The Role of International Educational Policy in Developing Countries

This essay delves into the realm of international educational policy and its profound impact on the development of developing countries. It begins by defining international educational policy as the convergence of educational strategies worldwide, highlighting its crucial role in fostering global development, particularly within nations grappling with historical political and economic instability stemming from colonial rule. The essay underscores the interdependent relationship between education and economic progress, acknowledging that while educational advancements can propel economic growth, economic constraints can, in turn, hinder educational progress. It examines the efforts of the international community, such as the Education for All initiative, in addressing educational disparities, while also acknowledging the persistent barriers, including social, political, and cultural factors, that impede the effective implementation of these policies. Furthermore, the essay explores the role of governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations, donor countries, and private entities in shaping and supporting educational policies, addressing issues such as governmental reluctance to invest in education, the potential for policies to favor specific groups, and the impact of migration on educational investment. Ultimately, the study identifies various barriers to the effective implementation of educational policies and provides recommendations for overcoming these obstacles to foster national development.

Running head: International Educational Policy And The Developing Countries
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

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International Educational Policy And The Developing Countries
The history of the evolving educational policies around the whole world and some
common grounds among those policies can be termed as international educational policy. These
international educational policies can be viewed as the one key factor behind international
development among other important factors especially for the developing or the under developed
countries. Thus, this study has focused on analysing how educational policy is connected to the
enhancement of the growth and overall economic, social and cultural development of the
developing countries.
The history of the developing nations shows that they had been under a lot of political
and economic upheaval mainly because of the colonial rule. These issues have been the reason
behind the recent devastating and developing state of these otherwise enriched countries where
education have cone with a new ray of hope (Williams, Brown & Kawn, 2015). This is because
education has always been one of the key ingredients for both national and individual
development of any nation.
However, the relation between economic development and education is two sided where
each one of them is dependent upon another. It is true that educational developments can
enhance the economic and other kinds of developments of a nation. On the other side, low
economic growth can negatively affect the educational growth of any nation too (Williams,
2015). This scenario is very much real for the developing countries despite the fact that many
developed nations have been helping these countries by giving economic support so that they can
improve their school systems and so on.
In this regard, it can be mentioned that the international global community has been
trying to fill the void of educational advancements in the developing countries through launching
the 2015 target of Education for All. However, the global implementation of this agenda has not
been successful yet in several developing countries due to social, political and cultural barriers.
Similar initiative by the developed countries had started in the 1948 with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights where several areas of international educational policy had been
mentioned by the general assembly of the United Nations. In this declaration, it had been
mentioned that education needs to be equal for all in the respect of opportunities.

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International Educational Policy And The Developing Countries
The connection between development and education had also been mentioned there
(Williams, 2015). According to some recent data, it can be said that developing countries like
India has been successful in implementing some of the agendas of this international educational
policy. However, excessive population, low income, religious and cultural conservativeness,
unequal treatment of male and female child and more have been emerged as some of the vital
barriers behind the global implementation of these policies worldwide.
The key element of any educational policy is that the policies are mainly controlled by
the governmental bodies. Thus, it has often been observed that many national governmental
bodies show reluctance in investing in the educational development. On the other hand, it has
also been noticed that many educational policy and practices are in favour of the greater good
and not in the favour of the learners (Williams, Brown & Kawn, 2015). For that reason, the
individual growth of the learners suffers from a slow development that affects the national
development at some point. Thus, various nongovernmental associations, donor countries and
other private organizations have tied bonds in order to favour both the individuals and the
nations in a way that education can become the reason behind national development of the
developing countries.
Migration has become a reality in these countries. However, it is also true that many
eligible citizens choose to go abroad because of the lack of opportunities in their own countries.
Thus, these nations fail to measure the effectiveness of education or schooling in developing the
whole nation (Codd, 1988). As an outcome, they invest still a very les amount in educational
policy implementations. Moreover, another drawback of the public policies regarding the
implementation of educational policies is that many public educational policies favour the elite
class even in the developed countries (Griffin, 2014). As a result, poor people in almost
everywhere suffer from the lack of educational opportunities.
This is outrageous because the motto of all the international educational polices is to
provide equal educational opportunities to each and every child regardless of their social,
economic, cultural or other backgrounds (Codd, 1988). So, despite the fact that nations like
China, New Zealand, Japan and other countries have been developing gradually but still there is
a huge gap between the educational opportunities secured for the wealthy section of the

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International Educational Policy And The Developing Countries
population and the educational opportunities left for the people living below the poverty level.
Thus, the maximum potential of educational polices in developing the nations cannot be
discovered until all the barriers can be identified and eradicated as soon as possible with the help
of donor countries, national governmental bodies, nongovernmental associations and private
companies.
This study has revolved around the impact of international educational policy on the
development of the developing countries. For that reason, firstly, the international educational
policy has been explained. Furthermore, the role of the state and the developed countries has
been illuminated in the context of the implementation of international educational policy
worldwide. Moreover, some barriers have been identified that have been affecting the
implementation procedure and thus have been affecting the growth of the developing countries in
general. Finally, some recommendations have been given that can be helpful in solving the
problem in the near future.

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International Educational Policy And The Developing Countries
Reference list
Codd, A. J., (1988). The construction and deconstruction of educational policy documents,
Journal of Education Policy, 3(3), 235-247.
Griffin, D., (2014). International Comparisons, Education Reform: The Unwinding of
Intelligence and Creativity, Explorations of Educational Purpose, 28(2), 209-228.
Williams, J. H. (2015). A brief history of international education policy: From Breton-Woods to
the Paris declaration, Globalization, international education policy and local policy
formation, 5(1), 9-23.
Williams, J. H., Brown, A. C., & Kawn, S., (2015). Current Trends in Education &
Development, Globalization, International Education Policy and Local Policy
Formation, Policy Implications of Research in Education, 5(1), 25-35.