalist roles, hunter-gatherers adapted to occupations that went beyond meeting food requirements (National Geographic Society, n.d.). To manage a society growing in complexity and scale, the Egyptians began a form of education similar to that observed in modern-day society, teaching typically wealthy, elite children mathematics, language and other subjects (Facts and Details, n.d.). This naturally transpired at a social centre rather than at home, though royalty may have received private tuition to prepare them for their roles in society. These early, rudimentary forms of education also served as a barrier to the lower classes. Only the elite would be granted access to the prestigious roles requiring education.

While schooling served a very functional purpose in Egypt, Greek education had a different aim. Maintaining traditional pathways for specialised careers, tutoring occurred individually, with students being provided with the care of a mentor (Zaphir, 2019). The consequence of this was Greek philosophy; thinkers used education to inform their values and principles to help them understand the world (Mark, 2020). For those able to join the ranks of thinkers, education served to advance the collective knowledge of Greece.

Source: Greek Philosophy Tours

Nonetheless, such advanced tutor-tutee forms of education were still reserved for the wealthy of Greece. Education for those fulfilling other societal roles would have been far more general and practical. So why was education made so much more available and abundant in the West? The answer lies in the advancement of human society. Occupations continued to grow more and more labour intensive. Biddulph (2004) notes that this trend led to children spending more and more time away from their families, going into life without the social structures that made them good citizens. The cynic viewed schooling as a way to repress the resulting rising crime rates, with education becoming developed to favour the interests of the church, the business owner, and the national leader. In particular, to keep children occupied on task, draconian measures like corporal punishment were transferred from the work children were once expected to do and on into schools (Gray, 2008). Nonetheless, idealists also supported education as a means of improving social mobility.

In Australia, post-settlement education was imported from the British schooling system. Education ostensibly served as a method to broaden opportunities for the public. At the time, however, it consisted of private imported British tutors for the wealthy and ex-Convict teachers for the poor or rural (Heffernan, 2021). Such rural schools were believed to be substandard compared to urban schools or tutoring.

Source: Australian Education Research Organisation

Over time, the Australian schooling system became more formalised. As it transitioned away from a fully privatised system, the government established a relationship with various churches to facilitate more modern schooling. The later creation of non-secular teaching divided education in Australia into two classes: public schools and private schools. This remains a contemporary issue of contention in Australia, with private, religiously affiliated schools remaining popular for their perceived more superb standard (Caldwell, 2010). Specifically, the inequality between rural and urban areas has carried on, with many perceived better quality private schools placed in urban areas. Concurrently, information gathered by Caldwell (2010) indicates how this may have exacerbated class divisions in education, with economic hardship anticipating lower-income families migrating to areas with lower educational opportunities to meet other basic necessities. Nonetheless, Heffernan (2021) depicts that schooling allowed the middle class in Australia to grow as students took advantage of different pathways that education can provide.

Issues in Present Day Education

Nowadays, education is perceived as a fundamental human right and a duty for governments to ensure access to basic education for all children regardless of background or financial well-being. Furthermore, global literacy rates have climbed steadily over the last two centuries (Roser, 2016). The international average length of schooling is now drastically higher than it was a hundred years ago as more students obtain their secondary and even tertiary education. Considering Australia, the nation’s education system is regarded as one of the finest in the world by many, with a comprehensive curriculum and highly qualified teachers catering equally for domestic and international students (Australian Education System, 2021). Indeed, it is the third-largest provider globally of education for international students. 

Source: Medium

Although the above discussion portrays a relatively positive view of education both globally and locally,  there are two sides to each coin, and the opposite is rather bleak. Often obscured behind the wealth-fueled curtain of thousands of students flocking to prestigious, expensive universities and private schools in first-world nations, the truth is that even today, education remains inaccessible to millions of children in less privileged parts of the world. More than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school whilst the staggering statistic of 759 million adults are illiterate (Right to Education, 2018). Their illiteracy also separates them from the awareness necessary to improve their living conditions or send their children to school so the future generation may improve theirs.

The most substantially affected regions in the world are Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Asia, and the Pacific. With uneducated children, the additional problem of extreme poverty patterns perpetuates in families, causing stagnation and no hope of improvement unless drastic measures are taken (Hillman & Jenker, 2004). In Australia, too, regional inequities in educational rights have been discovered, with students in remote access or rural areas struggling to attain the same level of secondary school education as their peers in metropolitan areas (Jenkins, 2020). Moreover, a lack of education creates a repetitive and vicious cycle of being denied the most basic rights and conditions within a ruthless modern economy. Hence, these alarming statistics must be investigated further to distinguish causes, and policies must be examined to mitigate these issues.

Currently, the two main problems causing the widespread shortage of education are poverty and marginalisation. Poverty is a crippling hindrance to education because many emerging countries cannot grant the financial resources necessary to create schools, provide schooling materials or recruit and pay teachers’ wages (Right to Education, 2018). Similarly, another significant issue is the lack of political will in developing countries to fund education, perhaps due to corruption or other motives. Moreover, as schools in developing nations cannot pay or train teachers properly, any education students receive may often be inadequate or of poor quality because of poorly trained, underpaid teachers and overcrowded classrooms.

Furthermore, the marginalisation of students is very troubling, especially when it comes to gender inequality. The continually low statistics of female children receiving adequate education robs economies severely because education for girls renders striking social benefits. Notably, higher incomes, lower maternal and infant mortality rates and educated women also have more personal autonomy for decision-making. However, according to UNESCO, an estimated 130 million girls between the ages of 6 and 17 are currently out of school. Those from the poorest families are more likely to be out of the classroom than more affluent peers. Alarmingly, even in Australia, many indigenous girls from remote rural areas do not attend school; one reason is the shame and outdated social stigmas of acquiring pads/tampons and the lack of fundamental health education ( Wahlquist, 2017) . The lack of infrastructure, poverty, overcrowding and segregation also impact the education of aboriginal children, both girls and boys (Korff, 2021).

Source: Australian Institute of International Affairs

Additionally, more problems include irregular school safety, harsh disciplinary policies enacted on students who are black or from ethnic backgrounds and even the burgeoning distraction of technology on the learning experience (Major Issues in Education, 2021). In the wake of these rampant issues, there must be policies enacted by governments to mitigate these faults. Ideally, states should bear the cost of education, especially for children from poorer backgrounds. More affluent nations or institutions should provide economically challenged countries with funds and aid for this endeavour because it develops human capital. Communities must be made aware of the importance of educating girls and boys. In particular, awareness workshops and government programs must be catered to especially in rural areas to help uplift education for women. Moreover, minorities must not be neglected; states should pay attention to these regions as only equality in education will guarantee a sustainable future.

The Future of Education

Thankfully, with the onset of “edtech” (educational technology), the future of educational equality is looking optimistic and less location-dependent. Schools in third world countries are working around infrastructure constraints by leveraging free online Youtube videos, like that of Khan Academy. The African School of Excellence (ASE) is one such example and is building a reputation as one of the most affordable schools globally (Khan Academy Blog, 2011). For regions that lack a quality internet connection, wireless technology and offline apps are promoting accessibility (World Economic Forum, 2022). Furthermore, technology such as dictation software, text to speech, electronic magnifiers and even software that converts musical scores into braille has revolutionised the ease with which students with a disability can access education. 

Additionally, edtech has made education more interactive. Augmented and virtual reality are adding gaming elements to text-book material. For example, “Virtuali–tee” is an app that enables users to learn about the human body by wearing a unique t-shirt which allows them to explore inside the body via an Augmented Reality app (World Economic Forum, 2022). Artificial Intelligence is making homework more interactive and providing virtual feedback, thereby tailoring material to suit the individual to work at their own pace. Finally, 3D printing is looking to further fuel the creative process and drive engagement in the classroom. Future scientists, mathematicians and engineers will be able to hold the actual model they built in their hands. 

There is a general misconception that technology reduces face to face engagement between teachers and students. Nevertheless, edtech aims to do the complete opposite. The “flipped classroom model” utilises technology to ensure that passive learning is done at home via videos and other digital resources, while homework is done at school, with the teacher available to assist those who need it. Classroom time is also dedicated to hands-on activities and interactive, personalised learning and discussions. In one study, students reported a significant difference in their higher-order thinking skills and perception of the importance of the contribution of their teachers when learning through flipped classroom model (Polat & Karabatak, 2022).

The collective knowledge of humanity has always been transferred from one generation to the next. As education gradually formalised into the classroom, we instinctively recognise that the system’s biases and flaws were passed down alongside an increasingly standard curriculum. This has split the world into those privileged enough to effectively supply their students with high-quality teaching, and those who cannot afford or cannot do so for various reasons. The emergence of edtech offers the opportunity to provide a high-quality education for those who traditionally would not have been able to access it. While still a developing system that has yet to be formally integrated into a widespread fashion, edtech’s ability to overcome wealth gaps and even connectivity issues places it as the pathway opener education itself is intended to be.

Bibliography:

Aratani, L. (2020, March 10). Elon Musk says college is ‘basically for fun and not for learning’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/10/elon-musk-college-for-fun-not-learning

Biddulph, S. (2004). Manhood . Vermilion.

Caldwell, B. J. (2010). Is Private Schooling Becoming the Preferred Model of School Choice in Australia? Journal of School Choice, 4 (4). https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2010.526840

Economic Issues No. 33 – Educating Children in Poor Countries . (2004). International Monetary Fund. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues/issues33/

Facts and Details. (n.d.). Ancient Egyptian Education. Retrieved April 24, 2022. https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub404/item1929.html

FutureLearn. (2021, November 14). Explore: The Australian education system . FutureLearn. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/futurelearn-international/australia-education-system

Gray, P. (2008). A Brief History of Education. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education

Heffernan, T. (2021). The History of Education in Australia. Oxford Research Encyclopedia. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1459

Jenkins, S. (2020, November 12). Government must address barriers to education in rural and remote areas, inquiry finds . The Mandarin. https://www.themandarin.com.au/144887-barriers-to-education-in-rural-and-remote-areas/

Khan Academy Blog. (2011, December 13). Making education more accessible around the world . Khanacademy.org. https://blog.khanacademy.org/making-education-more-accessible-around-the-world/  

Korff, J. C. S. (2021, August 19). Barriers to Aboriginal education . Creative Spirits. https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/barriers-to-aboriginal-education

Mark, J. J. (2020). Greek Philosophy. https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Philosophy/

National Geographic Society. (n.d.). Civilisations . Retrieved April 24, 2022. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/civilizations/

Polat, H., & Karabatak, S. (2022). Effect of flipped classroom model on academic achievement, academic satisfaction and general belongingness. Learning Environments Research, 25(1), 159–182.

Publisher. (2021, November 11). Major Issues in Education: 20 Hot Topics (Covering Every Level) . Trade-Schools.Net. https://www.trade-schools.net/articles/issues-in-education

Right to Education : Situation around the world . (2018, February 22). Humanium. https://www.humanium.org/en/right-to-education/#:%7E:text=Today%2C%20education%20remains%20an%20inaccessible,and%20those%20of%20their%20children .

Roser, M. (2016, August 31). Global Education . Our World in Data.   https://ourworldindata.org/global-education

Wahlquist, C. (2017, September 20). Indigenous girls in remote areas skip school because they lack pads and tampons . The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/03/indigenous-girls-in-remote-areas-skip-school-because-they-lack-pads-and-tampons

World Economic Forum. (2022, May 3). Education technologies are making learning more accessible. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/education-technology-accessibility-learning/#:~:text=AR%2C%20VR%20and%20AI%20technologies  

Zaphir, L. (2019). What’s the point of education? It’s no longer just about getting a job. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-education-its-no-longer-just-about-getting-a-job-117897#:~:text=For%20much%20of%20human%20history,forced%20to%20change%20with%20it .   

The CAINZ Digest is published by CAINZ, a student society affiliated with the Faculty of Business at the University of Melbourne. Opinions published are not necessarily those of the publishers, printers or editors. CAINZ and the University of Melbourne do not accept any responsibility for the accuracy of information contained in the publication.

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I am a Third Year Commerce student majoring in Accounting and Finance. I am extremely keen to expand my knowledge beyond these disciplines at CAINZ and thus, report on contemporary issues in the current economic climate to make a contribution to society!

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Education System

An education system is an arrangement that consists of at least one teacher and one student in a context, such as in a tutorial or via Skype. Education systems must be intentional, where a teacher actively attempts to guide student learning. Education systems encompass all institutions that are concerned with educating students who are in K-12 and higher education. For students, the education system encompasses elementary school, middle school, high school and then college or university. Many often wonder who created the U.S. education system. The U.S. education system wasn’t created by a single individual but rather evolved over time through the contributions of various educational reformers , lawmakers, and social movements. Key figures in its development include: Horace Mann, often referred to as the “Father of the American Public School System,” Thomas Jefferson, who firmly believed that education citizenry was essential for the success of the republic and John Dewey, who promoted progressive education and advocated for experiential learning.

An education system refers to the economic and social factors that typically make up public schools at the federal, state or community levels. Such factors include public funding, school facilities, staffing, compensation, employee benefits, teaching resources and more. Education systems refer to the coordination of individuals (among teachers, administrators and students), infrastructure (including safe facilities and transportation) and functioning institutions and processes. Many institutions adopted online education systems in March 2020 in light of emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19. The online education system meant students could learn from anywhere in the world from their personal devices. The cons to online education systems include limited social interaction among peers and fewer opportunities for hands-on learning.

An education system encompasses the structure and opportunities for education within a country, including institutions from family and early childhood education through kindergarten, primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, such as lyceums, colleges, and universities. It also covers continuous professional and personal education and private educational institutions. While regulated by national laws, some aspects may be unregulated, aiming to provide education for all societal sections. UNESCO’s International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) recognizes nine education levels . These include 0. Early childhood education, 1. Primary education, 2. Lower secondary education, 3. Upper secondary education, 4. Post-secondary non-tertiary education, 5. Short-cycle tertiary education, 6. Bachelor’s or equivalent level, 7. Master’s or equivalent level and 8. Doctoral or equivalent level.

In the U.S. education system , students earn credits for courses, which count towards completing their program. Courses are categorized into “core” subjects for foundational knowledge, “major” courses for specialization, and “elective” courses for exploring other interests. The U.S. education system calendar runs from September to May, divided into two semesters of 16–18 weeks, though some institutions use a quarter or trimester system of 10–12 weeks. With a wide range of higher education options, students can find programs that meet their academic, financial, and personal needs. In the context of higher education, nearly 4,000 accredited institutions make up the U.S. education system .

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Introduction to education

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

What is Education?

To facilitate the kind of cultural shift that it needed to move us towards a sustainable and ecologically sound future that is underpinned by cooperation and equality, we need to re-evaluate and re-learn different ways of how we work within the world and how we interact and relate to it and each other. In order to achieve any of this, we need to educate ourselves and each other as we explore and experiment our way into a possible future.

Although our task ahead is monumental and daunting, sometimes hopeless, the more we learn and educate ourselves, the more we find that there are many workable solutions and alternatives to the current predicament that we find ourselves in. As education is such an important tool in our emancipation and development as human beings it is important that we look at it holistically and begin with the basics as a means of beginning our exploration of developing ways of living in some sort of equilibrium with our habitat and its inhabitants.

Education a basic definition

Education, in a very general sense can be summed up at a basic level as referring to an experience or act that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In the sense that it is formative means that education is serving to form something and particularly something that will have a long lasting effect on the persons mind and faculties. The most obvious example of this is the ability to understand and use language and mathematics a skill which is then utilised throughout an individual’s life.

Where does education take place

Within a modern context, formal education takes place in a whole variety of different venues including, Nurseries, primary and secondary schools, colleges, Universities, community centres, places of worship and more recently free schools. Education is not value free and all of these establishments will have different dynamics and structures, some being more problematic than others. Education is not confined to these areas and it can also take place in more informal settings and dynamics such as, friends teaching each other, voluntary groups providing education and practical learning based on action, amongst others. In fact any place or relationship can have an educational element to it, if you think about where you learn and who you learn from the list can be endless. Home education is one example of an informal education where the Parents take on the role of the educator.

Education within a social and cultural context

Within the social and cultural context, education can be seen as the process by which society transmits its accumulated knowledge, values and skills from one generation to the next. In this sense education is not only used to instil the values and norms of a given society, but is also an important element of the socialisation process. Different forms of education have different structures of learning that define the learning process and what is seen as educational achievement.

In western society, education is very much an individual endeavour based on accumulation of knowledge that is proven through individual assessment. This often based on hierarchal structures, such as schools and universities that award people for educational achievement based on their models own models. The educational system of a given society can say a lot about society itself as it often reflects the dominant values of that society. Sometimes it is the just as important to consider how you are being taught as well as what you are learning. Educational systems are not just about teaching people subjects, they are also about socialising people and transferring the value systems of the society in which they are situated.

We need to learn to learn differently. We are all teachers and students in the school of life and not a day goes by where we do not learn something new about the world or teach someone else by passing on our knowledge. Education is not just for the schools.

Why is education important for developing a permanent culture

Without education the development of a Permanent Culture would be impossible. Education is needed to transmit the newly evolved ideas and practices that emanate from different streams of thought and disciplines. Education enables us to understand and implement permaculture projects in order to live lighter on the planet, whilst also caring for the planet, and our selves through the ways in which we use and distribute resources.

Education can also teach us to be cooperative as opposed to competitive, which is vital for rebuilding communities and community ties that have been lost under the politics of self interest and individualism. If we apply critical thinking to our learning as Educationalists Paulo Freire and Peter McLaren have, education becomes a tool of emancipation for the economically oppressed that exposes economic and social injustice through critical analysis drawing on the vast wealth of knowledge of the political and social sciences and philosophy.

Education is crucial for developing understanding the local ecology and the inherent beneficial relationships that exist within ecosystems and communities. It also shows us how to form mutual and beneficial relationships by sharing and developing a variety of social and culturally useful skills, through developing intimate understanding of communities within the broader context of the world. These communities are not just human; they are the communities that exist in the soil and the communities that live on top of the soil, in the seas and in the skies.

We have the tools within our storehouse of teaching pedagogies (ways of teaching) a range of approaches. We also have the knowledge to utilise these pedagogies to bring about a Permanent Culture through developing a holistic and flexible curriculum that is egalitarian in nature, delivered in the setting which is best suited to the learner and learning, in order to instil useful and appropriate knowledge to build a Permanent Culture.

The purpose for this introduction was really to start to begin to thinking about education as a force for the collective good and a potential tool of emancipation. As part of the ongoing series of pieces, we will look at some of the different models, methods and perspectives within education and evaluate their qualities in terms of how useful they are in the part they play in a possible egalitarian, and ecologically sound future.

For commoners, alternative thinkers, tinkerers, future thinking creatives, radical activists, nowtopians, permaculturists and all human beings who want a PERMANENT CULTURE NOW.

Education System

• by teachmint@wp

What is education system? 

In simple terms the education system can be defined as a structure that is given for all institutions, for helping create opportunities for the upcoming generation by providing them with education within a country. 

The education system includes everything essential that goes into educating students at the public level. This system is taken into account for students and learners at local, state as well as national levels.

Generally the education system consists of both primary schooling and Middle School which is followed by high school.It is true this system that students are able to pursue higher education and be provided with basic learning that can contribute towards improving their skills for the future.

Generally, the education system is constituted by the following:

·        Books, teaching resources, computers, and various learning materials.

·        Policies, laws, and regulations.

·        School facilities, country facilities, law, and administrative facilities of the country, and the transportation system of the country.

·        Economic system, allocation of resources, public funding, and the various procedures in allocation.

·        Contracts, money management, employee benefits, staffing, human resources, and many more other factors that contribute to individual and country development.

It is important to highlight that it is through the education system that it becomes possible for children to learn about the importance of socialization in the society. The education system contributes towards teaching the children about cultural values and norms and the need for mutual cooperation. They are responsible for helping equip them with skills that are required for them to become productive members of the society.

In the education system, there is mutual coordination between individuals like administrators, educators, and students; the functioning institution, the infrastructure that supports the education system like transportation and other related processes.

The education system includes different levels of educational institutions like kindergartens, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and other higher educational institutions.

The education system however varies from country to country based on the needs of the country and what kind of social norms are prevalent in those countries. Generally the education system consists of 12 years of education for the students to make the product of citizens of the society and equip them with all the necessary skills that will contribute towards providing them with employment opportunities in the society.

Importance of the education system 

We all know that to survive in this modern and developed world, education is needed as a torch to lead the way. The importance of the education system lies in the fact that it contributes towards teaching values and helping in the development of the society.

Through the education system it becomes possible for providing a chance or a shred of opportunity to the current generation in becoming responsible members of the society and contributing towards its growth. The presence of educated individuals in the society has positive repercussions for its growth because it will lead to the development of not only good citizens but also well-paying citizens.

Moreover, it is because of the education system that it will be possible to install the thought of critical thinking in the young Minds and provide them with the ability to conduct important decision making for the society. They will be responsible for developing their own perceptions and opinions that will help govern the society successfully.

An effective education system not only helps in the betterment of an individual but also leads to the overall development of the nation. What is education system is a broad concept and it is important to establish a strong and civilized education system. 

Let’s discuss more about the benefits of having a good education system.

• Leads to the development of the country Education is the most important factor for development and growth. With the help of a civilized education system, growth can be established in all three sectors of the economy i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. 
• Helps in dealing with social issues Social factors like women empowerment, removing poverty, increasing employment, etc are essential to optimize the good functioning of society. Education can help us win many fights against social taboos.
• Enhances creativity A good education system includes various co-curricular activities like dance, drama, debates, athletics, etc. All these activities help the young generation to foster growth and develop confidence. 

This system should be intentional as the educator should be ready to impart his/her knowledge and skills. Also, the students should be readily accepting the information and knowledge being provided to them. The system in many countries is considered to be the major contributor to the overall economic and social development of that country. The system is multifaceted and complex. The above-mentioned information gives us a brief explanation of what is education system and its benefits. If you want to provide students with the perfect learning environment where they can learn, grow, and thrive, Teachmint’s school LMS is all you need. Visit the Teachmint website to learn more about our LMS and a lot more!

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Education Center

Introduction.

The Thomson Reuters Institute/NCSC AI Policy Consortium is designed to inform and educate the judiciary and other legal professionals about the opportunities and challenges of evolving AI and Generative AI solutions to assist judges in making informed decisions about adoption and use. In this new AI and the Courts webinar series, the consortium will host monthly discussions about key AI topics.

Upcoming Webinars

Fundamentals of ai in the u.s. court system.

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1 p.m. ET

“Fundamentals of AI in the U.S. Court System” will introduce the applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the U.S. court system.  This session will provide court professionals with a foundational understanding of AI and its potential to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the judicial process. Participants will gain insight into the current applications of AI in the court system and be able to consider the ethical implications of its use.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Define what AI is and its capabilities
• Describe the current and future ways AI is used in the court system.
• Identify the ethical considerations surrounding AI in the court system
• Discuss the current challenges and implications of AI for the future of the court system

This session will be led by Jake Heller , an AI expert in the law, and Jake Porway . Heller recently joined Thomson Reuters, and before that, he spent the last 15 years working as a lawyer and as the CEO of a technology company specializing in AI with the legal sector. Porway is consulting with NCSC on AI.

Register here.

*New* Stanford University, Hallucination-Free? Assessing the Reliability of Leading AI Legal Research Tools (2024)

AI 101: The Promises and Perils of AI in the Courts (2023) Court and legal experts demystify the basics of artificial intelligence during this discussion.

AI and the Impact on the Practice of Law (2023) Learn about legal factors such as bias in AI, ethical and regulatory considerations, and the impact of AI on law firms.

Impact of AI in the Courts (2023) Panelists share insights from their roles on the bench and in court technology leadership and provide guidance on what courts can do now to be future-ready for future impacts.

Beyond ChatGPT: How can AI tools help you? (2023) Gain insights from NCSC’s experience using large language models, such as ChatGPT, to extract data from court documents.

Tiny Chat 138: Sea of Junk (2024) Understand the challenges faced by court users trying to navigate the legal system through misinformation and learn if AI can help or hinder the user experience.

A Description of AI and Court Use Cases  (2023) Discover how natural language processing (NLP) and related technologies can be used in civil case management.

Steps Towards a Successful Implementation of AI (2023) Learn tips on successful implementation of natural language processing (NLP) and related technologies.

*New*  Artificial Intelligence, Part Two, with Justin Forkner of the Indiana Judicial Branch and Stacey Marz of the Alaska Court System, Lady Justice: Women of the Court podcast

Artificial Intelligence, Part One, with Professor Amy Cyphert. Lady Justice: Women of the Court podcast

• Open access
• Published: 07 August 2024

Management training programs in healthcare: effectiveness factors, challenges and outcomes

• Lucia Giovanelli 1 ,
• Federico Rotondo 2 &
• Nicoletta Fadda 1  

BMC Health Services Research volume  24 , Article number:  904 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

136 Accesses

Metrics details

Different professionals working in healthcare organizations (e.g., physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, biologists, engineers, etc.) must be able to properly manage scarce resources to meet increasingly complex needs and demands. Due to the lack of specific courses in curricular university education, particularly in the field of medicine, management training programs have become an essential element in preparing health professionals to cope with global challenges. This study aims to examine factors influencing the effectiveness of management training programs and their outcomes in healthcare settings, at middle-management level, in general and by different groups of participants: physicians and non-physicians, participants with or without management positions.

A survey was used for gathering information from a purposive sample of professionals in the healthcare field attending management training programs in Italy. Factor analysis, a set of ordinal logistic regressions and an unpaired two-sample t-test were used for data elaboration.

The findings show the importance of diversity of pedagogical approaches and tools and debate, and class homogeneity, as effectiveness factors. Lower competencies held before the training programs and problems of dialogue and discussion during the course are conducive to innovative practice introduction. Interpersonal and career outcomes are greater for those holding management positions.

Conclusions

The study reveals four profiles of participants with different gaps and needs. Training programs should be tailored based on participants’ profiles, in terms of pedagogical approaches and tools, and preserve class homogeneity in terms of professional backgrounds and management levels to facilitate constructive dialogue and solution finding approach.

Peer Review reports

Several healthcare systems worldwide have identified management training as a precondition for developing appropriate strategies to address global challenges such as, on one hand, poor health service outcomes in front of increased health expenditure, particularly for pharmaceuticals, personnel shortages and low productivity, and on the other hand in terms of unbalanced quality and equal access to healthcare across the population [ 1 ]. The sustainability of health systems itself seems to be associated with the presence of leaders, at all levels of health organizations, who are able to correctly manage scarce resources to meet increasingly complex health needs and demands, at the same time motivating health personnel under an increasing amount of stress and steering their behaviors towards the system’s goals, in order to drive the transition towards more decentralized, interorganizational and patient-centered care models [ 2 ].

Recently, professional training as an activity aimed at increasing learning of new capabilities (reskilling) and improving existing ones (upskilling) during the lifetime of individuals (lifelong learning) has been identified by the European Commission as one of the seven flagship programs to be developed in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRP) to support the achievement of European Union’s goals, such as green and digital transitions, innovation, economic and social inclusion and occupation [ 3 ]. As a consequence, many member states have implemented training programs to face current and future challenges in health, which often represents a core mission in their NRRPs.

The increased importance of developing management training programs is also related to the rigidity and focalization of university degree courses in medicine, which do not provide physicians with the basic tools for fulfilling managerial roles [ 4 ]. Furthermore, taking on these roles does not automatically mean filling existing gaps in management capabilities and skills [ 5 ]. Several studies have demonstrated that, in the health setting, management competencies are influenced by positions and management levels as well as by organization and system’s features [ 6 , 7 ]. Hence, training programs aimed at increasing management competencies cannot be developed without considering these differences.

To date, few studies have focused on investigating management training programs in healthcare [ 8 ]. In particular, much more investigation is required on methods, contents, processes and challenges determining the effectiveness of training programs addressed to health managers by taking into account different environments, positions and management levels [ 1 ]. A gap also exists in the assessment of management training programs’ outcomes [ 9 ]. This study aims to examine factors influencing the effectiveness and outcomes of management training, at the middle-management level, in healthcare. It intends to answer the following research questions: which factors influence the management training process? Which relationships exist between management competencies held before the program, factors of effectiveness, critical issues encountered, and results achieved or prefigured at the end of the program? Are there differences, in terms of factors of effectiveness, challenges and outcomes, between the following groups of management training programs’ participants: physicians and non-physicians, participants with or without management positions?

Management training in healthcare

Currently, there is a wide debate about the added value of management to health organizations [ 10 ] and thus about the importance of spreading management competencies within health organizations to improve their performance. Through a systematic review, Lega et al. [ 11 ] highlighted four approaches to examine the impact of management on healthcare performance, focusing on management practices, managers’ characteristics, engagement of professionals in performance management and organizational features and management styles.

Although findings have not always been univocal, several studies suggest a positive relationship between management competencies and practices and outcomes in healthcare organizations, both from a clinical and financial point of view [ 12 ]. Among others, Vainieri et al. [ 13 ] found, in the Italian setting, a positive association between top management’s competencies and organizational performance, assessed through a multidimensional perspective. This study also reveals the mediating effect of information sharing, in terms of strategy, results and organization structure, in the relationship between managerial competencies and performance.

The key role of management competencies clearly emerges for health executives, who have to turn system policies into a vision, and then articulate it into effective strategies and actions within their organizations to steer and engage professionals [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. However, health systems are increasingly complex and continually changing across contexts and health service levels. This means the role of health executives is evolving as well and identifying the capacities they need to address current and emerging issues becomes more difficult. For instance, a literature review conducted by Figueroa et al. [ 20 ] sheds light on priorities and challenges for health leadership at three structural levels: macro context (international and national), meso context (organizations) and micro context (individual healthcare managers).

Doctor-managers are requested to carry both clinical tasks and tasks related to budgeting, goal setting and performance evaluation. As a consequence, a growing stream of research has speculated whether managers with a clinical background actually affect healthcare performance outcomes, but studies have produced inconclusive findings. In relation to this topic, Sarto and Veronesi [ 21 ] carried out a literature review showing a generally positive impact of clinical leadership on different types of outcome measures, with only a few studies reporting negative impacts on financial and social performance. Morandi et al. [ 22 ] focused on doctor-managers who have become middle managers and investigated the potential bias in performance appraisal due to the mismatch between self-reported and official performance data. At the individual level, the role played by managerial behavior, training, engagement, and perceived organizational support was analyzed. Among others indications they suggested that training programs should be revised to reduce bias in performance appraisal. Tasi et al. [ 23 ] conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the 115 largest U.S. hospitals, divided into physician-led and non-physician-led, which revealed that physician-led hospital systems have higher quality ratings across all specialities and more inpatient days per hospital bed than non-physician-led hospitals. No differences between the groups were found in total revenue and profit margins. The main implication of their study is that hospital systems may benefit from the presence of physician leadership to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivered to patients as long as education and training are able to adequately prepare them. The main issue, as also observed by others [ 4 , 24 ], is that university education in medicine still includes little focus on aspects such as collaborative management, communication and coordination, and leadership skills. Such a circumstance motivates the call for further training. Regarding the implementation of training programs, Liang et al. [ 1 ] have recently shown how it is hindered, among others, by a lack of sufficient knowledge about needed competencies and existing gaps. Their analysis, which focuses on senior managers from three categories in Chinese hospitals, shows that before commencing the programs senior managers had not acquired adequate management competencies either through formal or informal training. It is worth noticing that significant differences exist between hospital categories and management levels. For this reason, they recommend using a systemic approach to design training programs, which considers different hospital types, management levels and positions. Yarbrough et al. [ 6 ] examined how competence training worked in healthcare organizations and the competencies needed for leaders at different points of their careers at various organizational levels. They carried out a cross-sectional survey of 492 US hospital executives, whose most significant result was that competence training is effective in healthcare organizations.

Walston and Khaliq [ 25 ], from a survey of 2,001 hospital CEOs across the US concluded that the greatest contribution of continuing education is to keep CEOs updated on technological and market changes that impact their current job responsibilities. Conversely, it does not seem to be valued for career or succession planning. About the methods of continuing education, an increasing use of some internet-based tools was found. Walston et al. [ 26 ] identified the factors affecting continuing education, finding, among others, that CEOs from for-profit and larger hospitals tend to take less continuing education, whereas senior managers' commitment to continuing education is influenced by region, gender, the CEO's personal continuing education hours and the focus on change.

Furthermore, the principles that inspire modern healthcare models, such as dehospitalization, horizontal coordination and patient-centeredness, imply the increased importance of middle managers, within single structures but also along clinical pathways and projects, to create and sustain high performances [ 27 , 28 , 29 ].

Whaley and Gillis [ 8 ] investigated the development of training programs aimed at increasing managerial competencies and leadership of middle managers, both from clinical and nonclinical backgrounds, in the US context. By adopting the top managers’ perspective, they found a widespread difficulty in aligning training needs and program contents. A 360° assessment of the competencies of Australian middle-level health service managers from two public hospitals was then conducted by Liang et al. [ 7 ] to identify managerial competence levels and training and development needs. The assessment found competence gaps and confirmed that managerial strengths and weaknesses varied across management groups from different organizations. In general, several studies have shown that leading at various organizational levels, in healthcare, does not necessarily require the same levels and types of competencies.

Liang et al. [ 30 ] explored the core competencies required for middle to senior-level managers in Victorian public hospitals. By adopting mixed methods, they confirmed six core competencies and provided guidance to the development of the competence-based educational approach for training the current and future management workforce. Liang et al. [ 31 ] then focused on the poorly investigated area of community health services, which are one of the main solutions to reducing the increasing demand for hospital care in general, and, in particular, in the reforms of the Australian health system. Their study advanced the understanding of the key competencies required by senior and mid-level managers for effective and efficient community health service delivery. A following cross-sectional study by AbuDagga et al. [ 32 ] highlighted that some community health services, such as home healthcare and hospice agencies, also need specific cultural competence training to be effective, in terms of reducing health disparities.

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, Liang et al. [ 33 ] developed a management competence framework. Such a framework was then validated on a sample of 117 senior and middle managers working in two public hospitals and five community services in Victoria, Australia [ 34 ]. Fanelli et al. [ 35 ] used mixed methods to identify the following specific managerial competencies, which healthcare professionals perceive as crucial to improve their performance: quality evaluation based on outcomes, enhancement of professional competencies, programming based on process management, project cost assessment, informal communication style and participatory leadership.

Loh [ 5 ], through a qualitative analysis conducted in Australian hospitals, examined the motivation behind the choice of medically trained managers to undertake postgraduate management training. Interesting results stemming from the analysis include the fact that doctors often move into management positions without first undertaking training, but also that clinical experience alone does not lead to required management competencies. It is also interesting to remark that effective postgraduate management training for doctors requires a combination of theory and practice, and that doctors choose to undertake training mostly to gain credibility.

Ravaghi et al. [ 36 ] conducted a literature review to assess the evidence on the effectiveness of different types of training and educational programs delivered to hospital managers. The analysis identifies a set of aspects that are impacted by training programs. Training programs focus on technical, interpersonal and conceptual skills, and positive effects are mainly reported for technical skills. Numerous challenges are involved in designing and delivering training programs, including lack of time, difficulty in employing competencies in the workplace, also due to position instability, continuous changes in the health system environment, and lack of support by policymakers. One of the more common flaws concerns the fact that managers are mainly trained as individuals, but they work in teams. The implications of the study are that increased investments and large-scale planning are required to develop the knowledge and competencies of hospital managers. Another shortage concerns the outcome measurement of training programs, which is a usually neglected issue in the literature [ 9 ]. It also emerges that the training programs performing best are specific, structured and comprehensive.

Kakemam and Liang [ 2 ] conducted a literature review to shed light on the methods used to assess management competencies, and, thus, professional development needs in healthcare. Their analysis confirms that most studies focus on middle and senior managers and demonstrate great variability in methods and processes of assessment. As a consequence, they elaborate a framework to guide the design and implementation of management competence studies in different contexts and countries.

In the end, the literature has long pointed out that developing and strengthening the competencies and skills of health managers represent a core goal for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of health systems, and management training is crucial for achieving such a goal [ 37 ]. The reasons can be summarized as follows: university education has scarcely been able to provide physicians and, in general, health operators, with adequate, or at least basic, managerial competencies and skills; over time, professionals have been involved in increasingly complex and rapidly changing working environments, requiring increased management responsibilities as well as new competencies and skills; in many settings, for instance in Italy, delays in the enforcement of law requiring the attendance of specific management training courses to take up a leadership position, hindered the acquisition of new competencies and the improvement of existing ones by those already managing health organizations, structures and services.

For the purposes of this study, management competencies refer to the possession and ability to use skills and tools for service organization and service planning, control and evaluation, evidence-informed decision-making and human resource management in the healthcare field.

Management training in the Italian National Health System

The reform of the Italian National Health System (INHS), implemented by Legislative Decree No. 502/1992 and inspired by neo-managerial theories, introduced the role of the general manager and assigned new responsibilities to managers.

However, the inadequate performance achieved in the first years of the application of the reform highlighted the cultural gap that made the normative adoption of managerial approach and tools unproductive on the operational level. Legislation evolved accordingly, and in order to hold management positions, management training became mandatory. Decree-Law No. 583/1996 (converted into Law No. 4/1997) provided that the requirements and criteria for access to the top management level were to be determined. Therefore, Presidential Decree No. 484/1997 determined these requirements and also the requirements and criteria to access the middle-management level of INHS’ healthcare authorities. This regulation also imposed the acquisition of a specific management training certificate, dictated rules concerning the duration, contents, and teaching methods of management training courses issuing this certificate, and indicated the requirements for attendance. Immediately afterwards, Legislative Decree No. 229/1999 amended the discipline of medical management and health professions and promoted continuous training in healthcare. It also regulated management training, which became an essential requirement for the appointments of health directors and directors of complex structures in the healthcare authorities, for the categories of physicians, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists, biologists, chemists, physicists and psychologists.

The second pillar of the INHS reform was the regionalization of the INHS. Therefore, the Regions had to organize the courses to achieve management training certificates on the basis of specific agreements with the State, which regulated the contents, the methodology, the duration and the procedures for obtaining certification. The State-Regions Conference approved the first interregional agreement on management training in July 2003, whereas the State-Regions Agreement of 16 May 2019 regulated the training courses. The mandatory contents of the management training outlined the skills and behaviors expected from general managers and other top management key players (Health Director, Administrative Director and Social and Health Director), but also for all middle managers.

A survey was used to gather information from a purposive sample of professionals in the healthcare field taking part in management training programs. In particular, a structured questionnaire was submitted to 140 participants enrolled in two management programs organized by an Italian university: a second-level specializing master course and a training program carried out in collaboration with the Region. The programs awarded participants the title needed to be appointed as a director of a ward or administrative unit in a public healthcare organization, and share the same scientific committee, teaching staff, administrative staff and venue. The respondents’ profile is shown in Table  1 .

It is worth pointing out that the teaching staff is characterized by diversity: teachers have different educational and professional backgrounds, are practitioners or academics, and come from different Italian regions.

The questionnaire was submitted and completed in presence and online between November 2022 and February 2023. All participants decided to take part in the analysis spontaneously and gave their consent, being granted total anonymity.

The questionnaire, which was developed for this study and based on the literature, consisted of 64 questions shared in the following five sections: participant profile (10 items), management competencies held by participants before the training program (4 items), effectiveness factors of the training program (23 items), challenges to effectiveness (10 items), and outcomes of the training program (17 items) (an English language version of the questionnaire is attached to this paper as a supplementary file). In particular, the second section aimed to shed light on the participants’ situation regarding management competencies held before the start of the training program and how they were acquired; the third section aimed to collect participants’ opinions regarding how the program was conducted and the factors influencing its effectiveness; the fourth section aimed to collect participants’ opinions regarding the main obstacles encountered during the program; and the fifth section aimed to reveal the main outcomes of the program in terms of knowledge, skills, practices and career.

Except for those of the first section, which collected personal information, all the items of the next four categories – management competencies, effectiveness factors, challenges and outcome — were measured through a 5-point Likert scale. To ensure that the content of the questionnaire was appropriate, clear and relevant, a pre-testing was conducted in October 2022 by asking four academics and four practitioners, both physicians and not, with and without management positions, to fill it out. The aim was to understand whether the questionnaire really addressed the information needs behind the study and was easily and correctly understood by respondents. Therefore, the four individuals involved in the pre-testing were asked to fill it out simultaneously but independently, and at the end of the compilation, a focus group that included them and the three authors was used to collect their opinions and suggestions. After this phase, the following changes were made: in the ‘Participant profile’ section, ‘Veterinary medicine’ was added to the fields accounting for the ‘Educational background’ (item 3); in Sect. 2, it was decided to modify the explanation given to ‘basic management competencies’ and align it to what required by Presidential Decree No. 484/1997; in Sect. 3, item 25 was added to catch a missing aspect that respondents considered important, and brackets were added to the description of items 15, 16 and 29 to clarify the concepts of mixed and homogenous class and pedagogical approaches and tools; in Sect. 4, in the description of item 40, the words ‘find the energy required’ were added to avoid confusion with items 38 and 39, whereas brackets were added to items 41 and 45 to provide more explanation; in Sect. 5, brackets were added to the description of item 51 to increase clarity, and the last item was divided into two (now items 63 and 64) to distinguish the training program’s impact on career at different times.

With reference to the methods, first, a factor analysis based on the principal component method was conducted within each section of the questionnaire (except for the first again), in order to reduce the number of variables and shed light on the factors influencing the management training process. Bartlett's sphericity test and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) value were performed to assess sampling adequacy, whereas factors were extracted following the Kaiser criterion, i.e., eigenvalues greater than unity, and total variance explained. The rotation method used was the Varimax method with Kaiser normalization, except for the second section (i.e., management competencies held by participants before the training program) that), which did not require rotation since a single factor emerged from the analysis. Bartlett's sphericity test was statistically significant ( p  < 0.001) in all sections, KMO values were all greater than 0.65 (average value 0.765), and the total variances explained were all greater than 65% (average value of approximately 70.89%), which are acceptable values for such analysis.

Second, a set of ordinal logistic regressions were performed to assess the relationships existing between management competencies held before the start of the course, effectiveness factors, challenges, and outcomes of the training program.

The factors that emerged from the factor analysis were used as independent variables, whereas some significant outcome items accounting for different performance aspects were selected as dependent variables: improved management competencies, innovation practices, professional relationships, and career prospects. Ordered logit regressions were used because the dependent variables (outcomes) were measured on ordinal scales. Some control variables for the respondent profiles were included in the regression models: age, gender, educational background, management position, and working in the healthcare field.

With the aim of understanding which explanatory variables could exert an influence, a backward elimination method was used, adopting a threshold level of significance values below 0.20 ( p  < 0.20). Table 4 shows the results of regressions with independent variables obtained following the criterion mentioned above. All four models respected the null hypothesis, which means that the proportional odds assumption behind the ordered logit regressions had not been rejected ( p  > 0.05). Third and last, an unpaired two-sample t-test was used to examine the differences between groups of participants in the management training programs selected based on two criteria: physicians and non-physicians, and participants with or without management positions.

First, descriptive statistics is useful for understanding the aspects participants considered the most and least important by category. This can be done by focusing on the items of the four sections of the questionnaire (except for the first one depicting participant profiles) that were given the highest and lowest scores at the sample level and by different groups of participants (physicians and non-physicians, participants with or without management positions). Table 2 summarizes the mean values and standard deviations by group of these higher and lower scores. Focusing on management competencies, all groups reported having mainly acquired them through professional experience, except for non-physicians who attributed major significance to postgraduate training programs, with a mean value of 3.05 out of 5. All groups agreed on the poor role of university education in providing management competencies, with mean values for the sample and all four groups below 2.5. It is worth noting that this item exhibits the lowest value for physicians (1.67) and the highest for non-physicians (2.37). In addition, physicians are the group attributing the lowest values to postgraduate education and professional experience for acquiring management competencies. In reference to factors of effectiveness, all groups also agree on the necessity of mixing theoretical and practical lessons during the training program with mean values of well above 4.5, whereas exclusive use of self-assessment is generally viewed as the most ineffective practice, except for non-physician, who attribute the lowest value to remote lessons (mean 1.82). Among the challenges, the whole sample and physicians and participants without management positions see the lack of financial support from their organization as the main problem (mean 4.10), while non-physicians and participants with management positions believe this is represented by a lack of time, with mean values, respectively, of 3.75 and 4. All agree that dialogue and discussion during the course have been the least relevant of the problems, with mean values below 1.5. Outcomes show generally high values, as revealed by the fact that the lowest values exhibit mean values around 3.5. It is worth noting that an increased understanding of the healthcare systems has been the main benefit gained from the program, with mean values equal to or higher than 4.50. The lowest positive impact is attributed by all attendees to improved relationships with superiors and top management, with mean values between 3.44 and 3.74, with the exception of participants without management positions who mention improved career prospects.

To shed light on the factors influencing the management training process, the findings of the factor analyses conducted by category are reported. Starting from the management competencies held before the training program, the following single factor was extracted from the four items, named and interpreted as follows:

Basic management competencies, which measures the level of management competencies acquired by participants through higher education, post-graduate training and professional experience.

The effectiveness factors are then grouped into six factors, named and explained as follows:

Diversity and debate, which aggregates five items assessing the importance of diversity in participants’ and teachers’ educational and professional backgrounds and pedagogical approaches and tools, as well as level of participant engagement and discussion during lessons and in carrying out the project work required to complete the program.

Specialization, which includes three items accounting for a robust knowledge of healthcare systems by focusing on teachers’ profiles and lessons’ theoretical approaches.

Lessons in presence, which groups three items explaining that in-presence lessons increase learning outcomes and discussion among participants.

Final self-assessment, made up of three items asserting that learning outcomes should be assessed by participants themselves at the end of the course.

Written intermediate assessment, composed of two items explaining that mid-terms assessment should only be written.

Homogeneous class, which is made up of a single component accounting for participants’ similarity in terms of professional backgrounds and management levels, tasks and responsibilities.

The challenges are aggregated into the following four factors:

Lack of time, which includes three items reporting scarce time and energy for lessons and study.

Problems of dialogue and discussion, which groups three items focusing on difficulties in relating to and debating with other participants and teachers.

Low support from organization, which is made up of two items reporting poor financial support and low value given to the initiative from participants’ own organizations.

Organizational issues, which aggregates two items demonstrating scarce flexibility and collaboration by superiors and colleagues of participants’ own organizations and unfamiliarity to study.

Table 3 shows the component matrix with saturation coefficients and factors obtained for the management competencies held before the training program (unrotated), effectiveness factors (rotated), and challenges (rotated).

A set of ordinal logistic regressions was performed to examine the relationships between management competencies held before the start of the course, effectiveness factors, challenges and outcomes of the training program. The results, shown in Table  4 , are articulated into four models, one for each selected outcome. In relation to model 1, the factors ‘diversity and debate’ ( p  < 0.001), ‘written intermediate assessment’ ( p  < 0.05) and ‘homogeneous class’ ( p  < 0.001) have a significant positive impact on the improvement of management competencies, which is also increased by low values attributed to ‘problems of dialogue and discussion’ ( p  < 0.01). In model 2, the change of professional practices in light of lessons learned during the program, selected as an innovation outcome, is then positively affected by ‘diversity and debate’ ( p  < 0.001), ‘homogeneous class’ ( p  < 0.05) and ‘organizational issues’ ( p  < 0.01), while it was negatively influenced by a high value of ‘basic management competencies’ held before the course ( p  < 0.05). Regarding model 3, ‘Diversity and debate’ ( p  < 0.001) and ‘homogeneous class’ ( p  < 0.01) have a significant positive effect on the improvement of professional relationships as well, whereas the same is negatively affected by ‘lessons in presence’ ( p  < 0.05). Finally, concerning model 4, the outcome career prospects benefit from ‘diversity and debate’ ( p  < 0.05) and ‘homogeneous class’ ( p  < 0.01), since both factors exert a positive effect. ‘Low support from organization’ negatively influences career prospects ( p  < 0.001). Table 4 also shows that the LR test of proportionality of odds across the response categories cannot be rejected (all four p  > 0.05).

Finally, it is worth noting that none of the control variables reflecting the respondent profiles (age, gender, management position, working in the healthcare field, and educational background) was found to be statistically significant. These variables are not reported in Table  4 because regression models were obtained following a backward elimination method, as explained in the method section.

In the end, the t-test reveals significant differences between physicians and non-physicians, as well as between participants with or without management positions. Table 5 shows only figures of t-test statistically significant with regards to competencies held before the attendance of the course, the factors of effectiveness, challenges of the training program, and outcomes achieved. In the first comparison, non-physicians show higher management competencies at the start of the program, with a mean value of 0.31, while physicians suffer from less support from their own organization with a mean value of 0.13 compared to -0.18, the mean value of the non-physicians. Concerning the second comparison, participants with management positions have higher management competencies at the start of the program (0.19 versus -0.13) and suffer more from lack of time, with higher mean values compared to participants without managerial positions, respectively 0.23 and -0.16. For what concerns the factors related to the effectiveness of the training program, participants with management positions exhibit a lower mean value in relation to written mid-term assessments, -0.24 versus 0.17, reported by participants with management positions. Differently, the final self-assessment at the end of the program is higher for participants with management positions, 0.24 compared to -0.17, the mean value of the participants without management positions. This latter category feels more the problem of low support from their organizations, with a mean value of 0.16 compared to -0.23, and is slightly less motivated by possible career improvement, with a mean value of 3.31 compared to 3.73 reported by participants with management positions.

The results stemming from the different analyses are now considered and interpreted in the light of the extant literature. Personal characteristics such as gender and age, differently from what was found by Walston et al. [ 26 ] for executives’ continuing education, and professional characteristics such as seniority and working in public or private sectors, do not seem to affect participation in management training programs.

The findings clearly show the outstanding importance of ‘diversity and debate’ and ‘class homogeneity’ as factors of effectiveness, since they positively impact all outcomes: competencies, innovation, professional relationships and career. These factors capture two key aspects complementing each other: on the one hand, participants and teachers’ different backgrounds provide the class with a wider pool of resources and expertise, whereas the use of pedagogical tools fostering discussion enriches the educational experience and stimulates creativity. On the other hand, due to the high level of professionalism in the setting, sharing common management levels means similar tasks and responsibilities, as well as facing similar problems. Consequently, speaking the same language leads to deeper knowledge and effective technical solutions.

In relation to the improvement of management competencies, it also emerges the critical role of a good class atmosphere, that is, the absence of problems of dialogue and discussion. ‘Diversity and debate’ and ‘class homogeneity’, as explained before, seem to contribute to this, since they enhance freedom of expression and fair confrontation, leading to improved learning outcomes. It is interesting to notice that the problems of dialogue and discussion turned out to be the least relevant challenge across the sample.

Two interesting points come from the factors affecting innovation. First, it seems that lower competencies before the training programs lead to the development of more innovative practices. The reason is that holding fewer basic competencies means a greater scope for action once new capabilities are learned: the spirit of openness is conducive to breaking down routines, and innovative practices hindered by a lack of knowledge and tools can thus be introduced. The reason is that holding fewer basic competencies means greater scope for action once new capabilities are learned: the spirit of openness is conducive to breaking down routines, and innovative practices hindered by a lack of knowledge and tools can thus be introduced. This extends the findings of previous studies since the employment of competencies in the workplace is influenced by the starting competence equipment of professionals [ 36 ], and those showing gaps have more room to recover, also in terms of motivation to change, that is, understanding the importance of meeting current and future challenges [ 26 ]. Second, more innovative practices are introduced by participants perceiving more organizational issues. This may reveal, on the one side, a stronger individual motivation towards professional growth of participants who suffer from lack of flexibility and collaboration from their own superiors and colleagues. In this regard, poor tolerance, flexibility and permissions in their workplace act as a stimulus to innovation, which can be viewed as a way of challenging the status quo. On the other side, in line with the above-mentioned concept, this confirms that unfamiliarity with the study increases the innovative potential of participants. Since this study reveals that physicians are neither adequately educated from a management point of view nor incentivized to attend post-graduation training programs, it points out how important is extending continuing education to all health professional categories [ 25 , 26 ].

The topic of competencies held by different categories needs more attention. The study reveals that physicians and participants without management positions start the program with less basic competencies. At the sample level, higher education is viewed as the most ineffective tool to provide such competencies, whereas professional experience is seen as the best way to gather them. Actually, non-physicians give the highest value to postgraduate education, which suggests they are those more interested or incentivized to take part in continuing education. Although holding managerial positions does not automatically mean having higher competencies [ 5 ], it is evident that such a professional experience contributes to filling existing gaps. Physicians stand out as the category for which university education, postgraduate education and professional experience exert the lowest impact on management competence improvement. Considering the relationship between competence held before the course and innovation, as described above, engaging physicians in training programs, even more if they do not have management responsibilities, has a major impact on health organizations’ development prospects. The findings also point out that effective management training requires a combination of theory and practice for all categories of professionals, not just for physicians, as observed by Loh [ 5 ].

The main outcome, in general and for all participant categories, is an increased understanding of how healthcare systems work, which anticipates increased competencies. This confirms the importance of knowledge on the healthcare environment [ 31 ], and clarifies the order of aspects impacted by training programs as reported by Ravaghi et al. [ 36 ]: first conceptual, then technical, and finally interpersonal. However, interpersonal outcomes are by far greater for those holding management positions, which extends the findings by Liang et al. [ 31 ]. In particular, participants already managing units report the greatest impacts in terms of ability to understand colleagues’ problems, improvement of professional relationships and collaboration with colleagues from other units. Obviously, participants with management positions, more than others, feel the lack of collaborative and communication skills, which represents one of the main flaws of university education in the field of medicine [ 4 ] and is also often neglected in management training [ 36 ]. This also confirms that different management levels show specific competence requirements and education needs [ 6 , 7 ]. 

It is then important to discuss the negative effect of lessons in presence on the improvement of professional relationships. At first glance, it may sound strange, but its real meaning emerges from a comprehensive interpretation of all the findings. First, it does not mean that remote lessons are more effective, as revealed by the fact that they, as a factor of effectiveness, are attributed very low values and, for all categories of participants, lower values than those attributed to lessons in presence and hybrid lessons. Non-physicians, in particular, attribute them the lowest value at all. At most, remote lessons are viewed as convenient rather than effective. The negative influence of lessons in presence can be explained by the fact that a specific category, i.e., those with management positions, rate this aspect much more important than other participants and, as reported above, find much more benefits in terms of improved relationships from management training. Participants with management positions, due to their tasks and responsibilities, suffer more than others from lack of time to be devoted to course participation. For them, as for the category of non-physicians, lack of time represents the main challenge to effectively attending the course. In the literature, such a problem is well considered, and lack of time is also viewed as a challenge to apply the skills learned during the course [ 36 ]. Considering that class discussion and homogeneity contribute to fostering relationships, a comprehensive reading of the findings reveals that due to workload, participants with management positions see particularly convenient and still effective remote lessons. Furthermore, if the class is formed by participants sharing similar professional backgrounds and management levels, debate is not precluded and interpersonal relationships improved as a consequence. From the observation of single items, it can be concluded that participants with management positions and in general those with higher basic management competencies at the start of the program, prefer more flexible and leaner training programs: intermediate assessment through conversation, self-assessment at the end of the course, more concentrated scheduled lessons and greater use of remote lessons.

Differently from what was found by Walston and Khaliq [ 25 ], the findings highlight that participants with management positions value the impact of management training on career prospects positively. These participants are also those more supported by their own organizations. Conversely, the lack of support, especially in terms of inadequate funds devoted to these initiatives, strongly affects physicians and participants without management positions, which clarifies what this challenge is about and who is mainly affected by it [ 36 ]. Low incentives mean having attended fewer training programs in the past, which, together with less management experience, explains why they have developed less competencies. Among the outcomes of the training program, the little attention paid by organizations is also testified by the lowest values attributed by all categories, except for participants without management positions, to the improvement of relationships with superiors and top management.

In general, the study contributes to a better understanding of the outcomes of management training programs in healthcare and their determinants [ 9 ]. In particular, it sheds light on gaps and education needs [ 1 ] by category of health professionals [ 2 ]. The research findings have major implications for practice, which can be drawn after identifying the four profiles of participants revealed by the study. All profiles share common characteristics, such as value given to debate, diversity of pedagogical approaches and tools and class homogeneity, rather than the need for a deeper comprehension of healthcare systems. However, they present characteristics that determine specific issues and education gaps, which are summarized as follows:

Physicians without management positions: low competencies at the start of the program and scarce incentives for attending the course from their own organization;

Physicians with management positions: they partially compensate for competence gaps through professional experience, suffer from lack of time, and are motivated by the chance to improve their career prospects;

Non-physicians without management positions: they partially fill competence gaps through postgraduate education, suffer from lack of time, and have scarce incentives for attending the course from their own organization;

Non-physicians with management positions: they partially bridge competence gaps through postgraduate education and professional experience, are the most affected by a lack of time, and are motivated by the chance to improve their career prospects.

Recommendations are outlined for different levels of action:

For policymakers, it is suggested to strengthen the ability of higher education courses in medicine and related fields to advance the understanding of healthcare systems’ structure and operation, as well as their current and future challenges. Such a new approach in the design curricula should then have as a main goal the provision of adequate management competencies.

For healthcare organizations, it is suggested to incentivize the acquisition of management competencies by all categories of professionals through postgraduate education and training programs. This means supporting them from both financial and organizational point of view, for instance, in terms of more flexible working conditions. Special attention should be paid to physicians who, even without executive roles, manage resources and directly impact the organization's effectiveness and efficiency levels through their day-by-day activity, and are the players holding the greatest innovative potential within the organization. Concerning the executives, especially in the current changing context of healthcare systems, much higher attention should be paid to fostering interpersonal skills, in terms of communication and cooperation.

For those designing training programs, it is suggested to tailor courses on the basis of participants’ profiles, using different pedagogical approaches and tools, for instance, in terms of teacher composition, lesson delivery methods and learning assessment methods, while preserving class homogeneity in terms of professional backgrounds and management levels to facilitate constructive dialogue and solution finding approaches. Designing ad hoc training programs would give the possibility to meet the needs of participants from an organizational point of view as well as, for instance, in terms of program length and lesson concentration.

Limitations

This study has some limitations, which pave the way for future research. First, it is context-specific by country, since it is carried out within the INHS, which mandatorily requires health professionals to attend management training programs to hold certain positions. It is then context-specific by training program, since it focuses on management training programs providing participants with the title to be appointed as a director of a ward or administrative unit in a public healthcare organization. This determines the kind of management competencies included in the study, which are those mandatorily required for such a middle-management category. Therefore, there is a need to extend research and test these findings on different types of management training programs, participants and countries. Second, this study is based on a survey of participants’ perceptions, which causes two kinds of unavoidable issues: although based on the literature and pre-tested, the questionnaire could not be able to measure what it intends to or capture detailed and nuanced insights from respondents, and responses may be affected by biases due to reactive effects. Third, a backward elimination method was adopted to select variables in model building. Providing a balance between simplicity and fit of models, this variable selection technique is not consequences-free. Despite advantages such as starting the process with all variables included, removing the least important early, and leaving the most important in, it also has some disadvantages. The major is that once a variable is deleted from the model, it is not included anymore, although it may become significant later [ 38 ]. For these reasons, it is intended to reinforce research with new data sources, such as teachers’ perspectives and official assessments, and different variable selection strategies. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for data elaboration could then be used to deepen the analysis of the relationships between motivations, effectiveness factors and outcomes. Furthermore, since the investigation of competence development, acquisition of new competencies and the transfer of acquired competencies was beyond the purpose of this study, a longitudinal approach will be used to collect data from participants attending future training programs to track changes and identify patterns.

Availability of data and materials

An English-language version of the questionnaire used in this study is attached to this paper as a supplementary file. The raw data collected via the questionnaire are not publicly available due to privacy and other restrictions. However, datasets generated and analyzed during the current study may be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Italian National Health System

Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin

National Recovery and Resilience Plan

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Chowdhury MZI, Turin TC. Variable selection strategies and its importance in clinical prediction modelling. Fam Med Comm Health. 2020;8(1):1–7. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2019-000262 .

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Lucia Giovanelli & Nicoletta Fadda

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Although all the authors have made substantial contributions to the design and drafting of the manuscript: LG and FR conceptualized the study, FR and NF conducted the analysis and investigation and wrote the original draft; LG, FR and NF reviewed and edited the original draft, and LG supervised the whole process. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Giovanelli, L., Rotondo, F. & Fadda, N. Management training programs in healthcare: effectiveness factors, challenges and outcomes. BMC Health Serv Res 24 , 904 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11229-z

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IIT Mandi's mandatory 'Consciousness' course teaches reincarnation, sparks debate

Iit mandi's 'consciousness and well-being' course, mandatory for first-year btech students, includes information about reincarnation and out-of-body experiences. it has sparked controversy, with critics questioning its place in a technical curriculum..

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• IIT Mandi introduces a mandatory course on consciousness and well-being for first-year engineering students
• Course covers reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, and other topics alongside modern scientific research
• Course sparks social media debate, with critics questioning its relevance in a technical institution

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, primarily known for its engineering programmes, has made headlines by introducing a mandatory course for its first-year BTech students titled 'Introduction to Consciousness and Wellbeing' which includes content related to reincarnation and out-of-body experiences in its course module.

This course, developed under the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) department, is part of the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Application (IKSMHA) Centre at IIT Mandi. The IKSMHA Centre focuses on scientific research related to the mind, brain, and consciousness, applying these studies to mental well-being.

“We at IIT Mandi are making sure that our students have a flexible curriculum that allows them to change their branch based on their interests after 1st year. We are working on creating a structure where researchers from engineering and medical backgrounds will do interdisciplinary research and have the freedom to choose the specialization that they want to pursue," Professor Laxmidhar Behera, Director of IIT Mandi, said at a press conference last year.

Other courses at IKSMHA include Scientific basis of Mantra Chikitsa, Music and Musopathy, Vedic Thoughts and Cultural Behaviour, Neuroscience and Mental Health, Introduction to Yoga Sutras and others.

ABOUT IKSMHA CENTRE AT IIT MANDI

One Reddit user in a thread discussing this mandatory course asked mockingly, "Course material ke liya ganga provide karege kya?" ("Will Ganga be provided for the course material?"), while another expressed concern, stating, "IITs are losing their prestige."

Additionally, the compulsory nature of Bhagavad Gita recitals and yoga classes has been met with resistance, with some students and critics viewing it as an imposition of religious practices.

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Technical Reference Guides for the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP) Overview of the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform and Associated Datasets, 2024

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• Introduction
• The Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform(ELMLP)

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1. Introduction

Statistics Canada, in collaboration with the provincial and territorial ministries of education, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), and other stakeholders, has developed the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP).

The ELMLP allows longitudinal integration of administrative data related to education with other data sources to create anonymized, customized datasets for analytical purposes.

The ELMLP fills data gaps and enables a greater understanding of student and apprenticeship pathways, transitions to the labour market and outcomes over time. Data from the ELMLP can help address a wide range of policy questions pertaining to student and apprenticeship persistence, completion, mobility and pathways as well as their labour market outcomes.

These data allow policy makers to understand the different types of trajectories that students can take through their postsecondary education or apprenticeship training as well as student characteristics that may be related to these trajectories.

The target users for the ELMLP include provincial and territorial ministries of education, apprenticeship authorities, postsecondary educational institutions, federal government departments, members of the academic community, researchers, students and parents interested in graduate outcomes and other stakeholder groups involved in education and the labour market.

2. The Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP)

2.1 the key features of the elmlp.

• Platform – The ELMLP allows researchers to integrate selected datasets to access information about past cohorts of college/university students and registered apprentices, in order to better understand their pathways and the ways in which education and training affected their career prospects.
• Securely integrable datasets - These datasets that can be integrated allow researchers to know more than what a single dataset or survey can provide. Securely integrable datasets means that any of the datasets in the ELMLP may be combined with any other dataset using an anonymous linkage identifier found on each file. The integration of datasets is carried out within the Statistics Canada Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE), which maintains the highest privacy and data security standards. The ELMLP is not a large integrated dataset, but rather a relational data environment. Researchers are only given access to the files necessary for their analysis. After identifying which ELMLP datasets are needed to answer a specific research or policy question, researchers can use the anonymous identifier located on each file to bring these datasets together.
• Longitudinal data – The data available within the Platform can be linked longitudinally, allowing researchers to better understand the characteristics, pathways and outcomes of students and apprentices over time.
• Accessible data – Datasets prepared for the Platform are made available to researchers through the Research Data Centre (RDC) network across Canada.

2.2 Accessibility, confidentiality and privacy

Datasets that are integrated in the ELMLP are deemed sensitive statistical information and are subject to the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act . Statistics Canada employees who work with the integrated datasets for research purposes have access to the data only after they have been stripped of personal identifiers. Furthermore, only Statistics Canada employees and deemed employees who have an approved need to access the data for their analytical work are allowed access to the files.

These data are treated with the same level of confidentiality as surveys administered by Statistics Canada.

Indicators, analysis and findings from the ELMLP are released through Statistics Canada’s website.

The anonymized ELMLP data are also available in Statistics Canada’s Research Data Centres ( RDC ) to researchers with approved projects only. These researchers are provided with access in a secure setting at the RDC s, which are staffed by Statistics Canada employees. The RDC s operate under the provisions of the Statistics Act in accordance with all confidentiality rules, and are only accessible to researchers once they have been sworn in under the Statistics Act as “deemed employees.” All analytical results are vetted before they can be taken out of the RDC s to ensure that confidentiality is maintained and individuals cannot be identified.

2.3 Core and supplementary datasets

The ELMLP consists of two types of datasets: core and supplementary .

Core datasets are updated in the ELMLP on an annual basis to include the most recently released data.  

Supplementary datasets are updated with a frequency that varies according to a number of factors and may not always include the most recent data years. Concordance key files are necessary when integrating many of the supplementary datasets, to either the ELMLP core datasets or other supplementary datasets.

Core datasets

The core datasets are:

• The Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) – an annual administrative dataset of all Canadian (provincial and territorial) public college and university enrolments and graduations by type of program, type of credential, and field of study for each reporting year. PSIS collects information pertaining to the programs and courses offered at an institution, as well as demographic information for the students and the program(s) and course(s) in which they were registered, or from which they have graduated. The ELMLP includes longitudinal PSIS data from academic year 2009/2010 onwards. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s PSIS information page .
• The Registered Apprenticeship Information System ( RAIS ) – an annual administrative dataset of all Canadian (provincial and territorial) registered apprentices and trade qualifiers. The RAIS compiles data on the number of registered apprentices taking in-class and/or on-the-job training in trades that are either Red Seal or non-Red Seal and where apprenticeship training is either compulsory or voluntary. It also compiles data on the number of provincial and interprovincial certificates granted to apprentices or trade qualifiers (challengers). The purpose of the RAIS is to gather information on individuals who receive training and those who obtain certification within a trade where apprenticeship training is being offered. The ELMLP includes RAIS data from 2008 onward. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s RAIS information page .
• Income tax from the T1 Family File (T1FF), subset for the PSIS and RAIS populations – an annual administrative dataset which includes selected information from income tax data from 1992 onwards for the PSIS and RAIS populations. The source T1 Family File (T1FF) covers individuals who filed taxes in Canada and their families and is derived from their T1 income tax returns (when they are available). For the most part, tax returns were filed in the spring of the year following the reference year. Income information is based on the calendar year. There is no T1FF datafile available in the ELMLP that includes the total tax-filing population of Canada. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s T1FF information page .

Supplementary datasets

The supplementary files are:

1.  Census of Population , Long Form, 2016 and 2021 cycles– datasets that provide information about the Canadian population, including characteristics such as age, sex, type of dwelling, families, households and marital status, and language. For the 2016 Census and 2021 Census, Canadian households were enumerated using two main types of questionnaires: the short-form questionnaire and the long-form questionnaire. The long-form questionnaire includes the same questions as the short form, as well as a series of questions, such as those about visible minorities, aimed at providing a more comprehensive portrait of the Canadian population and Canadian households. The long-form questionnaires were sent to a sample of the population covering approximately 1 in 4 households. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s Census information page .

2. Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD), 1982 to 2021 – an administrative longitudinal dataset designed as a research tool on income and demographics. It uses a longitudinal sample of 20% of the records in the annual T1 Family File representing the total population of individuals who filed taxes in Canada and their families. It can be used as a control group or for residual group analysis. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s LAD information page .

3. Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), 1952 to 2022 – an administrative longitudinal dataset that includes immigration data for all immigrants since 1952 and non-permanent residents since 1980. Outcomes for this population are available from tax files since 1982. The IMDB provides detailed information on socioeconomic outcomes of immigrants after their admission. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s IMDB information page .

4. National Graduates Survey (NGS), Class of 2015 and Class of 2020 – datasets containing information from a sample survey of graduates of public postsecondary educational institutions in Canada for the class of 2015 and the class of 2020. The questions focus on academic path, funding for postsecondary education (including government-sponsored student loans), and transition into the labour market. New cycles of this survey take place every 5 years. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s NGS information page .

5. Canada Student Financial Assistance Program (CSFA), 2009/2010 to 2020/2021 (formerly called Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP), 2003/2004 to 2015/2016) – an administrative dataset which provides information on both non-repayable and repayable student financial assistance (grants and loans) to eligible students to help them access and afford postsecondary education. The CSFA data provides information on needs assessment, disbursement and repayment of loans and grants. All provinces and territories participate in the CSFA , except Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, who receive alternative payments from the Government of Canada to administer their own student financial aid programs. The CSFA data at Statistics Canada only reflects the federal portion of student financial aid (i.e. not any provincial or territorial student financial aid). Federal-provincial/territorial arrangements vary by jurisdiction.

6. Canada Education Savings Program (CESP), 1998 to 2021 – administrative datasets which include information on the CESP and the Canada Learning Bond (CLB) program, both of which are federal savings incentive programs that are available for eligible Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) beneficiaries. It includes information on the RESP , an Education Savings Plan that has been registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a savings vehicle used by individuals and families to save for children's postsecondary education. The CESP and the CLB programs provide additional government grants for postsecondary studies based on the original RESP contributions and other criteria. The files provide information on the beneficiaries, the subscribers and the primary caregivers and on contributions, grants and withdrawals.

7. Canada Apprentice Loans (CAL), 2015 to 2023 – an administrative datafile which provides information on those who are eligible to receive loans during the period in which they are registered in Red Seal apprenticeships and are taking technical training. The loans help cover the costs of apprenticeship training.

8. Apprenticeship Incentive Grants (AIG), 2007 to 2023 – an administrative data file which provides information on taxable cash grants for those registered with their provincial/territorial apprenticeship authority as an apprentice. To receive it, applicants are required to prove that they have successfully completed either the first and/or second year or level (or equivalent) in a designated Red Seal trade Note  1 .

9. Apprenticeship Completion Grant (ACG), 2009 to 2023 – an administrative data file that provides information about one-time taxable cash grants designed to encourage apprentices to complete their apprenticeship program Note  1 .

10.   Apprenticeship Incentive Grant for Women (AIG-W), April 1st 2018 to 2023 - an administrative data file which provides information on taxable cash grants for women registered with their provincial/territorial apprenticeship authority as an apprentice. To receive it, applicants are required to prove that they have successfully completed either the first and/or second year or level (or equivalent) in a designated Red Seal trade where women are underrepresented Note  1 .

11. National Apprenticeship Survey (NAS), 2015 – a dataset containing information from a sample survey that looks at factors affecting the completion, certification and transition of apprentices to the labour market. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s NAS information page .

12. Employment Insurance Status Vector (EISV), 2007 to 2022 – an administrative dataset that follows the trajectory of Employment Insurance (EI) claims and benefit payments from application to termination. It describes the characteristics of the EI claimants, provides summary information for the claim and a week by week account of claimant activity during the life of the claim.

13. Emergency and recovery benefits (ERB), March 2020 to 2022 – this dataset is intended to cover the major income support measures offered to Canadians as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through 2022. These direct support programs include the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB), the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), and the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB). Currently, concordance keys are only available in the RDC s to integrate selected years of PSIS and RAIS with the CERB , the CRB, the CRCB, and the CRSB. For more information on the ERB, see Statistics Canada’s ERB information page .

14. British Columbia Kindergarten to grade 12 data (BC K-12), 1991/1992 to 2021/2022 – an administrative dataset which provides student-level information for students who attended British Columbia’s public and independent schools during the reference period. The data includes information about student characteristics (gender, age, geographic location, etc.) and progress through the education system (graduation, Foundation Skills Assessment results, exam marks, etc.).

15. Ontario grade 9 to 12 data (ON 9-12), grade 9 entrant cohorts of 2009/2010 to 2012/2013; grade 12 cohorts of 2013/2014 to 2015/2016 – administrative dataset which provide anonymized, longitudinal, student-level information for specific cohorts of students who attended a public secondary school or a publicly-funded Roman Catholic secondary school in Ontario. The data includes information about student characteristics (gender, age, exceptionality, etc.), and progress through the secondary school system (graduation, course marks, Education Quality and Accountability Office testing results, etc.).

16. Survey of Approaches to Educational Planning (SAEP), 2020 – a dataset containing information from a sample survey that gathers information from parents and guardians of children aged 0 to 17 about their attitudes and expectations with respect to their child’s postsecondary education, the strategies they use to prepare for their children's postsecondary education, their financial plans for paying for their schooling, and the barriers to saving for higher education. The dataset also includes demographic and labour force status information. For more information, see Statistics Canada’s SAEP information page .

17. T1FF for PSIS and RAIS —parental income variant (Consumer Price Index-adjusted), 1992 to 2021 – an administrative dataset derived from the T1 Family File (T1FF) subset file, for the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) and the Registered Apprenticeship Information System (RAIS), that provides information on the income of parents of postsecondary students, registered apprentices and trade qualifiers. The dataset is available for analytical convenience, as all of the variables can be re-derived using the T1 Family File of the ELMLP core files.

18. Income tax from the T1 Family File (T1FF), subsets for various ELMLP supplementary dataset populations - The T1FF has also been integrated with some of the ELMLP supplementary data sources, with records only available for those subsets of the Canadian population. Currently, a T1FF subset is available for the ELMLP core datasets ( PSIS and RAIS), the British Columbia Kindergarten to grade 12 (BC K-12) data, the BC K-12 parents, the Canada Education Savings Program (beneficiaries and primary caregivers), the Ontario grade 9 to 12 data (ON 9-12), and the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program. These supplementary T1FF subsets are not necessarily updated on an annual basis.

More information

Note of appreciation.

Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses, governments and other institutions. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued co-operation and goodwill.

Standards of service to the public

Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients.

Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada as represented by the Minister of Industry, 2024

Use of this publication is governed by the Statistics Canada Open Licence Agreement .

Catalogue no.  37-20-0001

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