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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Competition Works In Education: The Vatican's Decision To Compete With The State

I am a Catholic school "product" and a big fan of Catholic education.
In Catholic education it is clear that "instruction" is a process that imparts data, facts, information and skills whereas education is a process that values high quality instruction while drawing people out of fixated interest on personal advancement in order to subordinate "rugged individualism" to the communitarian rubric of The Common Good, with the cornerstone aspiration of eventual realization that homo sapiens comprises one, indivisible Human Family whose members are equally dignified regardless the "accidents" of birth and the vicissitudes of Life.

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"In a recent study, two education economists - Martin West of Harvard and Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich - have broken out of this short-term perspective and presented compelling evidence that competition works. Their trick is to make clever use of an accident of history. In the 19th century the Roman Catholic church faced a crisis of influence as protestant governments set up school systems that were beyond Papal influence. The Vatican responded by setting up its own schools. This early experiment in a competitive school system has left its mark, in the form of a parallel education system that persists to this day...Prof West and Prof Woessmann find that in these countries - where the legacy of the Vatican's efforts is competition between schools - attainment is strongest. The effect remains even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors that influence grades." Gabriel Sahlgren and Julian Le Grand in The Financial Times.



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