Post-School Education and the Transition from State Socialism by James s> Muckle John. W. Morgan (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 785 tendency amongst Western analysts to underestimate the significance of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and a failure to address the prospective regional implications.This was not, though, a mistakethe statesin the region made. Despite the growing divergencesand conflictsbetween the post-Soviet CentralAsian states,which is brought out in an excellent chapter by Martha BrillOlcott, the risingIslamistthreatof the late I990S led to a closing of ranks behind their traditional protector, Russia. The two other major regional powers Iran and China -also joined the loose Russian-dominated coalition, a sort of secular version of the 'Holy Alliance', to combat the perceivedthreatsfromPakistaniand Saudi-supportedIslamicfundamentalism and international terrorism.By 2000, the missing link in the construction of an inclusive co-operative frameworkfor dealing with these threats was the absence of the United States and its allies, Pakistanand Saudi Arabia. The events of September i i finally provided the impetus for the US, and more reluctantlyPakistanand SaudiArabia,tojoin an anti-Talibancoalitionwhich had alreadybeen established. Despite failingto explore the possibilitiesof such a broad inclusive alliance being formed, the contributorsto Central AsiaSecurity,like those of US-Russian Relations, provide a good analysisof the securitysituationin the region in the late I99os. They also highlight the underlying tensions -weak distrustful states,deterioratingeconomies, resourcescarcities,regionalstrategiccompetition which remain close to the surface. September i I might temporarily have focused attention away from these issues, much as it has dampened the sources of conflict between the US and Russia. The key question is whether September iI has trulyopened a new chapterin US-Russian relationsand for the Central Asian region or whether the old problems and disputes, as well describedin these two books,will inevitablyre-emerge. Department ofPolitics R. DANNREUTHER University ofEdinburgh Muckle, James, and Morgan, John. W. (eds). Post-School Education and the Transition fromStateSocialism. Continuing Education Press, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, 2001. XXii + 2I6pp. Tables. Notes. Index. ?34.95. THEconsequences of the collapse of communism in Central-Eastern,Eastern and South-EasternEurope,oritsfar-reachingevolutiontowardsverydifferent models of socio-political and economic forms of organization in many formerly rigidly communist countries in other parts of the world, will for a long time yet attract the attention of different categories of scholars. Educationalexpertscannot fail to neglect the necessityfor a sharpanalysisof the repercussionsof thisprocessfor the aims,principlesof administrationand finance, the structure, contents and teaching/learning methods in the educational systemsof the countries concerned. Yet, that analysisis far from being an easytask.It is clearthatthe transitiontowardssomethingnew, which is very different from anything that had been going on before, follows a differentpath in each country,resultingfroma numberof influences,to which 786 SEER, 8o, 4, 2002 different, country-specificweights must be attached. In addition, education systems as such consist of various sectors, subject to diverse stimuli and incentives which render the analysis difficult. Under such circumstances examining one particularlevel of education at a time, without attempting a full geographicalcoverage of all the countriesinvolved in the processseems a very sensiblestrategy. The present volume concentrates on post-school education only, even though this in itself embraces higher education, vocational training and retraining as well as diverse forms of adult and continuing education. The freedom allowed by the editors for the contributorsto concentrate uponjust one formof post-school education, ratherthan dealingwith all of them makes, however, direct comparisons difficult.Covering only some countries (e.g. in Europe:Russia and Bulgaria,but not Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, or any of the Baltic Republics) does not allow for valid generalizations , applicable to all post-communist European states. Outside Europe, examining the paths to some kind of a new orderclearlymakesthe book very interesting. Particularlyso, because the different contributors, dealing with China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Mongolia and Cuba, are persons intimatelyfamiliarwith the most recent developments and undercurrentsnot easily detectable to the more detached outside observers of the rapidly changing scene in these countries. What happens in China under 'the tidal wave of marketization'is of great importance. This is examined in a rigorous way by David K. K. Chan, an Associate Professorin the Department of Applied Social Studies in the City University of Hong Kong. As he underlines, 'the ability to cope with the incentives to improve efficient use of resources, quality, efficiency and accountability have now become the...