Although globalization increases returns to higher levels of education this globalised context has entailed reduced public spending

on, and management of social services. Because knowledge is the most highly valued commodity in the global economy, nations have little choice but to increase their investment in education. Globalization pressures for more education and more rapid expansion of higher-secondary and university education. 1. Planning to ensure i) how to expand schooling effectively. Hence the creation of 16 SSS during 2001-2002. ii) how to assure access to higher levels of education is not limited to the most advantaged groups of the society. So there is privatization of the costs of higher education with well-run and ample scholarship programmes may be the most equitable way to achieve such expansion. For e.g. in Mauritius, scholarships awarded by the state, MCB, Shell, S.I.L.W.F and Mauritius Export Producers Association and Municipalities.

2. Work will increasingly be organized around multi-tasking and workers will hold a number of different jobs during their work careers. Thus, planners should reconsider long-held views about the balance between vocational and general education. Vocational education moves out of the secondary to post-secondary level. For example, the setting up of the Hotel School of Mauritius and the IVTB at Ebene which recruit students having completed the School Certificate.

3. More job and even occupational changes for workers means the education system will also need to become more flexible. More adults are returning to take additional schooling in existing institutions. Thus more and more institutions are providing part-time courses.

4. Pressure also mounts for improving quality of education at all levels. According to the OECD, . improving educational quality has become a widespread priority and in this the role of teachers is pivotal successful reform is realized by and through them (OECD, 0992). Thus planners have to focus on the recruitment of high quality teachers into school and universities, pre-service training and in-service training to maintain their skill and interest through constant upgrading. This has been achieved in Mauritius through the setting up of the MIE and the coming to Mauritius of examiners from Cambridge to hold sessions with our teachers. Increased parent involvement can also be important for better education. So, planners have to carry out activities around schools to involve parents. E.g. PTAs have been set up in all schools in Mauritius.

ICT The speed with which the revolution in ICT has taken place is phenomenal. ICT revolution is a revolution in learning, it has also transformed available technologies, the means and methods of studying, the modalities of school operations, the manner of investment and expenditure of resources, and the very way we think about what education could be and should do. The ICT revolution offers new opportunities; it changes what can be learned and by whom as well as what can be produced and by whom. These potential changes pose new challenges for educational planning. Challenges that pertain to equity and quality: 1) Equity Educational planners have to reach, within a reasonable time, the needs of the majority who are poor, uneducated, and live in rural area: How to fund, implement and maintain the educational part of ICT networks. Equity has to be addressed along two dimensions: i. Equitable access to students as consumers, where the poorer peoples and nations are put at a disadvantages and ii. Equitable provision of content, where the poor are even worse off.

2) Quality Iteracy has become imperative. Much depends on how ICT-assisted learning is done. Teachers have to be trained and need to feel knowledgeable and skilled not always easy in an environment where young students are often quicker than their teachers to learn new technologies.

Educational planning can focus

no longer just on how to secure

implementations; it needs to arrange for continuous experimentation and innovation to learn by doing in an ever-changing environment where even what is being learned and done is changing.