The major aim of the Policy Forum on ‘The organization of ministries of education’, organized in Paris by the IIEP on 20-21 June 2001, was to discuss how ‘the differences in organizational structures and mechanisms affect the adjustability and effectiveness of educational policies’. In particular, the Forum attempted to compare and draw lessons from a few selected national experiences where effective organization and leadership of the ministry have played a major role in the success of educational reform policies. During the two-day Policy Forum, the presentations and discussions were articulated around four ‘points of entry’ into the central theme of the meeting: 1) Steering from above’: the links between policy/political leadership and administration; 2) ‘Steering from below’: the ministry’s interaction with the operational level, i.e. with schools, teachers, students, etc.; 3) ‘Steering from outside’: the relationship between the ministry of education and the main stakeholders outside the education system, i.e. teacher unions, parents’ associations, the mass media, etc.; 4) ‘Steering from within’: the ministry’s internal organizational structures and regulating mechanisms. Each of these four major issues was introduced through presentation of key papers based on one, or several, significant country experiences.
