Educational Linguistics and Education Systems

Education systems are principally the property of states. Even if authority is devolved to semiautonomous bodies such as religious, ideological, regional-ethnic, or other parent-controlled agencies for the delivery of schooling, or higher or specialized education, states typically licence, authorize, fund, or certify educational practices. Therefore in a diverse range of ways all education systems carry the imprimatur and conditioning of political systems. State interest in educational practice is therefore governed either by overt control, by investment, or by toleration conditions. The overarching interest of states for what happens in formal systems of education is therefore deep and longstanding.