Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

In Europe, education systems are deeply rooted in national traditions and are characterized by specific national features. Today, economic, social, and cultural change strengthens the need for policy makers, business leaders, and scholars to learn more about the characteristics of national education systems. This is true not only for the areas of higher education and continuing education, but also for the school sector. In almost all European states there is a growing interest in specifically European educational policy-making, for which there are several reasons: First of all, the enlargement of the European Union (EU), the increasing relevance of international school and student assessment studies, and, finally, the growing internationalization of education and educational studies within the overall process of globalization. The available comparative studies on student assessment provide only little information on institutional and pedagogical contexts. Therefore, the systemic frame, which focuses on patterns of explanatory data, is an essential component of the handbook. As for the European dimension, with the official European strategy of development being ‘unity in diversity’, it seems to be extremely important to impart solid knowledge with regard to the differences between the national education systems, even if tacitly more ‘unity’ is its ultimate aim: we must know the differences and their roots before we can create more unity.

The beginnings of an Albanian school system in the sense of a system that employs the Albanian language can be traced back to the nineteenth century. In its initial stage, the national movement aimed at the awakening of a cultural identity. It was later termed National Revival (), in line with the usage in other Eastern European countries, and espoused the preservation and instruction of the Albanian language by means of a national education system. In 1887, the first Albanian schools were opened. Four years later, a school for girls was opened. It was not until 1908, however, that the advocates of a written Albanian language agreed on the use of a modified Roman alphabet. The emergence of a national school system was inhibited by both the Ottoman authorities and the Orthodox clergy, who adhered to Greek as the language of instruction. In co-operation with Catholic clerics, the Austrian occupying administration attempted to set up a school system in North Albania during the First World War.

The Principality of Andorra is situated in the Pyrenees and surrounded by France and Spain. It has an area of 468 square kilometres and a population of around 70,000, making it one of the smallest countries in Europe. Nevertheless, for historical and political reasons it has a complex and pluralistic education system. Historically, the system of the co-principality, established in 1278 with the Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Spain and the King of France as co-rulers, brought about the creation of Spanish and French schools. This initially resulted in the development of two parallel school systems, both governed by the respective foreign administrations.

The history of education in Armenia is closely linked with that of the Armenian Apostolic Church. When Mesrop Mashtots introduced the Armenian alphabet in the early fifth century, he established a monastic network with a corresponding education system based on scriptoriums, where education was free and students of different age groups were taught. This infrastructure was transformed later into the medieval universities network under clerical authority.

The history and development of both the Austrian school system and Austrian educational policy are characterized by disputes between the political parties, especially between the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Christian Social Party (ÖVP). The restoration of Austrian sovereignty after the Second World War triggered off the same debate about core issues of educational policy that had remained unsolved during the First Republic; how to organize teacher education and the lower secondary school system (Thonhauser 1992). The debates led to the School Reform Act of 1962, which provided the statutory foundation of the Austrian school system, and which is for the most part still valid today. The School Organization Law (SCHOG) of 1962 set out the organizational framework for Austrian schools, and was followed by the School Instruction Law of 1974, which regulated school-internal processes, especially the tasks, rights and duties of all those associated with the school (parents, teachers, and pupils).

The Azerbaijan Republic () is located in the south-eastern area of the Caucasus, bordering the Caspian Sea, the Russian Federation, and Georgia in the north, Armenia and Turkey in the west, and Iran in the south. The capital and largest city is Baku. More than 50% of the population live in urban areas. The territory of Azerbaijan covers 86,600 sq. km, including the exclave of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic and the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by Armenians. Since 1988-89 Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which the Armenian military occupied, thus depriving Azerbaijan of nearly 20% of its territory and creating almost 800,000 refugees and displaced people, which is 10% of the country’s population. A permanent peace agreement has still not been concluded between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan has 8,000,000 inhabitants and a majority Turkic Shiite Muslim population (Azeri 90%). Other resident ethnic groups are Dagestani (3.2%), Russian (2.5%), Armenian (2%), and others such as Lezghins and Kurds (2.3%) (cf. CIA 2005). Like most countries in transition, Azerbaijan is facing serious economic problems; the majority of the population has a low level of income and poor living conditions. The official language is Azeri, which belongs to the Western Turkic languages. During its history, the country was ruled by Persians, Arabs, Ottomans, and Russians. As a consequence, the Azeri language was first written in Arabic; in 1924 a modified Roman alphabet was gradually introduced. Later, in the 1930s, Soviet authorities promoted the use of the Cyrillic alphabet. For nearly seventy years Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, but in 1991 it declared its independence. After independence, a gradual return to the Roman alphabet was decided upon (cf. Library Congress Country Studies 1994). Hörner et al. (eds.), The Education Systems of Europe, 77–84.

Political sovereignty was not achieved by Belarus until the twentieth century. In the Middle Ages, the territory first belonged to the Kievian Rus. Later, in the thirteenth century, it was included in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, from 1569 to 1795, it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a result of the three partitions of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century, the territory was eventually incorporated into the Russian Empire.

At the time of independence (1830), Belgium had over 4000 public schools that were attended by 239,000 students out of a population of three and a half million. The proclamation of freedom of education by the Constitution of 1831 had a somewhat unexpected effect. Many municipalities, for which schools were a heavy burden, closed their schools. Two thousand schools disappeared. The Church, on the other hand, took advantage of the opportunity provided by the State to establish new schools with State financial support. However, private-sector initiatives were insufficient. The situation soon became catastrophic. To remedy this situation, the Parliament passed the first law organizing primary education (1842). In return for financial support from the State and the Provinces, every municipality was required to maintain at least one public school or adopt a private school. At that time only half of all students attended school free of charge. Truancy was widespread.

The institutionalisation of a modern education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) goes back to Austro-Hungarian rule in the late nineteenth century. Having noticed that about 97% of the population was illiterate, the provincial government launched a programme for establishing a network of public schools (Russo 2000, p. 950). In addition to these public institutions, there were private schools maintained mostly by the religious communities. This structure persisted after the fall of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918, and the foundation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which lasted until World War II. The War severely damaged educational institutions, which meant that post-war Yugoslavia had to rebuild schools and totally restructure the school system. Especially the new Head of State Josip Broz Tito considered education a key aspect of the reconstruction and development of the country, and he placed high political priority on educational issues. As in other communist countries, the education system was deeply influenced by Marxist and atheist ideology:

Bulgaria threw off the Turkish yoke on 3 March 1878 and gained its independence, thus establishing the beginning of the Third Bulgarian State. However, the Berlin Congress of July 1878 divided the country into the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia. The first law on education in the Principality of Bulgaria was the Provisional Statute on Public Schools (1878). The main principles of this Statute were: democracy and decentralization in the administration of education, three-year compulsory primary education, and the secular character of education. The Statute established the following structure for the educational system: three-year primary school, plus four-year basic school, plus four-year modern schools and gymnasiums (grammar schools). Only two years later, in 1880, a new Law on National Education changed the structure into four-year primary school, plus three-year gymnasium lower level (pro-gymnasium), plus four-year gymnasium upper level. A tendency to centralize the management of education appeared in 1881, when the Ministry of Education established school district inspectorates whose heads were appointed by the Minister.