A story to start this chapter:
There was a man and the man went to the watchmaker.
He put two clock hands on the table and said, "Master, these hands do not show the correct time on my clock. Please fix them."
The watchmaker replies, "Sir, I can't fix these hands, you must bring the whole clock."
But the man had no idea what the watchmaker meant - "The clock was fine, only the hands were wrong."
(Fend, 2008, p. 12 quoting an unknown author)
It is not difficult to deduce what the author intended to point out with the story. If we want to competently improve or correct parts of the system, we cannot do without understanding the system as a whole.
Or to put it another way, "Those who do not understand the system tend to see problems in surface phenomena and to seek solutions in the operation of those surface phenomena. Only by understanding the system can we correct its faulty functioning." (Fend, 2008, p. 12, in Janikova et al., 2009).
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The term system in this phrase conveys order, systematicity, interconnectedness, referring to a structured whole in which the parts are interrelated (cf. Walter et al., 2004).
The term education system (system) is used (a) in a narrower sense (school system), (b) in a broader sense (see below).
The education system includes the set of all schools, school facilities and other educational institutions. It constitutes a system because it has an established structure, regulated functioning and relationship with other systems in society.
The structure of the education system consists of:
In order to improve the comparability of educational data, UNESCO developed the International Standard Classification of Education ISCED (1996).
ISCED 0: pre-primary education
ISCED 1: primary education
ISCED 2: lower secondary education
ISCED 3: upper secondary education
ISCED 4: post-secondary (non-tertiary) education
ISCED 5: first cycle of tertiary education
ISCED 6: second cycle of tertiary education
In this chapter we have highlighted the need for a systemic view of the school system and the school.
We have outlined several levels of the school system - the basic levels include: macro level, meso level, micro level.
Between the levels, different factors are at work and different interactions take place.
Their analysis is a task for (school) education research.
Janíková, M. et al. (2009). Základy školní pedagogiky. Brno: Paido.
Walterová, E. et al. (2004). Úloha školy v rozvoji vzdělanosti. Brno: Paido.