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A Comparative Analysis of the Histories of Different Countries' Education Systems

Introduction

There are nearly 200 countries around the world, and all of them have different societies, livelihoods, and thus, education systems. While a whole-world comparative analysis of education systems would be ideal, it seems to be an impossible task. Below, the historical tales of eight countries' education systems are highlighted in a comparative perspective.

Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iran

Historically speaking, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iran pose differing situations.  Palestine’s history is one of outside influences and control in the hands of someone other than Palestine.  Afghanistan’s situations is similar, however, they have less intense occupation today as compared to Palestine.  Historically, however, Afghanistan has seen occupation from a few different international powerhouse countries.  Contrary to popular opinion, Iran has a pretty stable education system, especially compared to Afghanistan and Palestine.  While Iran’s education system had a rough start, they now have made education a top priority.  Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iran, all controversial or unstable countries in the eyes of the rest of the world, present an interesting view into how a country’s history so strongly impacts their education system.

Palestine, a military-occupied country, leaves its people with limited capabilities in what they are able to accomplish. First, they have a very weak economy due to the tight border security. For example, the people living in Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea can’t get to West Bank along the shoreline of the Dead Sea because they need to pass through unrealistically difficult security checkpoints at the Israeli border.  Israel is not the first country to occupy Palestine, though.  The Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine for nearly 400 years.  Once the Ottoman Empire fell post-WWI, Britain enforced a British Mandate upon the Palestinian people, thus influencing the livelihood and policies in Palestine. Post-WWII and post-Holocaust, Britain created a homeland for European Jews persecuted in the Holocaust.  This homeland happened to be right in the middle of Palestinian territory.  The Balfour Declaration split Palestine into two separate regions to make room for Israel, the homeland for Jews.  This was a brief period of independence for Palestine, however, it angered many Palestinians because they lost so much land. When this happened, the Palestinians chose to separate their two regions’ education systems and have their students follow different curricula.  In Gaza, they followed the Egyptian curriculum, and in West Bank, they followed the Jordanian curriculum. This time period of independence lasted for only 19 years.  After this time of independence, the Israelis took control of Palestinian territory in the Six Days’ War.  Only in 1994 did the Israeli government allowed Palestine to form their own governing body, called the Palestinian Authority.  The Palestinian Authority chose to remove the influence of the Jordanian and Egyptian education systems and created their own curriculum and Ministry of Education.  This created interest in the new Palestinian governing body to educate their population and improve literacy rates.  After this tumultuous history, Palestine established an education system that is available to all Palestinians.  The Ministry of Education requires attendance from grades one through 10.  Grades 11 through 12 are voluntary; on a positive note, 78% of all Palestinian students who can attend school at those grades, do choose to attend.  The importance of education in Palestinian society can be seen in this statistic. The people of Palestine are frustrated to see their education system struggling in so many aspects.  This has led many of them to call for reforms.

As previously stated, Palestine’s education system is struggling.  Due to this constant struggle, the Palestinian Authority and the Ministry of Education have handed control of teacher education and training over to different international organizations and projects funded by donations.  The focus of these donor groups is on increasing teacher performance based on accountability.  Thanks to these donations, the Ministry of Education has been able to build schools and improve outdated buildings.  The thinking behind these decisions is that university students may be more attracted to the profession with new schools and updated infrastructure.  The biggest donors to Palestinian education are UNESCO, USAID, and the World Bank.  Furthermore, the United States, European Union, United Nations, the World Bank, and Germany all give a total of 60%, or US$3 billion, of the total amount of aid given to Palestine.  Overall, UNESCO has been working in Palestine for the last several years to improve teacher training and education, both pre-service and in-service.  Another major focus of UNESCO is to build and boost teacher morale.  This should resolve, or at least alleviate, what seems to be the biggest issue in Palestinian education:  lack of proper teacher training.  Teacher training has proven difficult due to lack of updated textbooks and outdated teaching methods such as rote memorization versus skills-based learning. 

Despite Palestine’s historical roller coaster, some positive results have developed.  First, Palestine ranks number one of all Middle Eastern and North African countries in literacy rates, at 94%. Second, Palestine has the most students enrolled in higher education in the region; 40% of all 18 to 24-year-olds enroll in higher education in Palestine. As stated earlier, this reflects the importance of education in the Palestinian society.  Palestine has a young population; 30% of all people in Palestine are under the age of 30.  Thirdly, thanks to donations and work by UNESCO, 23 students from Palestine have been sent to Jordan and Egypt on scholarships to pursue PhD's in education.  More good news is that 19 of those 23 have successfully defended their theses. Ultimately, with the help of other organizations and countries, one can hope that the future of the Palestinian education system, including teacher education, is bright, despite the historical issues in the country. 

As in Palestine, Afghanistan’s issues within their education system seem endless.  First, Afghanistan’s teachers are horrendously underpaid, under-respected, and under-qualified.  Also similar to Palestine, the history of Afghanistan is one of turmoil and outside influence.  For example, the country was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union during the Cold War Era, and once the Soviet Union collapsed, so did the Afghan economy.  The Taliban took control after this as a means to restore order and security to Afghanistan.  First, they enacted very strict laws in the name of the Koran.  While the Taliban is no longer in power, they are re-gaining control.  The influence of Taliban control can be seen in Afghan education today in that their education system is non-secular and focused heavily on the Koran and the Islamic faith.  Today, the teachers in Afghanistan use outdated teaching techniques and focus on rote memorization and fact-based content rather than skills-based learning.  It is a developing country, similar to Palestine; however, while Palestine’s society boasts a 94% literacy rate, Afghanistan’s literacy rate is the lowest in the world.  For example, 90% of women in Afghanistan cannot read.  Sixty-three percent of men suffer the same fate.  Like Palestine, Afghanistan is receiving outside aid to help cover the ever-increasing costs of education and update infrastructure.  Optimistically, a large percentage of the aid is dedicated to teacher training and in-services.

While Afghanistan’s issues in education and their history of a weak economy and outside or terroristic control may seem dismal, it is important to note that Afghanistan has a few positive aspects of their education system.  First, the population of Afghanistan is growing rapidly, at 3.3% annually.  On the one hand, this is a good thing because there will be a significant increase in the number of Afghan citizens who can assist in the economic recovery.  On the other hand, it is potentially a very bad thing because these people will eventually need to go to school, and therefore the number of students in schools will increase while the number of teachers may not, thus leading to a massive teacher shortage.  Despite Afghanistan’s rocky past, their government has established somewhat of a program or certificate enough to require teacher candidates to receive a degree in teaching or a certificate in teaching before they are eligible to teach.  Surprisingly, one modern method used to reach rural areas and educate teacher candidates is that of radio and television technology. Thankfully, Afghanistan’s literacy rates are improving due to international aid; especially for women.  According to Afghanistan’s Minister of Education, Dr. Sharif Fayez, in 2002 there was a lot of corruption in the college entrance exams and thus the exams were deemed invalid.  One reform that Minister Fayez and his department are focused on is improving infrastructure to secure sites for examinations like this so that corruption cannot happen in the future.  While these reforms may seem small to a developed nation, they are massive steps forward for Afghanistan, considering that it is classified as the least-developed country in the world.

While Afghanistan is very unstable and weak in their education system, Iran is much more structured with a centralized curriculum and education system.  Iran’s history makes any researcher feel a sense of cognitive whiplash, in that their governmental reforms were constantly repealing and replacing one another. Today, Iranian women can attend all levels of schooling; furthermore, they comprise 60% of all students at the university level in Iran.  Since Iran is an Islamic State based on the Koran and Islamic religious principles, their schooling is slightly different from a country like the United States, whose education system and government is secular. According to Samira Hazari, who teaches primary school in Iran, all schools are single-sex, and most schools of each sex are not even on the same piece of property.  For example, an all-female primary school may be several blocks away from an all-male primary school.  Today, there is a requirement in Iran that all teachers must have a university-level degree.  With that said, however, Iran is still working to establish a teacher education curriculum.  Teachers, in turn, place a lot of pressure on their students to be successful and make their education a priority.  As previously stated, Iran’s education system is competitive, and teachers assign supplemental reading for students to keep up.

Historically, Iran’s education for women is something to pay attention to because their history is one of significant conflict, especially within the last 100 years.  Two leaders, Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, were in power between 1925 and 1979.  They worked to modernize Iran.  For example, they allowed women to attend school and allowed them to be in public without a veil or headscarf.  The Shahs also made the Iranian education secular, meaning they did not educate students based on Islamic religious principles.  Women had access to more job opportunities, and increased the age at which girls could be married.  Some Iranians were worried about this example of the modernization theory because they felt that women were being objectified and that their culture was slowly dying away.  In 1979, the Iranian Revolution threw Iran into a time of rapid change.  Women, and the rights they were given under the Shahs, were seen as everything that had gone wrong with Iranian society and the Revolution’s goal was to fix that. Nearly every law made under the Shahs was revoked; women had to veil in public, religion was “Islamized” or made to follow Islamic religious principles, and even though women were allowed to receive an education, it was only for the purpose of being a good wife or mother, not to pursue a career path.  In fact, at the university level, women couldn’t even enter some faculties of study.  While this all may appear as a negative impact upon Iranian women, it actually turned out to be a big improvement overall.  There was a concerted effort to create the ideal Muslim woman, and part of this humanistic ideal was that a perfect Muslim woman was educated in order to take the best care of her family as possible. As Golnar Mehran points out, the literacy rate within 10 years, from 1976 to 1986, rose 17%.  Mehran also states that Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader after the Iranian Revolution, paid specific attention to women’s literacy; illiteracy was shameful upon the Islamic faith.  Over time, as Rezai-Rashti states, the laws discriminating against women, such as their inability to hold a job, were lifted; the lifting of these bans led to a skyrocketing enrollment of women in higher education by the 2000s.  After internal protesting of government reforms, Ahmadinejad came to power and revoked many of the rights given to women under Khomeini’s reign.  Then again in 2013 a new leader by the name of Hassan Rouhani came to power, and as explained by Rezai-Rashti, he hopes to modernize Iran and bring the country into the 21^st century. Ultimately, while Iran’s education system is in a better situation than Palestine and Afghanistan, as Lida Kakia and Abbas Madandar Arani point out, one of the biggest weaknesses of the Iranian education system is that the teachers do not and will not work with one another and make a collaborative effort to improve their skills as teachers.

As shown above, the historical realities of Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iran all play a crucial role in their present-day abilities to educate their youth.  All three countries are similar in some respects, yet their obvious differences are worth analyzing and are important to the field of international comparative education.

France, Taiwan, and Montserrat

In the history of France, from an educational standpoint, two big events in history impacted the French educational system. The first event is one of the most well known in history, the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the second is the Napoleonic era (1799-1815). To briefly introduce the French Revolution, the revolution happened because of an unfair tax collection method which resulted in people not being able to pay taxes, which resulted in bankruptcy of the country and widespread hunger that made people desperate to provoke new ideas. This explains why revolution happened. It demonstrates that the decision to revolt was a possible reasonable response to a desperate need for change.

Prior to the Revolution, educational reform was active and the church had strong input on how the educational system was being developed. According to J. David Markham, “In the years immediately prior to the French Revolution, the idea of universal education was beginning to develop”. Not only prior to French Revolution did improvement in the educational system was made, but also during the time of French Revolution,

“The period of the French Revolution (1789-1799) is not noted for its stability, either of policy or of government, and it may be a surprise to the average reader that this period dealt with education at all while most literature concentrates on the activities surrounding foreign policy and internal conflicts, the fact is that the leaders of the Revolution were very concerned with education”.

One of the most dramatic reforms made was removing the Church’s influence in the educational system. The Church had a big influence over education. For example, before the French Revolution, it was required to have the bishop’s permission for someone to teach. Relating to the French Revolution, towards the middle and at the end of the revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte became a powerful individual and he became popular with the people. He was perceived as someone who would save the nation and end the revolution. Soon after he became powerful (Napoleonic era: 1799-1815), while proposing many national projects, one of his major priorities was to improve the educational system of the country. Napoleon is commonly perceived as a military centered figure, however he was also known as a great administrator. Since he was seen as hero and savior to end the long revolution period, people were willing to follow, especially after he had gained the most powerful position while the country was transitioning into a new phase.

“On May 1, 1802, a decree established what was to be a new system of education in France. This new system would be the foundation for the system found in France today.This shows how fundamental this period of France was in education history”. It demonstrates how extensively the government was involved in education and its administrative work as they showed great interest in improving the educational system. The purpose of education extended beyond the need for an educated elite. From the nationalistic point of view, speaking in French was necessary for unification, which also shows the love that French people have for their language. As is the case with schools today, patriotism and loyalty to the state were a major part of the purpose of educational institutions.

Since Napoleon was interested in bureaucracy and the military, his interest was tailored towards secondary education; a major place for him to produce future leaders. This was also a time when the government started paying fixed salary for teachers. Teachers were also able to receive bonuses depending on their work assessment. One interesting thing about this time period is that teachers were chosen by Napoleon. The major point of education was to extract elite for enhancing the future of France and the policies of the state reflected the interests of the state in education. This was a crucial time because a lot of reform to the educational system happened. Reforms were not only talked about but changes were made to fulfill the purpose of schooling at the time. Little did they know they would become the fundamentals of the educational system of France today.

The history of the educational system of France emphasises its importance in unification of  their language and culture. In unifying the language and culture of France, education was also used for political unification. There are numerous examples that show how the history of colonization and politics impacts greatly one’s country’s education. One of the examples that resembles the idea of using education as a tool to both tear down a nation’s identity and for unifying it is the history of Taiwan’s education. Compared to France, Taiwan’s education system was used to strip down the country’s identity and reconstruct it based on the desires of the colonizing forces.

In the recent history of Taiwan, the educational system and its requirements have been closely regulated due to the political situation of Japanese colonization of Taiwan (1895-1945) and the impact of the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950). School was utilized as a tool for other countries to tear down the national identity of Taiwan through imposing restrictions on the use of the Taiwanese language and expression of culture during each phase of history during these periods. Concerning the language and its relation to one’s identity, it affected job security for teachers, and altered the required subjects. It was a calculated method for each colonizing country to use education (institution) to impose power, authority and change to a culture.

Prior to any experiences with colonization and conflict from other countries, Taiwan had formed an educational system that lasted from 1624 to 1895. During this period of reform, except during the aboriginal primary, they focused on preparing students for national examinations. Teaching content focused on classic books based on Confucianism which often addressed subjects regarded to reading, repetition, calligraphy and composition. Their contents also focused on the Four Books and the Five Classics.

In 1895, Taiwan was officially colonized by Japan and this impacted the education program in Taiwan greatly. During this period (1895- 1945) the requirement for being a primary school head was that they needed to be Japanese and formal primary school was not introduced until 1898. Students were suddenly required to speak and write in Japanese. This was Japan’s top priority in regard to education. Education was one of the state’s mechanisms to achieve its political interests. A lot of problems arose during this period such as Japanese teachers were required to be in each school but their salaries were too high for school to afford them. Also private schools had to face threat of closing consistent. Also in 1937, Classical Chinese was banished from the state primary school.

Education was now viewed as a key means to construct the Taiwanese people's national identity. Primary school subjects included group training, music, athletics, civics, history, geography, arithmetic, Chinese, social studies, general knowledge, natural science, organised group play, and painting and crafts. In order to overcome the extreme shortage of teachers, “Teachers' Schools were elevated to three-year Junior Teachers' Colleges (equal to the age group of twenty one) in response to rapid economic growth in Taiwan, and to improve teacher quality”.

All students had to finish a total of between 260 and 280 credits in five years and every student was required to complete 148 credits in four years. In 1946, just after Japan’s colonization was over, the Taiwan Provincial Council re-introduced the National Textbook Policy.

During the latest phase, it was a milestone in the history of Taiwan when Martial Law was abolished in 1987. “In 1945, following the end of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) led by the Kuomintang (KMT) became the governing polity in Taiwan. In 1949, after losing control of mainland China following the Chinese civil war, the ROC government under the KMT withdrew to Taiwan and Chiang Kai-shek declared martial law”. This meant that more voices were heard and there were more opportunities to call on the central government to initiate educational reforms. This also destroyed monopolies in higher education institutions and organizations were allowed to provide teacher education as well.

Taiwan had to deal with there different invasions and subsequent phases of colonization efforts which impacted their education system greatly. There are examples of areas that had to deal with slavery and colonizations at the same time. On of those places is Montserrat, a city in the Caribbean, which is an example of a place that had to walk through many colonizations and if they were not enough - a major natural disaster - a volcano eruption. Compared to Taiwan, Montserrat did not have quiet as positive outcome from colonial overlords and their numerous power struggles over control of the Caribbean. However, it makes sense that they had numerous issues as a result of colonization and the city is currently struggling. One of the reasons for this is because Montserrat did not have a strong foundation in education and the volcano eruption did not help with that process at all.  

Since the history of the Caribbean has been so diverse, a clear history of the Caribbean’s educational system is rather unknown. For example, slavery was officially ended four different times in four different countries. “Slavery, for example, was abolished in the British Caribbean in 1834, the French Caribbean in 1848, the Dutch Caribbean in 1863, and in Cuba in 1886”. Also the independence and dependence of the territories is unclear since some became independent in the 1960s and 1970s and some are still semi-depend today. However, Gad Heuman states “the history of the Caribbean reveals the significant role the region played in the colonial struggles of the European powers since the 15th century. ... Genocide, slavery, immigration and rivalry between world powers have given Caribbean history an impact disproportionate to the size of this small region.” Combinations of identity crisis, natural disaster, and lack of human resources impacted educational systems in the region so greatly that almost no education has been occurring in this region.

In order to look into more a consistent historical record of the the Caribbean's educational system and how the history impacted the educational system, let’s look at one part of the region called Montserrat. Montserrat, also known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, is 25 miles southwest of Antigua. They also have this mindset called Regionalism which is “A way of doing, thinking, feeling, which seeks to identify, give meaning to, acknowledge the integrity of common and unique Caribbean Communities”. Not a lot of people live in Montserrat but they had an important role in the development of teachers education until the recent volcano eruption in 1995. The current population is 4900 and people might emigrate in order to gain access to specialized laboratories, computers and libraries. This means not many people desire to be teachers from both in and out of the island. Between lack of population and resources, there has been consistent teacher shortages as well as poor development of the Teacher Education Program. Most of the teachers were unqualified and untrained. However, In 1960, a college was established in Antigua and at one point, teachers were able to receive a college level training under the British government reformation. It initially had a positive outcome, but with not enough scholarships and lack of motivation, the positive outcome did not last very long: 20 teachers were training but only 3 graduated.

This is the overall statistics of what the educational system looked like over the course of the Montserrat's Educational history.

1840: No educators

1930: Only untrained educators

1945: 68.4% untrained

1950: 70% untrained

1960: College was established in Antigua.

1981: 47.3% untrained

1982: 33% untrained

1995: Volcano eruption.

1997: Loss of all secondary schools and post secondary facilities and most primary schools.

A positive progress was being made from 1945-1995 but the volcanic eruption 1995 left a big mark and kept this region frozen. Currently there is free education available for ages 4 to 17 (compulsory from 4 to 14 and secondary normally begins at the age of 11 and lasts for 4 years). And at the end of secondary school, students take the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate. Although there is technical college, vocational education, and several opportunities for students to go to a local university, in reality there are few opportunities on the island. After secondary school, students either settle at home or if they desire to further their education, they often study overseas.

Spain and Argentina

Spain has had a history of continuous government leadership changes, and with every new government comes new laws and goals. The education system has been effected by this constant change of goals for their system. The beginning of the 20^th century was a difficult start for Spain. The Spanish-American war of 1898 resulted in the loss of colonized land, was well as political unrest. The people began to want a change in government wanting a democracy instead of a monarch. In 1909 the Community of Cataluña rebelled and was suppressed in a bloody end. In 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera became the prime minister with support from the King Alfonso XIII. His leadership promised reform and democracy but was only a dictatorship. With the Great Depression of the 1930’s King Alfonso XIII had to remove Primo de Rivera and the people demanded a democracy and proceeded to flee the country to Rome, ending the monarchy of Spain. Teacher education during this time followed the same system that was set up in 1893. Primary school teachers were taught in Normal schools, while secondary teachers were taught in universities. Primary school teachers’ training focused more the teacher as a person, while giving them basic skills in teaching. Secondary teachers focused on scientific knowledge, but did not get teacher training.

 In 1931 the Second Spanish Republic was created and with it a new constitution. The new constitution gave the citizens the right of expression, meeting, divorce, women voting, and control over the Catholic church. The new government was built on democracy and wanted nothing to do with the Catholic church and their control over Spain. Before the Second Republic the catholic church had a large influence over education in Spain, but during this time the government banned religious education in schools, and expelled the Jesuits from the country. The Second Republic promised a lot of reforms for the people, but did not follow through and this created unrest.

1936 is the year that the Spanish Civil War began between the Nationalists and the Republicans. The war came to an end in 1939 with the Nationalists winning, which began the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Franco’s goal for Spain were to create a united people. The uniting force of his plan was the Catholic church. The Catholic church once again had control over education in Spain. During 1950-1960, Franco focused on elementary school because only 50 percent of children between 6-13 years old attended school. The goal was to increase attendance at the primary school. In 1966 87.8 percent of school-age children attended school. In 1970 LGE (Ley General Educativa) was set in motion to modernize the system again. Education was compulsory and free for children aged 6-14. The success of this law was visible in 1975 when the attendance of students aged 6-14 was 100 percent. Teacher training was impacted greatly by this new law. Instead of using normal schools, Spain created University Teacher Training Colleges. These colleges were created in the hopes of raising primary teachers’ education levels. It also mandated that primary teachers have a basic university degree which was 3 years and received a certificate. LGE made sure secondary teachers took pedagogical training. Franco’s rule continued in the same way until his death in 1975. Before his death he established the monarchy of Spain once again.

With the new constitutional monarchy of Spain, many changes began. The new constitution of 1978 restored democracy and many of the rights of the citizens that were suspended under Franco. The education system changed dramatically going from one of the most centralized systems in Europe to a decentralized system with power shared between the Autonomous Communities and the central government. One of the changes was that the church does not have the power to educate all students in Spain, only those whose parents want the help from the church. In the years 1980 to 2000 Spain passed four more educational laws. LRU(Ley de Reforma Universitaria) gave autonomy to the universities. Before this law, the state had the power over the universities. It also regulated the working conditions for the staff of the university. In 1985, LODE(Ley Orgánica de la Derecha a la Educación) accepted that there are two types of schools in Spain, one public and one private. The law allows parents to choose the institute for their children and the creation of private institutes. LODE gave public funds to private schools. LOGSE(Ley Orgánica de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo de España) was the next educational reform that inspired the theories of constructivist learning. LOGSE focused on improving schools, changes to the curriculum, and equal opportunities in education. There was an increase in foreign language classes and preschool for children between 3 years and 4 years was created. The law innovated classes in art, music, physical education, and sex education. In addition, the age of obligation of the school changed to 16 years. LOGSE also changed teacher training once again. Primary teachers’ education was improved and content was updated. It also created new specialties teachers could receive. However, secondary teacher education was not changed. Secondary teacher still required 4-5 years at a university.  LOPEG (Ley Orgánica de la Participación, la Evaluación y el Gobierno de los centros docentes) had the mission of improving the directors of the institutes by preparing and adapting their roles there. It also guaranteed the opportunity of education for students with special educational needs, sustained with public funds. By the end of the century, the education system in Spain was ready for the innovations of the twentieth century. The twentieth century brought more improvements to the education system in Spain. LOCE (Ley Orgánica de Calidad de Educación) was passed in 2002 but did not start until 2004. The objective of this law was quality education for all in Spain. In 2006 the new LOE (Ley Orgánica de Educación) focused on the heads of the institutes and the education of students with special needs, which was based on the educational systems of other countries. The goal of education in Spain is to develop the personal, intellectual and emotional and social potential of each student. LOE also implemented the Bologna Process for teachers in Spain. Primary school teachers will now go to school for 4 years and receive a bachelor degree. Secondary teachers now need a master degree. They also need to pass a competence exam and have a level of B1 in a foreign language. LOCE and LOE were the new system in Spain, but like many systems, there was room for improvement. Currently the educational law is called LOMCE (Ley Orgánica de Mejora de la Calidad Educativa). This law made changes the LOE law of 2006 to be more beneficial and specific to Spanish students. It changes everything in the education system including the curriculum, the organization and the objectives. LOMCE has the same goals as the European Union and OECD, on dropout rates and sufficient levels in reading, mathematics and science.

Argentina was once a colony of Spain causing their histories to intertwine and share similar education systems. Argentina was a colony from the 16^th century until the 18^th century when it was made a viceroy.  During the 19^th century revolutions began all over Latin America following Napoleons invasion of Spain and in 1818 Argentina won their independence from Spain. In 1869 the first Normal school was created in Argentina. The normal school was a continuation of secondary education but gave teachers a professional certification

Moving forward into the 20^th century saw radical change occur in the government of Argentina. The first three decades of the century were quite mild in comparison with the next 4 decades. In 1943 there was a coup and the then president Ramon Castilla resigned. Then in 1946 Juan Perón became the president of Argentina. Perón’s leadership was based on his populist ideals called Peronism. He censored the country and followed an isolationist policy when dealing with foreign powers. During his regime, his Peronist ideals were forced upon teachers, the curriculum, and textbooks. If teacher did not follow the ideals, they were fired. Then in 1955 there was a coup against him supported by the Catholic church, which caused Perón to go into exile. The Peronist party and ideals were banned in the country from 1958-1966. Many revolutions followed this period, that can be characterized as radical, violent, and unstable. In 1973 Perón came back to Argentina and assumed the presidency once again. His wife Isabel Perón was his vice president and when Perón died in 1974, she took over and became president. With Isabel’s presidency came the dirty war. Isabel authorized a death squad called the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. This group were allowed to kill anyone from the left. Isabel was president until 1976 when she was forced out of office by a military coup. The dirty war did not finish until 1983, and an investigation begins.

The 1980’s and 1990’s are pledged with economic hardship and inflation. This resulted in strikes and many economic reforms for the country. During this time, the focus on education was to decentralize the system. The Law of Transference of 1992 gave the authority over teacher training schools to the Providences instead of the national government. As these reforms were happening, the government was also pushing for budget cuts, causing alarming rates of unemployment. Teacher had low salaries and were needing to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet.  Due to the economic issues and the resulting effects on the education of children, The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have become involved.

The economic difficulties continued into the 21^st century and the massive debt the country has was growing. This continues to effect teachers and teacher education in Argentina. To improve this in 2005 the government passed Ley de Financiamiento Educativo and in 2006 Ley Nacional de Educación. With these two laws the education budget resources were regulated and education became a right for all. Since education is now a right, teachers became professionals and created new teacher education reforms. These reforms increased the knowledge and abilities of the teachers, a coordinated curriculum, promoted research and created the National Institute for Teacher Training (INFOD). It also implemented an accreditation process for schools and instituted that provide licenses to teach. The reforms also increased primary school teachers’ education from 3 years to 4, which is the same amount as secondary teachers. INFOD was created to be involved in teacher training in the institutional development, the curricular development, and the professional development.

The education systems of Argentina and Spain are similar due to the fact that Argentina was a colony of Spain. They also share a similar history with the Catholic church being highly involved in their creation of schools, universities, and teaching schools. The church also provided many teachers through priests, Jesuits, monks, and nuns. Both countries had dictatorships in their history. These leaders closed the countries off and forced their ideals onto teachers, students, and the curriculum. Now the two countries’ systems of education are different and face different challenged. Spain’s main challenges teachers are facing are the different systems of training teachers, high stress levels, lack of motivation. Primary teachers in Spain are facing underappreciation, while the secondary teachers are not receiving enough training in pedagogical studies. Argentina’s teachers are facing issues with their working conditions and figuring out how to teach a growing diverse and disadvantaged population of students.