Improving a Country’s Education
Improving a Country’s Education

Author: Nuno Crato

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-23

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 3030590313

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This open access book compares and contrasts the results of international student assessments in ten countries. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) released the results of its 2018 assessment in December 2019. This book reflects the debates that typically follow the release of these results and focuses on the causes of differences between countries. Such causes include continuous decline in one country, improvement combined with increasing internal inequalities in another country, or rapid improvement in spite of an outdated curriculum in yet another. In addition, the book discusses a number of general questions: Is knowledge outdated? Are computers taking over and replacing teachers? Are schools killing creativity? Are we adequately preparing the next generation? Are schools failing to educate our kids? The book starts out with a summary of PISA’s evolution and PISA results, and an explanation of the major factors that play a role in changes in countries’ results. The next ten chapters are devoted to ten specific countries, offering a summary of data and an explanation of the major drives for changes in education results for each one. Each chapter includes a short description of the country’s educational system as well as the impact of PISA and other ILSA studies on the country’s educational policies. The chapters also include a timeline of policy measures and main hallmarks of the country’s educational evolution, discussing the impact of these measures on its PISA results. A final reference chapter explains what PISA is, what it measures and how. While highlighting the 2018 results, the book also takes into consideration previous results, as well as long-term initiatives. This book gathers the contribution of well-known and respected experts in the field. Specialists such as Eric Hanushek, for the US, Tim Oates, for England, Montse Gomendio, for Spain, Gunda Tire, for Estonia, and all other contributors draw on their vast experience and statistical analysis expertise to draw a set of rich country lessons and recommendations that are invaluable for all of those who care about improving a country’s education system.

Privatization in Eastern Europe
Privatization in Eastern Europe

Author: Roman Frydman

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 9633864917

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In Eastern Europe privatization is now a mass phenomenon. The authors propose a model of it by means of an illustration from the example of Poland, which envisages the free provision of shares in formerly public undertakings to employees and consumers, and the provision of corporate finance from foreign intermediaries. One danger that emerges is that of bureaucratization. On the broader canvas, mass privatization implies the reform of the whole system, the creation of a suitable economic infrastructure for a market economy and the institutions of corporate governance. The authors point out the need for a delicate balance between evolution - which may be too slow - and design - which brings the risk of more government involvement than it is able to manage. A chapter originating as a European Bank working paper explores the banking implications of setting up a totally new financial sector with interlocking classes of assets. The economic effects merge into politics as the role of the state is investigated. Teachers and graduate students of public/private sector economies, East European affairs; advisers to bankers or commercial companies with Eastern European interests.

The Impact of Governments on East-West Economic Relations
The Impact of Governments on East-West Economic Relations

Author: Steven Elliott-Gowerd

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1349124192

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In this volume the perceptive reader will find many clues to the future of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, East-West economic relations and the impact of governments in this area. The authors are aware of the mistakes of the past, the limitations of centralized planning, the dangers and the futility of confrontation; and the global significance of the new roles that governments must play in the transitional period of political and economic reform in the East.

Organization and Financing of Public Health Services in Europe
Organization and Financing of Public Health Services in Europe

Author: Centers of Disease Control

Publisher: World Health Organization

Published: 2018-06-29

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9289051701

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What are public health services? Countries across Europe understand what they are or what they should include differently. This study describes the experiences of nine countries detailing the ways they have opted to organize and finance public health services and train and employ their public health workforce. It covers England France Germany Italy the Netherlands Slovenia Sweden Poland and the Republic of Moldova and aims to give insights into current practice that will support decision-makers in their efforts to strengthen public health capacities and services. Each country chapter captures the historical background of public health services and the context in which they operate; sets out the main organizational structures; assesses the sources of public health financing and how it is allocated; explains the training and employment of the public health workforce; and analyses existing frameworks for quality and performance assessment. The study reveals a wide range of experience and variation across Europe and clearly illustrates two fundamentally different approaches to public health services: integration with curative health services (as in Slovenia or Sweden) or organization and provision through a separate parallel structure (Republic of Moldova). The case studies explore the context that explain this divergence and its implications. This study is the result of close collaboration between the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Division of Health Systems and Public Health. It accompanies two other Observatory publications Organization and financing of public health services in Europe and The role of public health organizations in addressing public health problems in Europe: the case of obesity alcohol and antimicrobial resistance (both forthcoming).

The Polish Economy
The Polish Economy

Author: Ben Slay

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1400863732

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In 1989, Poland became the first Eastern Bloc country to shake off the dominance of its ruling Communist party. Although other post-Communist countries have since followed suit, Poland's experience has been unique in its move to Westernize. In this timely and insightful account, Ben Slay provides the first integrated, comprehensive assessment of Poland's economic transformation from central planning to a market system, and the political and sociological factors that have contributed to it. Drawing on the work of Western and Polish scholars as well as his own research, Slay traces the evolution of the Polish transformation from its historical roots in People's Poland and predicts potential problems and successes facing the Polish economy. A ground-breaking addition to the emerging study of post- Communist political economies, The Polish Economy demonstrates that other countries now struggling to join the West have much to learn from Poland's example. Of interest to scholars across the social sciences, this work provides general as well as professional readers with a compelling account of the realities behind one of the most important events of our time--the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out
Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out

Author: Christopher Saunders

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 1349136425

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In this volume practitioners and theorists from East and West assess the results of four years of transformation in Eastern Europe. In a general assessment of the stabilisation policies pursued, some authors take a critical view of the 'conventional' monetary and fiscal restrictive programmes which have helped to bring down inflation and to introduce elements of the market economy, but have also left the economies concerned with heavily reduced output and real incomes. An evolutionary strategy of structural transformation, and demand management should play a primary role in recovery from the 'transformational recession'. Further issues discussed are the reform of the financial sector; liberalisation of foreign trade; privatisation and restructuring; and the social aspects of transformation.

Poland's Transformation
Poland's Transformation

Author: Bjorn Kurten

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1351499327

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Poland has carried out two peaceful revolutions in the span of one generation: first, the self-limiting movement of Solidarity, which undermined the legitimacy of Communism and then a negotiated transfer of power from Communism to free market democracy. Today, while Poland is seen as a success story and is joining political and economic associations in the democratic West, Poles themselves seem downcast. They ask: is social anomie a price worth paying for a successful transformation? In making moral compromises with an outgoing tyranny, can one avoid cynicism and disappointment with democracy? Zbigniew Brzezinski, professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University has calledPolish Transformation"a work that provides a comprehensive as well as incisive overview of the extraordinary difficult and historically unprecedented process of transforming an increasingly corrupt and decayed totalitarian system into a modern democracy." John Lenczowski, director of the Institute of World Politics, adds that "this extremely useful volume explains the essential elements of the post-communist political transition in Poland. Its authors convey...the cultural and ideological underpinnings that can be captured only by authorities who have developed over a lifetime that special sixth sense for detecting the elusive and unquantifiable soul of a country." Radek Sikorski, the executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute, writes that "we should be grateful to the authors and editors of this thoughtful volume for asking questions which remain relevant for that uncomfortably large part of humanity that still lives under totalitarian or authoritarian regimes."