Access to education: A global perspective

Abstract

The issue of "access to education" is as old as education itself. Full-fledged national systems of education could not have been conjured up and willed into existence as fully functioning total systems, instantaneously. Indeed, all through history, national educational systems have been built slowly and incrementally. Providers of education have necessarily been selective regarding location of schools and enrollment of learners-with considerations of population densities, as well as the gender, class, and creed of prospective learners. Consequently, education has more often than not been a "rationed good"- especially good quality education, and education at relatively higher levels of the educational pyramid. © 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.