At issue: The World Bank as a new global education ministry?
Posted: March 16, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Article, globalization Leave a comment »Proposed education strategy lacks a focus on human rights
AT ISSUE|ZOE GODOLPHIN|21 JANUARY 2011|
In early 2011 the World Bank will approve a new education sector strategy amid trends that mean that international goals on education will not be met. Zoe Godolphin of the University of Bristol argues that the Bank’s proposed approach fails conceptually because it does not accept that education is a human right. It also fails pragmatically because it continues to advocate a template approach instead of supporting genuinely country-driven priorities in education planning.
Since early last year, the World Bank has been working on its “Education Strategy 2010”, which will guide the role of the Bank in education for the next ten years (see Update 70). In a May 2010 consultation on the draft strategy in Washington, the Bank’s director for education Elizabeth King summarised the main points of the strategy for the audience. That she could present clearly defined roles for the Bank in education development, prior to eight months of consultations and board approval, and that these have not changed through the subsequent consultation process, is emblematic of the Bank’s approach.
There may, however, be a clear logic to the Bank’s thinking. The education strategy is, in effect, a global vehicle for the commercialisation of education, which creates tension with the key principles of a right to education. According to the UN these principles are availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability.i Furthermore, the Bank draft strategy is not committed to allowing space for countries to design their own policies. Instead, it appears comfortable with using its financial products and its considerable influence to push policy outcomes, despite the Bank claiming a politically neutral mandate. Read the rest of this entry »
Europe: Final Crisis – Some Theses
Posted: July 10, 2010 Filed under: Economy, Politics | Tags: Article, Etienne Balibar, Europe, European Left, globalization, neoliberalism Leave a comment »by Etienne Balibar*
1. This is only the beginning of the crisis
Within one single month, we have 
witnessed Prime Minister Papandreou of Greece announcing his country’s default, an expansive European rescue loan offered to him on the condition of devastating budget cuts, soon followed by the “downgraded rating” of the Portuguese and Spanish debts, a threat on the value and the very existence of the Euro, the creation (under strong US pressure) of a European security fund worth € 750 bn, the Central European Bank’s decision (against its rules) to redeem sovereign debts, and the announcement of budget austerity measures in several member states. Clearly, this is only the beginning. These latest episodes of a crisis which started two years ago with the collapsing of the US housing credit forecast others. They show that there is more than ever a risk of financial crash, provoked by the huge amount of rotten stocks which have been accumulated over the last decade through the combination of unwarranted loans and the transformation of credit default swaps into financial products by the banks. “Black Peter”, the sum total of unrecoverable debts, is running around fast, and the States can’t catch up. The speculation is now targeting the currencies and the public debts. But the Euro is the weak link in the chain, and so is Europe itself. There can be little doubt that catastrophic consequences are coming. Read the rest of this entry »
