**4. Global educational policies driving changes**

The UN developed numerous global policies for guiding operational matters worldwide. For instance, 'Article 26' of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights', showed beginnings of global agenda driving national and local developments. Interestingly, the idea of UPE is entwined into - 'Article 26′, and, thus; the notion of UBE was borne [25]. That hindsight was a global direction for countries to follow by providing quality basic education for children as obligations under the Convention on Children's Rights [1, 15, 25].

Subsequently, the issue of UBE was given prominence on the world stage by international educational reformers in the mid-1990s (Delors [5, 26]). Apparently, EFA was the global agenda reiterating calls for countries to provide accessibility to education for all at basic levels so that retention rates could be decreased [17]. EFA was a treaty signed in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, and re-asserted in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal; EFA emphasised UBE; it is argued that UBE is a global indicator set by the UN to measure countries' achievements of the Millennium Development Goals [1, 8, 13]. Educational changes that drive accessibility to learning opportunities refer to expanding education opportunities in countries [3, 17]. Seemingly, that was the common denominator of global education influence on local contexts which was also supported from the World Bank's Reports [13, 17, 27]. In short,

global education agenda guided UN member countries to align their national education frameworks within international requirements.

The literature reveals that different things on a global and local scale can also motivate educational reforms world over [5]. Some reasons include: Structural, organisational, systemic and pedagogical changes [3, 17]. For changes to take place; decision making processes are made either through top-down, bottom-up, or a combination of both [14]. Educational changes may be initiated from both outside influence as from a global perspective, or within local contexts [2, 15]. Interestingly, other reports on education reform do indicate that global education policies like the UBE and EFA had significant influence on education reforms in local contexts [3, 5, 17].

Mandated educational policies driving change are said to be top-down approaches. For instance, Education Ministries can instigate organisational changes and pass on decisions to stakeholders within their systems [3, 21]. This type of change is common in systems world over, like the Pacific Region with more centralised control from Education Ministries. Top down changes would require political will and the administrative processes within systems to drive change agendas. The discussions here show that policy of a common cause connects global and local contexts.

## **5. Policy and implementation**

Policy and implementation as concepts connote relationships. Policy resonates with governance, and, is created to improve social systems [21]. Thus, official documents are deemed public policies because they are instruments guiding implementation of mandated agendas at different spheres of society. Implementation also captures meanings of Policy *Intentions*, and *Outcomes* [21]. Implementation is a process; and for it to occur, societal issues would need to motivate policy developments [21]. In short, it is said that the policy and implementation are factors that push global education reform [5, 9].

Public policy evolves through three stages:


In summary, public policy has governance and implementation entwined in it and it can be clothed in different guises across different social contexts.
