This article presents the findings related to the analysis of education systems of Finland, South Korea, Japan, Cuba, the United States, China, France and Bologna Project of High Education of European Union taking as a basis articles: Finlândia: paradigma da educação no mundo (Finland: paradigm of education in the world), Finlândia: paradigma da educação no mundo (2) (Finland: paradigm of education in the world - 2), Bases do sucesso da educação na Coreia do Sul e no Japão (Bases of success of the education in South Korea and Japan), Os fatores de sucesso das políticas de educação na Finlândia e na Coreia do Sul (The success factors of education policies in Finland and South Korea), O sistema de educação em Cuba (The education system in Cuba), O sistema de educação dos Estados Unidos (The US education system), O sistema de educação da China (The education system in China), O sistema de educação da França (The education system in France) and the Projeto Bolonha de ensino superior da União Europeia e da Universidade Nova no Brasil (The Bologna project of higher education of the European Union and the project of New University in Brazil) published in Falcoforado Blog (http: // fernando.alcoforado.zip.net).

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SUCCESS FACTORS OF THE BEST WORLD EDUCATION SYSTEMS
Fernando Alcoforado *
This article presents the findings related to the analysis of education systems of Finland,
South Korea, Japan, Cuba, the United States, China, France and Bologna Project of
High Education of European Union taking as a basis articles: Finlândia: paradigma da
educação no mundo (Finland: paradigm of education in the world), Finlândia:
paradigma da educação no mundo (2) (Finland: paradigm of education in the world -
2), Bases do sucesso da educação na Coreia do Sul e no Japão (Bases of success of the
education in South Korea and Japan), Os fatores de sucesso das políticas de educação
na Finlândia e na Coreia do Sul (The success factors of education policies in Finland
and South Korea), O sistema de educação em Cuba (The education system in Cuba), O
sistema de educação dos Estados Unidos (The US education system), O sistema de
educação da China (The education system in China), O sistema de educação da França
(The education system in France) and the Projeto Bolonha de ensino superior da União
Europeia e da Universidade Nova no Brasil (The Bologna project of higher education
of the European Union and the project of New University in Brazil) published in
Falcoforado Blog (http: // fernando.alcoforado.zip.net).
The education system of Finland was considered because is one of the best countries
assessed by Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment of the OECD with a
standardized test for 15 year olds in over 40 countries). Korean education systems in the
South Korea, China and Japan have been object of analysis because they are well
evaluated by Pisa and also by THE (Times Higher Education that evaluates the
performance of college students and academic production in the fields of engineering
and technology, arts and humanities, life sciences, health, physical and social sciences
and considers further research, knowledge transfer and international perspective,
beyond the learning environment). The US education system is considered because is
the best country valued at higher school by THE and France for have a great tradition in
world education. The Cuban education system was considered because is the best
country evaluated in Latin America and the Caribbean according to the Global
Monitoring Report on Education for All 2015 UNESCO (UN Organization for
Education, Science and Culture). It was also analyzed the Bologna Project of higher
education in the European Union and the New University Project in Brazil.
All this analysis, it was identified that the most appropriate linkage between the
education system, teachers and families is crucial to the success of the educational
process. From this analysis, it was identified that the government's educational policies
associated with the articulation of the education system, teachers and families are the
basic factors of success of education systems in several countries around the world. The
requirements for government policies and performance of education systems, teachers
and families are as follows:
1. Government education policies
Government education policies should be guided by the following: 1) Parliament must
approve the laws relating to the education system and decide on the general principles
of education policy that must be put in place by the Government and Ministry of
Education; 3) Public and private institutions from basic education (Kindergarten,
Primary and Secondary Education) to higher education should be controlled by the
Ministry of Education; 4) The high level of quality in education is to be achieved

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mainly with massive investment in teacher training, supporting material and improving
the structure and operation of educational institutions; 5) The government should first
give priority to basic education, and only when it becomes universal, should allocate
funds for higher education; 6) The government should apply the most resources for
education directly in schools, universities and classrooms; 7) The government should
promote the selection and leading teacher training, professional recognition and good
working conditions; 8) The heads of government education agencies must be educators;
9) The education model to be implemented should match the higher government
investments for education with the support of the country's families to ensure a high
level of learning for their children and adolescents; 10) The rigorous curriculum dictated
by the Ministry of Education should be the same across the country respected regional
diversity; 11) The knowledge, skills and teachers' skills must be updated frequently; 12)
Teachers should be recognized as vital to national development project; and 13)
Students should have study hours in the classroom and out of it at an adequate level to
their learning.
This educational policy model exercised by the government is common in all countries
surveyed except the United States where basic education is decentralized, depending
primarily on states and local communities, with the US government prohibited by
federal law from interfering in these areas. The United States is the country that is
famous for having most of the best universities in the world consisting of several semi-
independent centers. The method by which the US higher education system has
developed is not, however, the end result of a deliberate or concerted effort to create
talents to underserved markets for labor, not search and creation of new knowledge
essential to science and economic development. It was the result of an indirect way of
policies that reflected the culture and US policy in the last two centuries. There is no
ministry of education to regular education in the United States.
It was also analyzed education policies for high education of the European Union based
on the Bologna Project which includes joint actions of the countries belonging to the
European Union with the main objective to promote equivalence between the various
national education systems, seeking to integrate national university systems, to equate
degrees, diplomas, university degrees, academic curricula and the adoption of
continuing education programs. The Bologna Project marks a change from the policies
related to higher education of the countries involved and established in common a
European Area of Higher Education from the commitment of the signatory countries in
promoting reform of their education systems.
Many are critical about the Bologna Project for high education of the European Union
such as many students and teachers who claim that the reformulation of the durations of
the various courses offered which had a duration of five years and that the new three-
cycle system fell three years has reduced the quality of education. Another criticism is
that the university pedagogy proposed by the Bologna Process is seen as a superficial
change or cosmetic with little substance and unable to make changes in the work of
teachers and students, in adopting tutorial support schemes for students, in the
dimension of classes, in the transformation of assessment processes and attention to
cultural, ethical, political and civic formation of the students. Several questions arise as
to the measures of "rationalization" and “downsizing” that have been carried out
through neoliberal managerial logics that tend to become even more precarious the
employment contracts of teachers, mostly without tenure. Moreover, it criticized the fact

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that higher education as a public good, which should take a social and democratic public
policy dimension, appears considerably neglected in the Bologna Process.
2. Education System Performance
The performance of the education system should be based on the following: 1) Each
educational institution should have the same national goals; 2) The primary purpose of
education is to train young people as citizens and professionally; 3) The educational
system must invest in education and in research, considering them as crucial to the
country's global strategy, whose maximum objectives are the citizens' well-being, the
promotion of cultural diversity, sustainable development and prosperity; 4) The main
mission of universities is to conduct research and teach their courses based on it; 5) The
University should create new technologies, promote and attract talent from around the
world and encourage innovation; 6) Higher education should operate on the basis of
universities and polytechnics; 7) The rapid transformations in productive activity
require constant adaptation of universities and polytechnics to working life; 8) Higher
education institutions set up under the polytechnics have as a fundamental characteristic
of more targeted training to practice; 9) The educational institution must operate as an
educational work center and create think tanks outside, that is, in the different
community institutions in extracurricular schedules; 10) The government must ensure
that public and private institutions at all levels and locations operate with high
educational standards; 11) Higher education both public and private must be paid in part
by students and partly by the federal government with a major source of resources; 12)
Each local authority should have the power to decide on the hiring of new teachers
whose acceptance criteria must be established for each entity which governs the hiring;
13) It needs to avoid any excessive number of study hours for students that doesn´t
leave them with free time for any other activity to the point of harming the healthy
development of their personality and their social skills; and, 14) Neither the teachers nor
their teaching methods should be targeted assessments but the educational quality of
schools whose purpose is to assess the scope of the educational goals of the previous
year, and the establishment of new goals and the signal needs for the coming year.
3. Teachers Performance
The role of teachers should be based on the following: 1) The existence of qualified and
trusted teachers; 2) Social recognition and autonomy of teachers and good infrastructure
conditions; 3) The existence of special professor dedicated to breaking down barriers to
student learning; 4) The existence of "emergency committee" to help students with low
achievement which may include the principal, psychologist, other teachers and parents;
5) Students must be prepared to learn how to learn; 6) In addition to a consolidated
career plan, teachers must receive high salaries and there must be investment and
appreciation of their means of work; 7) Teacher should be empowered to adjust the
national core curriculum to their local reality; 8) The teacher must lead the process of
teaching and learning with active methodologies conducive to dialogue, reflection and
promote the exercise of thinking, to teach their students to learn to learn, learn to study
and process investigation projects of information to facilitate the exercise of its
discretion, satisfaction of learning and knowledge; 9) The classroom should be a real
workshop of building knowledge creation, hard work and respect the experiences; and
10) Teacher should promote the development of analytical skills, imagination and
personal initiative of students.
4. Parents of students Performance

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The role of the parents of the students should be based on the following: 1) Parents
should be part of the so-called Council of the School with a degree of autonomy that
allows interfere in the selection and promotion of teachers, organize retraining of events
and other crucial activities to the operation of an educational institution; and, 2)
Educators must be assisted and monitored by parents of students.
These are therefore the basic factors of success of education systems with regard to
educational government policies and performances of the education system, teachers
and parents of students that have been identified based on the best practices of education
systems of the most successful world countries both in basic education and higher
education.
5. Additional comments
In this article has not been included no practice of the United States either in basic
education either in higher education. In basic education, the North American education
system, besides not being thoroughly evaluated by Pisa (Programme for International
Student Assessment) coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), is decentralized, depending primarily on states and local
communities, with the US government prohibited by federal law from interfering in this
area, let alone to formulate educational policies. In other words, there is no educational
policy of the US government for basic education. While the United States has the best-
rated universities in the world by THE (Times Higher Education), its higher education
system has not developed as a final result of a deliberate or concerted effort of the US
government to create talent for hand underserved markets of work, or search and
creation of new knowledge essential for science and economic development. In the
United States, there is no ministry of education, or government education policies to
regulate education in the country.
None of the resolutions related to the Bologna Process of higher European Union
education was considered in this article among the best practices of higher education
because there are a lot of criticism from students and teachers who complain about the
change in the lengths of the various courses offered that before had a duration of five
years and that the new three-cycle system crashed for three years doing to reduce the
quality of education. Another criticism is that the university pedagogy proposed by the
Bologna Process is seen as a superficial change or cosmetic with little substance and
unable to make changes in the teaching environment and students, in adopting tutorial
support schemes for students, in sizes of the classes, in the transformation of assessment
processes and attention to cultural, ethical, political and civic of the students. Several
questions arise also on the action of "rationalization" and "downsizing" that have been
carried out through neoliberal managerial logics that tend to become even more
precarious the employment contracts of teachers, mostly without tenure. Moreover, it
criticized the fact that higher education as a public good, which should take a social and
democratic public policy dimension, appears considerably neglected in the Bologna
Process.
In this article, none of the propositions of the New University Project in Brazil was
considered among the best practices of higher education to be considered. This is due to
the fact that there are numerous criticisms of the proposal of the New University such as
the student who intends to pursue a professional career after attending three years of
general education, which will give it an interdisciplinary Bachelor's degree in
Humanities, interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts, interdisciplinary Bachelor of

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Technologies and interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science, will have after the internal
selection in the university, attend four, five or six years depending on their chosen
profession lengthening their time access to the labor market. Another important
question concerns what the student will do after his graduate in Bachelor of Humanities
if not successful in selection to degree, a professional course or a postgraduate degree.
Another criticism of the creation of the New University is that by proposing to create a
humanistic and interdisciplinary basic cycle for the development of a general education
as a prerequisite for student maturing before continuing your college course that would
form as an educator, historian, sociologist, psychologist, lawyer, doctor, the student
necessarily had to participate in a selection, but now within the university, and if there
are not enough vacancies, the student will leave the university, now with an
interdisciplinary bachelor's degree, that wouldn´t prepare him effectively for the world
of work. It´s also questioned the thesis that the New University diminish evasion that is
too large both in higher public and private education in Brazil because it is due to the
student's lack of preparation in basic education and also because the student abandons
the private network mainly by financial difficulties and the public network because the
students are forced to leave their courses in order to work.
*Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).