The changes are certainly linked with the international neo-liberal trend and
the awareness of the market that have been visible in international educational
development in recent years . The centralistic school policy became expensive to administer, and increased local
control, it was assumed, would lead to more effective school economies,
greater variation, greater freedom of choice and thus better quality (Ball 1987,
Miron 1993, Englund 1994, Gewirtz et al. 1995).