Schooling and Its Supplements: Changing Global Patterns and Implications for Comparative Education

Schooling has become a standard component in the daily lives of families, and education is typically the largest item in government budgets. Many scholars have documented the spread of schooling and have analyzed the implications of that spread. Recent decades have brought great expansion of supplementary education alongside schooling. Some of this supplementary education mimics schooling as a shadow, and some complements schooling with elaborate and/or different curricula. The supplementary education is commonly a substantial component of household budgets. This essay examines the nature of changing patterns of schooling and supplementary education around the world. It views the topic through the lenses of (in)equalities, remarking on bidirectional influences between schooling and its supplements. Among major intensifying forces in supplementary education have been governmental achievements in expansion of schooling and in reductions of inequalities. Supplementary education then to some extent resists reforms by restoring and maintaining inequalities. The essay concludes with remarks about the implications for comparative analysis of both schooling and supplementary education.