Relationship between National vs International values in Education

Education is one of the key factors in shaping a citizen, therefore it would be sensless to say that the state
should completely withdraw from this sphere, as it is its legit fuction and responsibility. An educational
system should equip a citized with basic competences such as critical thinking and the ability to work
with information (in our information-dominated age). Moreover, to my mind it would be reasonable for a
state to teach a citizen about the history of the country he or she lives in, or rather about the historical and
cultural identity the country strifes to build. We also should not forget about the inherent asymmetry of
information between the state and the society, which has thinned but not dissaperaed completely in the
age of the Internet. For example, the government have access to information about the future investments
of the companies and has firmer grip over the labour market, hense it can give impetus and put accent on
relevant spheres (the first schools in France were established to provide the factories with the appropriate
workforce).

But a state should restrain itself when we come to the knowledge beyond this baseline, as it is the domain
of a scientific debate and discource, in which a state has no expertise or function. It cannot and should not
define the conten of this discource and the result of the researches, as it will do no good to anybody and
the science will only become distorted. Actually, this dialogue is the very place where new inventions are
born, which later are included into the baseline defined by government.

Globalization has opened the window of opportunity for many good scientists and helped the scientific
dialogue to become truly global. And if we speak about the scientific discourse, it is a system where the
bigger the number of actors the more intense and qualitable the debate becomes. So the urge of a state
to abridge this international scientific exchange is conterproductive.

Educating your people was one of the main prerogatives of governments. States preferred to teach
students useful things for the youngsters, and for themselves. This included certain perspectives on a
states history, and politics. Today, these national perspectives are still around, but they are increasingly
embedded into broader horizons. There is the Internet which is not particularly national, there are social
networks, and there are media, transmitting global content.

This is not necessarily to the liking of more or less authoritarian governments. Both the Chinese and
Russian ministers for education have published statements according to which the activities and effects of
foreign teachers, readings, and programs are viewed with quite some degree of skepticism.
Whats your take on this? Should governments continue to define the content (and its limits) of curricula
for schools and universities especially in the sphere of global politics and their own history or should
they give up and accept the role of global influences.