Global Problem Of Educational Failure, Is There A Probable Reform For Dealing With This Critical Issue ?

Current paper examines reforms in educational systems around the world. Two main paradigms explain the growth of reforms in education systems: the balance paradigm and the conflict paradigm. By examining these paradigms, current paper describes the central reasons of reform failure. In parallel, the paper attempts supplying three principles for development of a successful reform in education systems. Over past hundred years, educational systems have constituted an integral part of the social services countries provide their citizens with. In addition, education is perceived as a critical variable to development of a modern economy and as a tool that promotes democratic values. This conception defines the role of a state as a protagonist that supplies a guiding hand in all matters of education. The rapid development of science and social changes challenges the system to reinvent itself in order to cope with the pace of various demands imposed on it. The question is: why are there so many attempts at educational reform and why do they fail? Reform depends on two basic organizational structures in modern society. The first is democracy, as reform is decided by people’s elected representatives, the politicians, who follow a political agenda. The second is bureaucracy, those professionals who are specialists in the field and public administrators who are responsible for execution of the reform and implementation thereof. The combination of these two structures – which pursue different agendas and interests – is a basic difficulty facing reform (Gaziel, 1997). It might be possible to execute reforms in the educational system should three principles be followed: long-term policy, clear ways of measuring success, and integration of stakeholders. The sole hope of implementing a successful educational reform, therefore, lies in establishing an administrative or political body that would deal with outlining a long-term educational policy which implementation would be immune to frequent political changes (Zohar, 2013).