The Rise and Decline of Comprehensive Education: Key Factors in the History of Reformed Secondary Education in Belgium, 1969–1989

Abstract

In answer to economic needs and social demands, a structural innovation was introduced in secondary education in most West European countries, mainly in the 1960s. Contrary to the traditional schools, organized in vertical categories, the so‐called comprehensive schools brought together all branches in one school. There was protest against this type of school from the start but it was mainly in the 1980s and 1990s that comprehensive schools came under siege. In most countries the comprehensive structures have been abandoned or adjusted to a more moderate form.

Preface to Detlef Müller, Fritz Ringer & Brian Simon (Eds), The Rise of the Modern Educational System: Structural Change and Social Reproduction, 1870–1920 (Cambridge/Paris, 1987), p. xii.

This paper tries to explain the factors that stimulated innovation in the 1960s, and those that counteracted comprehensive education. As will be shown, these factors were not always related to ideological positions. In fact, the reasons for local educational authorities to “go comprehensive” (or not) were often practically rather than ideologically inspired. Theories of “dominant rationality” by Matthijssen and the “referential” by Jobert succeed in surpassing ideological parameters, and can be interesting tools to explain changing mentalities. However, a satisfying explanation for the history of comprehensive education cannot be offered without paying attention to everyday pragmatics, that – in the author's view – have been decisive for the evolution of comprehensive education.

The paper will be illustrated with examples from the Belgian case. Comprehensive schools were introduced in Belgium in 1969. All state public schools went comprehensive in the 1970s, and the number of comprehensive private schools grew rapidly until growth ceased around 1980. The ongoing struggle between Catholic comprehensive and traditional schools led to a compromise created by the Catholic educational authorities, a fusion of comprehensive and traditional elements. This structure was imposed by the Flemish government as a unitary structure for all secondary schools in the Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium in 1989.

Notes

Preface to Detlef Müller, Fritz Ringer & Brian Simon (Eds), The Rise of the Modern Educational System: Structural Change and Social Reproduction, 1870–1920 (Cambridge/Paris, 1987), p. xii.

Gary McCulloch, Educational reconstruction: the 1944 education act and the twenty‐first century (London, 1994); Stephen J. Ball & Staffan Larsson, The struggle for democratic education: equality and participation in Sweden (New York, 1989); Jean‐Michel Barreau, Jean‐Francois Garcia & Louis Legrand, L'école unique (de 1914 à nos jours) (Paris, 1998); Marion Coulon, Jeunesse à la derive: Pour une novelle structure des enseignements superieurs (Mons, 1947); Achim Leschinsky & Karl Ulrich Mayer (Eds), The comprehensive school experiment revisted: evidence from Western Europe (Bern, 1990).

In multilateral schools all streams – general, technical, vocational – are brought together in one school. Within the school, however, the different sections remain distinct. This distinction disappears in a common school or cycle. All pupils follow a common curriculum.

Erik Wallin, “The Comprehensive School – the Swedish Case”, European Journal of Education, XXVI (1991), p. 144.

Jeffrey Tyssens has related this proportion to the social origin of the educational system; see below.

Abstraction is made here of a few eastern municipalities with a German‐speaking majority. After the state reform of 1988–1989 this German community would also receive full autonomy in educational, cultural and related matters.

On the comprehensive education reform in Belgium see, e.g., Jacqueline Beckers, “Les politiques scolaires de l'égalité des chances et de l'égalité des acquis dans l'enseignement secondaire (après 1945)”, in: Dominique Grootaers (Ed.), Histoire de l'enseignement en Belgique (Brussels, 1998, pp. 303–371); Anne Van Haecht, L'enseignement rénové: de l'origine à l'éclipse (Brussels, 1985); Willy Wielemans, “Comprehensive Education in Belgium: a Broken Lever?”, European Journal of Education, XXVI (1991), pp. 167–178.

Royal Decree on the organization of secondary education of 31 July 1975; Ministerial Decree of 5 January 1978.

De Keyser and D'hoker relate this difference to the orientation of the French‐speaking community towards France, where – as described above – comprehensive ideas had been circulating for a longer time (Raf De Keyser & Mark D'hoker, “De geschiedenis van het secundair onderwijs in België”, Nova et Vetera, XLII (1984–1985), pp. 15–40). The French community knows also a broader adherence to social progressive ideas, c.q. a stronger position of the Socialist Party. Roger Standaert, formerly responsible for the implementation of RSE in the Flemish Catholic schools, says that the French schools opted faster for RSE because of their minority position with regard to public schools in the south of Belgium – whereas in Flanders Catholic secondary schools outnumbered the public schools by far. When all the public schools changed over to RSE, the French schools – in their weak position – were obliged to follow (interview by the author, 10 July 2001). Antoon Boone, former secretary‐general of the Catholic network of technical and vocational schools, relates the difference to the high concentration of secondary schools in city areas in Flanders, whereas in the south the supply of schools was much lower. Therefore it was more interesting for those French schools to expand towards the multilateral RSE (interview by the author, 13 July 2001).

Margaret S. Archer, Social Origins of Educational Systems (London, 1984); Jeffrey Tyssens, Strijdpunt of pasmunt? Levensbeschouwelijk links en de schoolkwestie 1918–1940 (Brussels, 1993).

Christopher Knight, The Making of Tory Education Policy in Post‐War Britain, 1950–1986 (London, 1990).

Memorandum by Sir David Eccles to principals of all training colleges, 6 October 1961, The Longden Papers. Quoted in Knight, The Making, p. 15.

This led to the accusation that Labour was dictatorial, but Ted Short, Labour's Secretary of State, replied: “If it's wrong to select and segregate children, it must be wrong everywhere”. Quoted in Tony Edwards, Geoff Whitty & Sally Power, “Moving Back from Comprehensive Secondary Education”, in Jack Demaine (Ed.), Education Policy and Contemporary Politics (Basingstoke, 1999), p. 30.

Edwards, Whitty & Power, “Moving Back”, pp. 30–32.

Abel Dubois, L'Enseignement secondaire rénové (Brussels, 1972), p. 25.

Cyrille C. De Keyser, Naar een comprehensief Europees basisonderwijs voor het jaar 2000. Vergelijkend historisch essay over de dialectiek tussen twee maatschappij– en onderwijsmodellen exemplarisch verduidelijkt aan Frankrijk en België (Leuven, 1986).

Jos Van Kemenade, Als de smalle weegbree bloeit. Opstellen over onderwijs en onderwijsbeleid (Amsterdam, 1979), p. 48.

Wolfgang Mitter, “Comprehensive Schools in Germany: Concepts, Developments and Issues”, European Journal of Education, XXVI (1991), p. 158.

Royal Decrees on the organization of secondary education of 31 July 1975, and 30 July 1976.

Harry Greenway to Knight, 23 January 1986. Quoted in Knight, The Making, p. 16.

Richard Batley, Oswald O'Brien & Henry Parris, Going Comprehensive. Educational Policy‐Making in two County Boroughs (London, 1970), viii.

Caroline Benn & Clyde Chitty, Thirty Years on: Is Comprehensive Education Alive and Well, or Struggling to Survive? (London, 1996), p. 11.

Paul Bellaby, The Sociology of Comprehensive Schooling (London, 1977).

Willy Wielemans, “De evolutie van het secundair onderwijs in Europees perstpectief”, in Willy Wielemans (Ed.), Vernieuwingen in het secundair onderwijs: een Europese situering. De actuele evolutie in de Duitse Bondsrepubliek – Engeland – Frankrijk – Nederland – Zweden: analyse en synthese (Leuven, 1986), pp. 93–136.

Mathias A.J.M. Matthijssen, De elite en de mythe: een sociologische analyse van strijd om onderwijsverandering (Deventer, 1982).

Roger Standaert, De vlag in de top: over de rationaliteit van het secundair onderwijs‐beleid: Frankrijk, Engeland en Wales, Duitse Bondsrepubliek (Leuven, 1990); the main conclusions of this research have been published in Roger Standaert, “Technical Rationality in Education Management: a Survey Covering England, France, and Germany”, European Journal of Education, XXVIII (1993), pp. 159–175.

Bruno Jobert, “Représentations sociales, controverses et débats dans la conduite des politiques publiques”, Revue française de Science Politique, XLII (1992), p. 221 (my translation). See also Anne Van Haecht, “Les politiques éducatives, figure exemplaire des politiques publiques?”, Education et Sociétés, I (1998), pp. 21–46.

See Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, 1970).

See C. Frankel, “The New Egalitarianism and the Old”, Commentary, LVI (1973), pp. 54–66.

Ronald Inglehart, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics (Princeton, 1977), p. 21.

See, e.g., Gerry Fowler, “The Changing Nature of Educational Politics in the 1970s”, in Patricia Broadfoot, Colin Brock & Witold Tulasiewicz (Eds), Politics and Educational Change: an International Survey (London, 1981), pp. 13–28.

For instance, the 1997 Education White Paper of Labour Secretary of State David Blunkett displays an enthusiasm for “modernizing” comprehensive secondary education. As Edwards, Whitty & Power (“Moving Back”, p. 31) note: “The Old Labour view, that if selection is wrong then it is wrong everywhere, seems to have been quietly forgotten”.

Jack Demaine, “Education Policy and Contemporary Politics”, in Demaine, Education Policy and Contemporary Politics, pp. 5–29.

Decree on education II of 31 July 1990. In the French‐speaking part of Belgium, the two old structures continued to run side by side. But I must comment that the “traditional” structures survived only in a few schools in the state‐subsidized network and that the “comprehensive” structures in all the other educational institutions were restructured and modernized in the 1990s, thus resulting de facto also in a unitary type, more moderate and more pragmatic than the original RSE structures of 1969.

See Edwards, Whitty & Power, “Moving Back”, p. 31.

Jef Verhoeven, De leerkrachten uitgedaagd: een onderzoek over leerkrachten en onderwijsvernieuwing (Leuven, 1982). See also Willy Wielemans, “Comprehensive Education”.

B. Shaw, Comprehensive Schooling: the Impossible Dream? (Oxford, 1983).

Edwards, Whitty & Power, “Moving Back”, p. 34. See also Tony Edwards & Geoff Whitty, “Marketing Quality: Traditional and Modern Versions of Educational Excellence”, in Ron Glatter, P. Woods & C. Bagley (Eds), Choice and Diversity in Schooling: Perspectives and Prospects (London, 1997).

Quoted in Terry Haydn, “The Strange Death of the Comprehensive School in England and Wales, 1965–2002”. Paper presented at the XXIVth International Standing Conference for the History of Education (Paris, 2002), p. 8.