DESIGNING EDUCATIONAL-POLICY - A MINI-PRIMER ON VALUES, THEORIES AND TOOLS

The paper attempts to clarify the many issues and critiques that have been raised on the occasion of the World Bank's 1995 Education Sector Review, using the example of a country official having to decide how t o allocate a new influx of resources to education. It is argued that, pending future scientific developments, human capital theory and estim ates of the rate of return to investment in education can illuminate s uch allocation decisions and even lead to diametrically opposite educa tional policies relative to more conventional tools. Copyright (C) 199 6 Elsevier Science Ltd