World Bank Education Policy: Market Liberalism Meets Ideological Conservatism

Abstract

Neoliberalism does not consider education a strategic investment. World Bank discourse for Latin America lacks a medium- and long-term view and is based on a short-term cost-benefit analysis. The Bank's education policy is determined by “adjustment” of countries' economies so that they can go on paying their external debts. The goal is to eliminate educational expenses for the states by keeping education for elites, breaking up and privatizing the large public education systems, and nullifying teachers' contracts. To justify its policy, the Bank argues that governments should stop financing secondary and higher education and instead focus on primary education, where investments would be more efficient. But at the same time, governments should shift the financing of primary education to the private sector. Teachers' unions are now at the forefront of opposition to the World Bank's education reforms.