From the Thinking About Issues series - an investigation of the underlying issues in world development and the world-wide implications. Problems of world development are with us daily, and we are all familiar with the needs of the third world. No longer is it sufficient simply to make a collection for one of the third world charities like Oxfam or Christian Aid. Third world countries themselves have made it clear that their ultimate concern is trade rather than aid. But then that brings us face with the problems of tea, coffee and many other commodities. Soon we are into realms of land ownership, tariffs, politics and economics - a world where the non-professional is so quickly out of the depth. There is no shortage of information fed to us through the news media and the various charitable bodies and agencies, many of which are extremely good at keeping us up-to-date in a world where the facts constantly change. What most of us need, however, is a summary of the underlying issues against which the day-to-day affairs can be understood and judged. Thinking About Education is written specially for this purpose. Education is so taken for granted in the west that it is unthinkable that any country could develop without it. But to what extent can developing countries afford education and how far is the educational system they have inherited satisfactory for their purposes? Not all will agree on the answers to these questions, but many will recognise that things cannot remain as they are and that it is only through education that change can be brought about in people's basic attitudes.