Adapting to Future Challenges to Education. Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia

This volume edited by Peter Rado includes three studies about the first findings of the "Future Challenges to Education Systems in Central Eastern European Context” project of the Center for Policy Studies (Democracy Institute) at Central European University. The research project was designed to assess the ability of the education systems of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia to adapt to various ongoing disruptive changes, such as technological change and its impact on labor markets, various demographic changes, populist politics and autocratic governance, old and new inequalities, changing gender roles, and globalization.

The summary studies in this book, which are based on the contributions of an extended international research team, address three focal areas. The first, written by Balazs Munkacsy and Agota Scharle, provides an assessment of the relative regional contextual relevance of various global challenges to education systems. The second study, by Agnes Kende, looks at the institutional preparedness of schools in the five countries to adapt and change. The last study, by Peter Rado, is a comparative institutional analysis of the preparedness of the five educational governance systems to encourage schools to adapt by effectively conveying clear external expectations.