The document presents a portion of a paper by Raja Roy Singh, Director, Regional Office for Education in Asia, entitled "Regional Education Programmes: Asia", which was presented at a regional seminar convened by the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, in July 1975. There are at least two notable features of the implanation of the modern system of education in Asia. First it has occurred in all Asian countries and not only those which fell to colonial powers. Secondary, in a relatively short time it supplanted totally the indigenous forms of education. The process of education became really the process of identifying the elect. By mid-60s it could be claimed with justification that though the developing countries of Asia were to be found at varying stages of educational development, every country had achieved a formally organized education system covering all levels from the primary to higher and encompassing general, technical, and professional types of education. Traditionally education systems are found in close alliance with inequalities and with the perpetuation of privileges. The cognitive model on which much of the content of education is based does not adequately meet the educational needs of developing countries. (Author/LH)