This volume offers a conceptual justification and methodology for comparative studies of education matching developments in the social sciences and other comparative disciplines. It also relates comparative studies of education to the practical business of policy formulation at all levels. Thus it bridges the widening gap between the purely academic world and the world of decision for development. The author draws illustrations from educational reforms, but goes further in suggesting suitable procedures or institutions which might achieve soundly based policies and secure their implementation. He takes account of the planning techniques and achievements of UNESCO, OECD and other international organizations, and examines the activities and aims of national planning for education in a wider perspective of world re-orientation.