YAACOV IRAM is Professor of comparative and international education at the School of Education of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is also Chairman of the Josef Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace, and President of the World Association for Educational Research (WAER).MIRJAM SCHMIDA has retired as head of the School of Education of Bar-Ilan University in 1995. She has written extensively on the sociology of education and is the author of Equality and Excellence: Educational Reform and the Comprehensive School. She was awarded the Prize of Education by the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Prize of Informal Education by the Ministry of Education and Culture.