Influence of Globalization and Privatization on Croatian Educational System

Overview & Synopsis

Globalization has made a big impact on all spheres of today's society. One of its most obvious impacts is the effect it has on education. It greatly influenced the economics and funding of public education, as well as the development of educational policies. International organizations set the benchmark for educational quality, evaluation and standards. National policies turn to actualization of international expectations. Globalization made it even more possible for development of diversity in educational institutions. Liberalization and market approach to education led to expansion of pluralism of educational funding. So today we have for-profit schools (that operate as enterprises), religious schools, non-profit schools run by non-governmental organizations, publicly funded schools operated by private boards and community owned schools. Since the 1990s and the beginning of transition process for Croatia, transformation and liberalization of public sector was greatly influenced by globalization. Market approach to education enabled for a large number of private educational institutions to emerge. School pluralism developed in primary education, secondary education as well as the institutions of higher education. Educational policy changed allowing liberalization in educational funding and development of pluralism of educational institutions. This paper aims to show the development of private education in Croatia since its independence. It tries to interpret the effects that globalization and privatization had on Croatian educational system. [This paper was published in: INTED 2010: International Technology, Education and Development Conference (Valencia, Spain, March 8-10, 2010) Proceedings, p000770-000779. International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED), ISBN-978-84-613-5538-9.]