free dom in edu ca ti on

Freedom of Education

Proceedings of the conference

The Pro mo tion of Ed u ca tion Free dom in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope

15-17 October 2004, Budapest, Hungary

’s-Gravenhage

Socires

This book is ded i cated to Prof.Dr. Alis Koekoek.

© 2005 Socires

ISBN 90-809549-2-6

NUR 840

De sign asnd typesetting: Hans Groen, www.hansgroen.com

Set in Sabon

Printed at Ridderprint, Dordrecht

Fore word

In Oc to ber 2004, some 75 peo ple from 14 dif fer ent coun tries gath ered in Bu da pest,

Hun gary, for a three-day con fer ence. Amongst them some of the world’s lead ing ex perts

on le gal and pol icy is sues re gard ing ed u ca tion free dom, (ex-) min is ters, schol ars, and

field work ers in ed u ca tion. The theme of the con fer ence was: The Pro mo tion of Ed u ca -

tion Free dom in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope. The con fer ence was, in deed, about the

pro mo tion of ed u ca tion free dom, as well as about strength en ing civil so ci ety or ga ni za -

tions in the area of ed u ca tion. Strength en ing them, both at field level and through na -

tional and Eu ro pean leg is la tion and pol icy mak ing, as a rel e vant al ter na tive to both the

state and the mar ket in the de liv ery of pub lic ser vices. Be sides, the pur pose of the event

was to es tab lish ef fec tive net works be tween civil so ci ety or ga ni za tions work ing in the

pub lic so cial do main at the na tional, re gional, and Eu ro pean level.

The en coun ter be tween ac a demic ex perts, pol icy mak ers and field work ers from

“East” and “West” gave rise not only to stim u lat ing ex changes and very lively dis cus -

sions, but also to shared new in sights and com mon en gage ments. The con fer ence is to

mark the be gin ning of a liv ing net work ing programme for which the or ga niz ing com mit -

tee com mit ted it self to pro vide the ini tial ce ment.

In this book, you find the texts of the lec tures which were given dur ing the con fer -

ence, as well as the Char ter of Bu da pest that was for mu lated, and suggestions for the fol -

low up.

The event was or ga nized by the Socires Foun da tion, in co op er a tion with the Foun da -

tion for the Pro mo tion of Free Ed u ca tion; the Cen ter for Sci ence and Value of Tilburg

Uni ver sity; the Law Fac ulty of Tilburg Uni ver sity (De part ment of Con sti tu tional and

Ad min is tra tive Law); and the ELA – Eu ro pean As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tion Law and Pol -

icy.

The de ci sion to or ga nize the con fer ence in Bu da pest and to rely on the ex pe ri ence

and the or ga niz ing skills of the Rob ert Schuman In sti tute for De vel op ing De moc racy in

Cen tral and East ern Eu rope proved to be en tirely cor rect.

The or ga niz ing com mit tee wishes to ex press its pro found grat i tude to Cordaid,

Fidentia, and the Edu ar do Frei Foun da tion for their be lief in this pro ject, and for their

gen er ous sup port. Also, we wish to thank CEEC and ECNAIS for their sup port through -

out the pro cess. We are deeply in debted to all these or ga ni za tions, in our shared and con -

tin ued com mit ment to pro mote free ed u ca tion and civil so ci ety or ga ni za tions in Cen tral

and East ern Eu rope.

Cor van Beu ning en

Di rec tor of the So ci res Foun da ti on

iii

Con tents

Fore word iii

The Pro mo ti on of Edu ca ti on Free dom in Cen tral and Eas tern Europe 1

Jos J.A.M. van Gennip

Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 5

Charles L. Glenn

The Civil Society, the Government, and the Market dealing with Education

Pluralism 21

Jan De Groof

Edu ca ti on Free dom in the Ne ther lands and ot her EU-coun tries: Di lem mas and

Debates 55

Ben P. Vermeulen

The importance of citizens’ initiatives in education 69

Maria van der Hoeven

Free dom in Edu ca ti on 75

Judit Szemkeö, Hun gary

Draft Char ter of the Bu da pest Con fer ence Free dom of Ed u ca tion 81

Eval u a tion and fol low up 83

Participants 91

iv

The Pro mo ti on of Edu ca ti on Free dom in Cen traland Eas tern Europe

Ope ning Address

Jos J.A.M. van Gen nip, Pre si dent of So ci res

The peo ple of Af rica en coun ter a com mon chal lenge, com mon and sim i lar: how to stop

the de ser ti fi ca tion, how to keep fer tile the ad vanc ing desert, how to pro tect one self

against that ever faster at tack ing desert, swal low ing more and more fruit ful land.

In West ern, Cen tral and most of East ern Eu rope we, wé have to cope with an other

de ser ti fi ca tion, which swal lows our so cial and spir i tual land scape. Not the phys i cal

desert of so many coun tries of Af rica. Our sur vival does not de pend pri mar ily on the

pro duc tion, but of the es tab lish ment, re plen ish ment of so cial capital and the trans fer of

knowl edge and val ues.

The root causes of the pro cess of the in creas ing break down of the tra di tional so ci etal

struc tures in the West and the de lib er ate wip ing out of them in the past in other parts of

Eu rope may dif fer, but the new chal lenges are alike for all so ci et ies:

We can not deny that there is a grow ing need for a new de sign for the strength en ing of

so ci etal struc tures and com mu ni ca tions of val ues alike.

A new de sign, be cause long ing to the past, de ny ing the new re al i ties of psy chol ogy,

econ omy, the cul ture would be a mis take and would lead to fail ure.

In di vid u al ism, the nu cleus fam ily, so cial mo bil ity, the eman ci pa tion in dou ble sense –

gen der and as cit i zen – are re al i ties as are the dif fer ing at ti tude to wards re li gion and the

dom i nance of secu lar is ation in our Eu ro pean civili sa tion.

But one thing is for sure: all of us are con fronted with that dou ble ques tion and chal -

lenge:

how to fill the gap, the empty space be tween state, mar ket and the in di vid ual, how to

in sert in the so ci ety that in dis pens able fourth el e ment of a hu mane and re spon sive so ci -

ety: the com mu nity. “Es gibt keine funktionierende Geselschaft ohne eine lebendigen

Gemeinschaft.”


But com mu nity, the civil so ci ety, the so cial cap i tal can not be re newed and re in forced

only along the for mer pat terns of be fore the Sec ond World War. Time has changed, wé

have changed his tory and his tory has changed us!

and the sec ond chal lenge: how can we com mu ni cate, trans fer knowl edge and val ues

to a new gen er a tion, which has to grow up in an en vi ron ment of dis trac tion, of the

monetarisation of the cul ture and the so ci ety, of per sonal suc cess and sat is fac tion. Also

here a re turn to pre sec ond world war sys tems, meth ods and con vic tions will not be suf -

fi cient.

These two chal lenges should lead to a com mon agenda, re spect ing the dif fer ences of

each in di vid ual na tion, a shared agenda about the pro mo tion of pri vate non-profit ed u -

ca tion, of high qual ity, high ef fi ciency and above all as a bridge be tween tra di tion and

his tory on one hand and fu ture and per spec tive on the other.

But even more im por tant is the ques tion whether we can work to gether at the trans -

la tion within the in di vid ual na tional spaces of the con cept of free ed u ca tion into in sti -

tutes which are re ally owned and tak ing care of by the so ci ety.

Free: that means free from the dom i nance of the state; free that im plies also free from

the dom i nance of the mar ket.

Socires stands for society and responsability. We have been founded as a think-tank to

fa cil i tate the de bate about the fu ture of the Eu ro pean So ci ety. What kind of Eu ro pean

so ci ety do we want to achieve. The dis cus sion about for ex am ple the Eu ro pean Par lia -

ment or the com pe tences of the Coun cil should not be an end in it self. They are in stru -

men tal for the real de bate: what are Eu ro pean an swers in the do main of the econ omy,

the so cial in fra struc ture, the se cu rity, the ex ter nal re spon si bil i ties and last but not least

the ed u ca tion.

Socires tries to stim u late and to fa cil i tate thát kind of de bate, to con struct a plat form

to bring to gether the most rel e vant ac tors in all these spe cific ar eas.

The con fer ence to day is the sec ond phase in a three layer programme about Ed u ca -

tion Free dom.

The first was the re search and the pub li ca tion of the study about the way in which

the ac tual law and gov er nance in dif fer ent coun tries have been for mu lated and set up

mainly af ter 1989.

The third phase would hope fully be the es tab lish ment of a more per ma nent al though

open net work of con cerned pol icy mak ers, ac a dem ics, pol i ti cians, but above all of peo -

ple with ex ec u tive re spon si bil i ties in the area of ed u ca tion and of rep re sen ta tives of par -

ents’ as so ci a tions. In other words a net work of con cerned and en gaged cit i zens about

how to set up and run value ori en tated, so ci ety-owned ed u ca tional sys tems and in sti tu -

tions.

Which con di tions have to be ful filled there fore at the level of the state and within the

so ci ety.

2 Freedom of Education

We are grate ful for the as sis tance, co-op er a tion and part ner ship our Foun da tion has en -

coun tered so far.

The ini tia tive it self was brought about by the Foun da tion for the Pro mo tion of Free

Ed u ca tion in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope , which on its turn was the prod uct of the in -

dis pens able en gage ment of our col leagues as Prof. Alis Koekkoek and Dr. Henk

Hoefnagel.

It were Prof. Jan de Groof, Pres i dent of the Eu ro pean As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tion Law

and Pol icy, and Prof. Charles Glenn, Pro fes sor at Boston Uni ver sity, who did the com -

par a tive re search and who wrote the study “Ed u ca tion Free dom”, which is the ba sis of

this con fer ence. They did this on a strict vol un tary ba sis.

The con fer ence it self was or gan ised with the ac tive as sis tance of the Fac ulty of Law

of the Tilburg Uni ver sity, in the per sons of, again and pri mar ily, Prof. Koekkoek and fur -

ther more Ms. Liesbeth Verhagen and Ms. Anna Jasiak.

The Rob ert Schuman Foun da tion was will ing, in a very co-op er a tive and ef fi cient

way, to host this event here in Bu da pest.

Thanks to the fi nan cial as sis tance of the Edu ar do Frei Foun da tion in The Hague the

first dif fi cult pi o neer phase was made pos si ble – the pub lish ing and dis tri bu tion of the

ta bled study “Ed u ca tion Free dom” and af ter wards a sub stan tial al lo ca tion was made to

phase two, this con fer ence. Cordaid, the Neth er lands um brella foun da tion of Cath o lic

de vel op ment and re lief or gani sa tions, was will ing to pro vide the ad di tional fund ing for

this con fer ence and the start of the fol low-up.

The Foun da tion Fidentia did the same and we hope to en gage more do nors for the

set-up of the net work and the pub li ca tion of the con tri bu tions and dis cus sions around

this con fer ence.

But most of all we are grate ful for your par tic i pa tion, your con tri bu tion in the form

of in tro duc tions and lec tures, your in put in the dis cus sions and plan ning, and your pres -

ence here.

There is one per son, who could not be pres ent here, but whom we will miss dearly:

Prof. Dr. Alis Koekkoek. Since more than two years he ini ti ated this pro cess, to gether

with Dr. Henk Hoefnagel, and he was the driv ing force be hind, the real key ac tor. Prof.

Koekkoek, who is also a very dis tin guished mem ber of the Sen ate in my coun try and my

col league and above all an em i nent scholar in many ar eas, amongst them ed u ca tional

law. In the course of this pro cess, dur ing which he ex posed such an enor mous en thu si -

asm and lead er ship, he was sud denly struck by a very se ri ous ill ness, which is the cause

of his ab sence here to day. I pro pose we will send him our best wishes from this con fer -

ence, which is so much in need of his vi sion and which owed so much to his in spi ra tion.

Best wishes to him and to his fam ily.

In this new cen tury, in this new post-1989 era we have to cope with the phe nom e non of

de ser ti fi ca tion, a so ci etal and spir i tual de ser ti fi ca tion. Dams and walls, wa ter, seeds and


fer til iz ers are the in stru ments and the in gre di ents to con tain de ser ti fi ca tion and to

change them into “blühende Landschaften”, fruit ful green land scapes.

The dams and the walls are the ju rid i cal con di tions and the po lit i cal pre con di tions in

which we re ally can es tab lish and let func tion so ci ety owned ed u ca tional in sti tutes;

» the wa ter is your in spi ra tion and your will ing ness to fight for an al ter na tive

high level, value-con scious ed u ca tional sys tem;

» the seeds are the so ci etal forces and rep re sen ta tives – teach ers, par ents, ad -

min is tra tors –, vol un teers and pro fes sion als, who let func tion these schools

and in sti tutes;

» the fer til iz ers are the ex per tise, the mu tual ex pe ri ences, the ex per i ments, the

re search about what is needed for rel e vant ed u ca tion to day;

» and the fruits, the fruits are the chil dren and young stu dents who get a for -

ma tion, more than teach ing, and an en hance ment to sur vive as hu man per -

sons, in dig nity, sur viv ing and mak ing their own choices in an econ omy, in

a so ci ety, in a cul ture, which mostly wants to re duce them to pro duc ers, to

con sum ers, to trend fol low ers, to vot ers and tax pay ers, not more: oth ers

should pro vide to them the tools to be come, what they only can do them -

selves; hu man per sons.

I wish you, on be half of Socires, a very in spired and suc cess ful con fer ence.


Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back,Look ing Forward

Char les L. Glenn, Bos ton Uni ver si ty

Per mit me to be gin with a per sonal note. It was through my en gage ment with is sues of

ed u ca tional eq uity for poor and mi nor ity fam i lies that I be came con vinced of the im por -

tance, as a mat ter of fun da men tal jus tice, of al low ing them to choose the schools that

their chil dren would at tend. Just like wealthy par ents in ev ery coun try, they should be

em pow ered to de cide which school and which teach ers would best meet the needs of

their chil dren and their own con vic tions about ed u ca tion.

This con vic tion led me to work for the ex ten sion of pa ren tal choice in my own state

– where I was the gov ern ment of fi cial re spon si ble for equal ed u ca tional op por tu nity

– and coun try, and even tu ally with ed u ca tional free dom world wide through OIDEL, a

Geneva-based or ga ni za tion pro mot ing hu man rights in ed u ca tion which I now serve as a

vice-pres i dent.

It was at a con fer ence or ga nized by OIDEL in Oc to ber 1989 that I be came aware of

the quiet spread of ed u ca tional free dom in east ern and cen tral Eu rope. It would be dif fi -

cult to com mu ni cate how ex cit ing we found it that a del e ga tion from Po land joined us at

this event, and told us that for the first time in forty years new par ent-ini ti ated schools

were be ing ap proved and even sup ported by the gov ern ment. Re port ing this back to

friends in my own na tional gov ern ment, I was asked to write a re port on the new de vel -

op ments in ed u ca tional free dom. When re leased by the United States De part ment of Ed -

u ca tion in 1994 (and as a book the fol low ing year), this in cluded chap ters on Po land and

Hun gary, the Czech Re pub lic and Slovakia, Bul garia and Ro ma nia, Rus sia and the

Baltics, and East Ger many. For me, this con fer ence in Bu da pest has been an ex cit ing

chance to be come re-ac quainted with the de vel op ments which I fol lowed with such in -

ter est a de cade ago, and to meet some of those who have been car ry ing them for ward!

Why edu ca ti o nal free dom mat ters to a he al thy ci vil so cie ty

A fun da men tal goal of all Com mu nist re gimes, be gin ning with that es tab lished in Rus sia


in 1917, was to cre ate a new type of hu man ity that would be in ca pa ble of less than full

de vo tion to the Party and its lead er ship. The new hu man ity, Com mu nist the o re ti cians

prom ised, would bear no traces of value-sys tems – peas ant or bour geois – that were

con demned by the for ward move ment of his tory. There would no lon ger be a place for

self ish in di vid u al ism, nor would re li gious be lief or eth nic ity sup port iden ti ties in com pe -

ti tion with those de fined by the State. “So cial ism will be pos si ble,” as Krupskaya wrote,

“only when the psy chol ogy of peo ple is rad i cally changed.”1

The goal of chang ing hu man na ture de fines to tal i tar ian rule, which is not sat is fied

with ex ter nal obe di ence, with pas sive ac qui es cence in ab so lute rule, but seeks to gain

will ing in ner ad her ence as well. Es sen tial to this strat egy, as Hannah Arendt pointed out

in The Or i gins of To tal i tar i an ism (1951), was the iso la tion of in di vid u als from one an -

other and from tra di tions and com mu ni ties.

The ef fort to im pose an all-en com pass ing worldview that was in tol er ant of any ri vals

be gan to ward the end of the 1920s in So viet Rus sia and took on in creas ingly ma jor pro -

por tions with in dus tri al iza tion and ur ban iza tion. The chang ing econ omy re quired lit er -

ate work ers and the spread of school ing cre ated new chal lenges for the re gime. As Rus -

sian émigré Al ex an der Zinoviev put it, “as the cul tural level of a so ci ety rises, as liv ing

con di tions im prove, as peo ple be come more ed u cated, as an op po si tion de vel ops and

other phe nom ena that di rectly or in di rectly threaten [Com mu nist] so ci ety’s mono lithic

ide ol ogy, there is need for more ef fort and more ide ol ogy.” By the last years of the Com -

mu nist re gime,

eve ry o ne is sub jec ted to the in flu en ce of ide o lo gy from birth to de ath, sys te -

ma ti cal ly and with a stri king ly pe dan tic con sis ten cy. The num ber of pe ople

em ploy ed pro fes si o nal ly in the ide o lo gi cal field is enor mous. The num ber of

pe ople who in one way or anot her are for ced to car ry out bits of ide o lo gi cal

work is in nu me ra ble.2

Al though the task of in cul cat ing – and con tin u ally up dat ing – a worldview and an un -

der stand ing of the de mands of the Party Line was shared by many in sti tu tions in each of

the na tions un der com mu nist re gimes, the po si tion of for mal school ing was nat u rally

cen tral. Schools were ex pected to give con sis tent at ten tion to shap ing the val ues and at ti -

tudes of their pu pils: to teach Marx ism/Le nin ism and to com bat any sign of ri val be liefs.

The col lapse of com mu nist he ge mony in na tion af ter na tion of Cen tral and East ern

Eu rope, and ul ti mately in the So viet Un ion, star tled most in formed ob serv ers. Some had

de scribed these sys tems as fun da men tally suc cess ful in meet ing the chal lenges they faced,


1 Qu o ted by Zbig niew Rau, “Hu man Na tu re, So ci al Engi nee ring, and the Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie -

ty,” in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view

Press 1991, 31.

2 Alexan der Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism, trans la ted by Char les Jan son, New York: Schoc ken

Books 1984, 216-217.

as sta ble work ing so ci et ies “in which the lead er ship and var i ous sec tions of so ci ety were

al most har mo ni ously in volved in macrosocial pro cesses such as mod ern iza tion and ur -

ban iza tion.”3 Oth ers, while more crit i cal of the eco nomic and so cial ac com plish ments of

Com mu nism, had ar gued that the pro cess of re mak ing hu man na ture had been gen er ally

suc cess ful and pre cluded ef fec tive re sis tance to Com mu nist rule.

Com mu nists and some of their crit ics shared the be lief that “there is no such thing as

in di vid ual hu man na ture, since all hu man ac tiv ity is so cially learned and de ter mined by

the kind of so ci ety that peo ple live in.” In Bukharin’s im age, a hu man be ing was noth ing

more than “a sau sage skin stuffed by en vi ron men tal in flu ences.” From that per spec tive,

it seemed ob vi ous that a con certed ef fort to em ploy for mal school ing and a wide range

of other so cial iz ing ex pe ri ences to change hu man na ture would lead in ev i ta bly to the de -

sired re sult. As Zinoviev put it, homo sovieticus “to tally sup ports his lead er ship be cause

he pos sesses the stan dard ized con scious ness formed by the ide ol ogy.”4 Or, again,

Under Com mu nism man li ves from the crad le to the gra ve in a po wer ful

“mag net field” of ide o lo gi cal in flu en ce. He is a par ti cle in it re cei ving a par ti -

cu lar “char ge,” po si ti on and orien ta ti on. Once cre a ted, this field re news and

streng thens it self and be co mes con ti nu al ly more pro fes si o nal and ef fec ti ve ...

Ide o lo gy doesn’t only or ga ni ze people’s con sci ous ness, it cre a tes the so ci al in -

tel lect of so cie ty as a who le and an in tel lec tu al ste re o ty pe for in di vi du al mem -

bers of so cie ty.5

Rau finds a more nuanced ver sion of the same as sump tion in Czeslaw Milosz’s 1953

book The Cap tive Mind, in which the au thor pre dicted that even those in tel lec tu als who

prac ticed an in ner re sis tance to the con trol of the Com mu nist re gime would come even -

tu ally to ac cept its in ev i ta bil ity. “Forty or fifty years of this ed u ca tion . . . must cre ate a

new and ir re triev able spe cies of man kind. The ‘new man’ is not merely a pos tu late. He is

be gin ning to be come a re al ity.”

But was this pro cess of ac cep tance in ev i ta ble? Were the ef forts of com mu nist so ci et -

ies to shape a new hu man na ture suc cess ful? Events in the late 1980s and early 1990s

dis proved Zinoviev’s claim that “this so ci ety is not only sta ble; it is in the high est de gree

sta ble” just as it has dra mat i cally fal si fied his claim that “the Com mu nist re gime deals

suc cess fully with na tional prob lems, as So viet ex pe ri ence has shown ... any ex pec ta tion

that con flicts be tween na tion al i ties will cause the ruin of the So viet Em pire de rives from


3 Zbig niew Rau, “Intro duc ti on,” in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet

Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, 1.

4 Zbig niew Rau, “Hu man Na tu re, So ci al Engi nee ring, and the Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty,” in The

Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, 27,

32, 36; Alexan der Zi no viev, Homo So vie ti cus (trans la ted by Char les Jan son), Bos ton: Atlan tic Monthly

Press 1985, 197.

5 Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism 230-231.

a to tal mis con cep tion of the real sit u a tion in the coun try....”6

Václav Havel ar gued in 1978, in his in flu en tial es say The Power of the Pow er less,

that, al though ide ol ogy was “one of the pil lars of the sys tem’s ex ter nal sta bil ity,” it was

“built on a very un sta ble foun da tion. It is built on lies. It works only as long as peo ple

are will ing to live within the lie.” There co mes a point, how ever, when a grow ing num -

ber of in di vid u als be come de ter mined to “live within the truth.” They go be yond pro -

tect ing a pri vate sphere of con scious ness from ma nip u la tion by the Com mu nist sys tem,

and be gin to act in ways that show a “new found sense of higher re spon si bil ity.”

The point whe re li ving wit hin the truth ce a ses to be a mere ne ga ti on of li ving

with a lie and be co mes ar ti cu la te in a par ti cu lar way, is the point at which so -

met hing is born that might be cal led the ‘independent spi ri tu al, so ci al and po -

li ti cal life of so cie ty.’ ... [This] in clu des eve ryt hing from self-edu ca ti on and

think ing about the world, through free cre a ti ve ac ti vi ty and its com mu ni ca ti -

on to ot hers, to the most va ried free, ci vic ac ti vi ties, in clu ding in stan ces of in -

de pen dent so ci al self-or ga ni za ti on.7

But are such ef forts, un der a to tal i tar ian sys tem, only fu tile ges tures on the part of a mi -

nor ity of in tel lec tu als and other dis si dents, with no real power to trans form the so cial

or der? The ques tion re mained rel e vant even af ter the po lit i cal col lapse of Com mu nism,

since the vac uum that it left seemed likely, many ob serv ers be lieved, to be filled by new

forms of au thor i tar i an ism un less men and women at all lev els be gan act ing in a fash ion

for which the so cial iza tion pro cess un der Com mu nist re gimes might have un fit ted them.

Nei ther a free mar ket, nor a dem o cratic po lit i cal sys tem, nor a healthy so ci ety can func -

tion with out the ac tive in volve ment of in di vid u als who are both au ton o mous and re -

spon si ble, ca pa ble of act ing freely and at the same time in vol un tary co op er a tion with

oth ers through a host of for mal and in for mal as so ci a tions.

Po lit i cal re form alone would not be enough. As Jacques Maritain ob served, “fam ily,

eco nomic, cul tural, ed u ca tional, re li gious life mat ter as much as does po lit i cal life to the

very ex is tence and pros per ity of the body pol i tic.”8 The ef fort of Com mu nist re gimes to

elim i nate the “civil so ci ety,” all forms of so cial or ga ni za tion not di rectly sub or di nated to

the State and Party, some ob serv ers feared, might have done pro found dam age to the

abil ity of these so ci et ies and of in di vid u als within them to re spond to the de mands of

free dom. These crit ics were “pre oc cu pied with that hy per tro phy of cen tral au thor ity

which be came so very char ac ter is tic of Com mu nist so ci ety, and with the achieve ment of

the ero sion or to tal de struc tion of ri val cen tres of coun ter vail ing power.”9


6 Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism 246, 186.

7 Václav Ha vel, Li ving in Truth, Lon don: Fa ber and Fa ber 1987, 50, 84-85.

8 Jac ques Ma ri tain, Man and the Sta te (1951), ex cerp ted in Po li ti cal Order and the Plu ral Struc tu re of

So cie ty, edi ted by Ja mes W. Skil len and Roc kne M. McCart hy, Atlan ta: Scho lars Press 1991, 185.

9 Ernest Gellner, “Ci vil So cie ty in His to ri cal Con text,” Inter na ti o nal So ci al Scien ce Jour nal 43 (Au gust)

Civil so ci ety has been de fined in var i ous ways. Mi chael Walzer wrote that the

“words ‘civil so ci ety’ name the space of uncoerced hu man as so ci a tion and also the set of

re la tional net works – formed for the sake of fam ily, faith, in ter est, and ide ol ogy – that

fill this space.”10 Adam Seligman has ar gued that “what made the clas sic vi sion of civil

so ci ety unique was its pos it ing of the so cial space of hu man in ter ac tion as a moral

sphere – that is, not sim ply as a neu tral arena of ex change – where moral at trib utes were

de rived from the na ture of man him self.”11 The to tal i tar ian (and Dar win ian) in sis tence

on the in fi nite ‘makeability’ of hu man ity of course de nies any such es sen tial hu man na -

ture.

A pri mary strat egy of Com mu nist re gimes was to elim i nate or sub or di nate all ex -

pres sions of the civil so ci ety to their di rect con trol: “the state dis solved the in sti tu tions of

civil so ci ety and re placed the nor ma tive or der of that so ci ety with one of its own mak ing

... Po lit i cal par ties, busi ness as so ci a tions, trade un ions, learned so ci et ies, re li gious or ga -

ni za tions, and pub lish ing houses were abol ished or put un der the con trol of the state.”12

Iron i cally, how ever, the tre men dous stress of Com mu nist re gimes upon mo bi liz ing

the en tire pop u la tion in sup port of the goals of eco nomic and so cial trans for ma tion had

the un an tic i pated con se quence of re viv ing what the re gimes had ear lier de stroyed, as be -

came ap par ent once con di tions were right. Even in the late So viet Un ion, “The con tin u -

ous pro cesses of so cial mo bi li za tion, the ex pan sion of ed u ca tion, and the growth of nu -

mer ous pro fes sional groups and or ga ni za tions cre ated ... a much greater range of nu clei,

the ker nels of civil so ci ety.”13 This was all the more the case in So viet sat el lites in which a

shorter pe riod of to tal i tar ian rule had left many of the hab its of free as so ci a tion in tact.

The con vic tion grew that eco nomic and po lit i cal re forms in the na tions of Cen tral

and East ern Eu rope would not be suc cess ful with out such a re vival of this civil so ci ety.

Ef forts from the cen ter, dur ing Gorbachev’s cam paign of peres troika, to in sist upon new

forms of be hav ior at the pe riph ery of So viet life – harder work, less abuse of al co hol,

more eco nomic ini tia tive – within a sys tem that was fun da men tally un changed proved

largely in ca pa ble of reach ing the de sired re sults, con firm ing Mar tin Malia’s in sis tence

upon “the in trin sic irreformability of com mu nism.”14 Or, as Vic tor Zaslavsky put it,

Pe res troi ka was es sen ti al ly a po li ti cal re vo lu ti on that des troy ed the old po li ti -

cal or der but neit her shat te red the in sti tu ti o nal struc tu re of the eco no my nor

chang ed the sta te-de pen dent men ta li ty of the po pu la ti on.15


1991, 495.

10 Michael Wal zer, “The Idea of Ci vil So cie ty,” Dis sent 38 (Spring 1991), 293.

11 Adam B. Se lig man, The Idea of Ci vil So cie ty, Prin ce ton Uni ver si ty Press, 1992, 31.

12 Zbig niew Rau, “Intro duc ti on,” in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet

Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, 9-10.

13 S. N. Ei sen stadt, “The Bre ak down of Com mu nist Re gi mes and the Vi cis si tu des of Mo der ni ty,” Dae -

da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, 30.

14 Mar tin Ma lia, “Le ni nist Endga me,” Dae da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, 60.

15 Vic tor Za slavsky, “Na ti o na lism and De mo cra tic Tran si ti on in Post com mu nist So cie ties,” Dae da lus:

But pro cesses were at work within the for merly Com mu nist so ci et ies them selves that be -

gan to lead to new and more pos i tive forms of so cial or ga ni za tion. Malia took the pes si -

mis tic view that the “cre ation of a ma ture, di ver si fied civil so ci ety in the East still lies

many years in the fu ture;” the econ o mies would not re vive as hoped, de spite po lit i cal

changes, be cause the nec es sary changes “re quire ini tia tive on the part of so ci ety, and the

ru di men tary civil so ci ety that emerged from the col lapse of com mu nism is too weak for

such a re sponse.”16 Sim i larly, Seligman ar gued that “in the East, the (prac ti cal) con di -

tions for the emer gence of the clas si cal West ern lib eral-in di vid u al ist model of civil so ci -

ety do not fully ex ist.”17 For tu nately, it ap pears that they were wrong.

Václav Havel gave a dif fer ent pre dic tion long be fore the po lit i cal changes, in his

1978 es say: “the at tempt at po lit i cal re form [in the Prague Spring of 1968] was not the

cause of so ci ety’s re awak en ing, but rather the fi nal out come of that re awak en ing.” Fun -

da men tally dis agree ing with the Marx ist/Le nin ist as sump tion that hu man na ture would

change in re sponse to changes in the eco nomic and po lit i cal or der, Havel in sisted that

po lit i cal and eco nomic re form could only oc cur through “pro found ex is ten tial and

moral changes in so ci ety.”18 Through ini tia tives in de pend ent of State and Party con trol,

those de ter mined to re ject the lies im posed upon them by ide ol ogy would be gin to rec re -

ate a so cial space within which it would be pos si ble to “live within the truth,” and not

only for them selves, but ul ti mately for the en tire so ci ety.

What else are tho se ini ti al at tempts at so ci al self-or ga ni za ti on than the ef forts

of a cert ain part of so cie ty to live – as a so cie ty – wit hin the truth, to rid it self

of the self-sus tai ning as pects of to ta li ta ri a nism and, thus, to ex tri ca te it self ra -

di cal ly from its in vol ve ment in the post-to ta li ta ri an sy stem? What else is it but

a non-vi o lent at tempt by pe ople to ne ga te the sy stem wit hin them sel ves and to

es ta blish their li ves on a new ba sis, that of their own pro per iden ti ty? ... it

would be qui te wrong to un der stand the pa ral lel struc tu res and the pa ral lel

po lis as a ret re at into a ghet to and as an act of iso la ti on, ad dres sing it self only

to tho se who had de ci ded on such a cour se, and who are in dif fe rent to the

rest. ... the pa ral lel po lis points bey ond it self and only ma kes sen se as an act of

dee pe ning one’s res pon si bi li ty to and for the who le ... Inde pen dent ini ti a ti ves

... de mon stra te that li ving wit hin the truth is a hu man and so ci al al ter na ti ve

and they strug gle to ex pand the spa ce avai la ble for that life.19

This phe nom e non of a grad ual re-an i ma tion and or ga ni za tion of civil so ci ety by vol un -

tary ef forts from be low has been de scribed “as ‘the so cial self-or ga ni za tion of so ci ety’ in


The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, 116.

16 Ma lia, 71.

17 Se lig man, 200.

18 Ha vel, 60, 71.

19 Ha vel, 102-106.

Po land, a ‘par al lel’ or ‘in de pend ent so ci ety’ in Czecho slo va kia, or a ‘sec ond so ci ety’ in

Hun gary.”20

The ques tion re mains (one should add par en thet i cally) whether it can oc cur only in

those na tions of Cen tral Eu rope with an ex pe ri ence of civic cul ture be fore the Com mu -

nist take-over. Some ques tion whether Rus sia, in par tic u lar, has in her ited pat terns of be -

hav ior from its pre-So viet past that will pre vent the im ple men ta tion of fun da men tal re -

forms.

The se en du ring con stan cies in Rus si an and So viet po li ti cal life im po se se ve re

li mits on the pos si bi li ties for the com ple ti on of a true cul tu ral re vo lu ti on: the

cre a ti on of a no vel form of so ci al life in for med by a new set of va lu es. Rat her,

once in sti tu ti o na li zed, ha bits ori gi na ting in an ol der tra di ti on are pas sed on to

young ge ne ra ti ons as part of their so ci a li za ti on ex pe rien ces ... So viet cul tu ral

re vo lu ti o na ries can not es ca pe their past, the col lec ti ve his to ry and tra di ti ons

of their pe ople.21

Sim i larly, so cial an thro pol o gist Er nest Gellner asks whether eco nomic plu ral ism can be

re born whe re it has been abo lis hed? ... [par ti cu lar ly] in a lar ger so cie ty in

which 70 ye ars of So vie ti za ti on – a good part of it being ye ars of to tal ter -

ror – have all but era di ca ted any ge nui ne al ter na ti ve tra di ti ons. The con sci -

ous ly in ten ded re-in au gu ra ti on of free en ter pri se may per haps eng en der only

an op por tu nist lum pen bour geoi sie, de void of tho se vir tu es which per haps ac -

com pa nied the slow emer gen ce of the en tre pre neu ri al class du ring the first

and spon ta ne ous, unin ten ded birth of ca pi ta lism.22

Whether a true civil so ci ety can emerge in the for mer So viet Un ion or whether Rus sia,

Ukraine and other suc ces sor states will slip back into au thor i tar ian modes of po lit i cal

and so cial or ga ni za tion is still not al to gether clear and ob vi ously is of con se quence not

only to their own cit i zens but also to the dem o cratic na tions of the West.

Just as ed u ca tional sys tems were for sev eral gen er a tions deeply im pli cated in ef forts

to re shape hu man na ture into obe di ence to cen tral di rec tion by the Com mu nist Party/

State, by elim i nat ing all forms of in de pend ent think ing and all com pet ing loy al ties, so

to day the same sys tems are on the front lines of the re vival of civil so ci ety in East ern and

Cen tral Eu rope.


20 Václav Ben da, Mi lan Šimeka, Ivan M. Ji rous, JiÍí Dienst bier, Václav Ha vel, La di slav Hejdánek and

Jan Šimsa, “Pa ral lel Po lis, or An Inde pen dent So cie ty in Cen tral and Eas tern Eu ro pe: An Inqui ry,” So ci al

Re se arch 55, 1-2 (Spring/Sum mer 1988), 211.

21 Step hen R. Bu rant, “The Influ en ce of Rus si an Tra di ti on on the Po li ti cal Sty le of the So viet Eli te,” Po -

li ti cal Scien ce Qu ar ter ly 102, 2 (Sum mer) 1987, 292-293.

22 Ernest Gellner, “Ci vil So cie ty in His to ri cal Con text,” Inter na ti o nal So ci al Scien ce Jour nal 43 (Au -

gust) 1991, 502-503.

This pro cess is oc cur ring in two dis tinct ways. The first is through the re newal of cur -

ric u lum to elim i nate ex plicit and in for mal in doc tri na tion and to teach the civic and so -

cial vir tues con sid ered nec es sary for re spon si ble cit i zen ship in the free so ci et ies that are

strug gling to be born. There is great in ter est at pres ent in de vel op ing, some times with the

help of West ern spe cial ists, cur ric u lum stress ing de moc racy and free mar kets and in

train ing teach ers to pres ent it in a non-au thor i tar ian par tic i pa tory man ner.

The other as pect of the pro cess of re newal of ed u ca tion sys tems is that which Václav

Havel fore saw in 1978, when he pre dicted that

the of fi ci al struc tu res – as agen cies of the post-to ta li ta ri an sy stem, exis ting

only to ser ve its au to ma tism and con struc ted in the spi rit of that role – sim ply

be gin wit he ring away and dy ing off, to be re pla ced by new struc tu res that

have evol ved from ‘below’ and are put to ge ther in a fun da men tal ly dif fe rent

way.

These new struc tures would be

held to ge ther more by a com mon ly sha red fee ling of the im por tan ce of cert ain

com mu ni ties than by com mon ly sha red ex pan si o nist am bi ti ons di rec ted

‘outward’. The re can and must be struc tu res that are open, dy na mic and

small; bey ond a cert ain point, hu man ties like per so nal trust and per so nal res -

pon si bi li ty can not work.23

Havel was not re fer ring pri mar ily to schools in his 1978 es say (though he men tions, as

an ex am ple of the “in de pend ent life of so ci ety,” “teach ers who pri vately teach young

peo ple things that are kept from them in the state schools”24), but in fact new and trans -

formed schools were among the most com mon “new struc tures” emerg ing dur ing the

last years of Com mu nist rule and in a flood since its col lapse.

Groups of par ents and teach ers be gan to re-cre ate ed u ca tion through school-level

ini tia tives to serve their chil dren more hon estly and more ef fec tively, and ed u ca tion pol -

icy de bates fo cused, even more than in the United States, on whether such ini tia tives

should be merely tol er ated as an ex pres sion of free dom or wel comed and sup ported in

the in ter est of so ci ety as a whole.

Even more than in the West, such ini tia tives are an es sen tial as pect of ed u ca tional

reform in the for merly Com mu nist na tions, where “a rich net work of in de pend ent in sti -

tu tions and or ga ni za tions has to be formed, that are nei ther state-di rected nor state-con -

trolled, that are au ton o mous so cial, po lit i cal, and cul tural en ti ties. Seek ing and con sti -

tut ing such so cial, cul tural, po lit i cal forces, ca pa ble of at tain ing such in de pend ence and

bal ance, is the pro cess which will de cide whether a postcommunist re gime is suc cess ful


23 Ha vel, 108, 118.

24 Ha vel, 87.

in its ef forts to achieve de moc racy.”25 Schools are ide ally sit u ated to serve as the oc ca -

sion for new hab its of co op er a tion, for the de vel op ment of trust as adults work to gether

in the in ter est of their chil dren.

Edu ca ti o nal Free dom is not just a Post-com mu nist Issue

Free dom is es sen tial to full hu man de vel op ment. Only as in di vid u als ex er cise their free -

dom ac tively in re spon si ble de ci sion-mak ing do they (and thus the so ci et ies in which

they are par tic i pants) grow mor ally into full hu man ity. Re spon si ble free dom is thus un -

avoid ably a con cern of ed u ca tion, not in the form of in dif fer ence to what pu pils do and

will do, to the choices that they make and will make, but pre cisely in rec og ni tion of the

heavy moral sig nif i cance of such choices.

For those who are par ents, the de sire to raise chil dren ca pa ble of ex er cis ing free dom

within a con text of re spon si bil ity ne ces sity of re spon si ble choice is a daily re al ity ex ists

in ten sion with the nat u ral de sire to pass on an in her i tance of con vic tions and loy al ties.

All par ents, it is safe to say, hope that their chil dren will come to value and live by the

con vic tions by which the par ents have di rected and given mean ing to their own lives.

Thus it is a fun da men tal anom aly and in jus tice when the State sets it self up as a ri val

to par ents in shap ing the be liefs and loy al ties of chil dren. Re spon si ble de ci sion-mak ing

by in di vid u als is, in these so ci et ies, not per mit ted in the sphere that par ents them selves

per ceive as be ing of the great est moral weight – how their chil dren are ed u cated.

It is no ac ci dent that ed u ca tion is the sphere where the State is most tempted to seek

to ex tend its in flu ence over its cit i zens. The ex ten sion of pop u lar ed u ca tion through gov -

ern ment ini tia tives has, through out the nine teenth and twen ti eth cen tu ries, been marked

by con flict over the ex tent to which the State sought to de fine and im pose a sin gle

worldview through its schools. That such con flicts have oc curred in al most ev ery mod -

ern iz ing so ci ety is by no means ac ci den tal: cre at ing sys tems of State-con trolled school ing

has in al most ev ery case been one of the pri mary means of car ry ing out the es sen tial tasks

of na tion build ing: “break ing through and po lit i cal in te gra tion.” Jowitt has de scribed

“break ing through” as the “de ci sive al ter ation or de struc tion of val ues, struc tures, and

be hav iors which are per ceived by a rev o lu tion ary elite as com pris ing or con trib ut ing to

the ac tual or po ten tial ex is tence of al ter na tive cen ters of po lit i cal power.”26

It would be nat u ral to as sume that the to tal i tar ian pro ject of cre at ing a new con -

scious ness through uni ver sal com pul sory school ing was in vented by re gimes – com mu -

nist or fas cist – in which the State has at tempted to swal low up all of so ci ety. In fact, this

pro ject was al ready an tic i pated by Jean-Jacques Rous seau. In A Dis course on Po lit i cal


25 JiÍí Mu sil, “Czechos lo va kia in the Middle of Tran si ti on,” Dae da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism

Spring, 1992, 189-190.

26 Ken neth Jo witt, Re vo lu ti o na ry Bre akthroughs and Na ti o nal De ve lop ment: The Case of Ro ma nia,

1944-1965, Ber ke ley: Uni ver si ty of Ca li for nia Press 1971, 7.

Econ omy (1755) he wrote that “the most ab so lute au thor ity is that which pen e trates a

man’s in most be ing, and con cerns it self no less with his will than with his ac tions. It is

cer tain that all peo ples be come in the long run what the gov ern ment makes them . ..

Make men, there fore, if you would com mand men.” But “to form cit i zens is not the

work of a day, and in or der to have men it is nec es sary to ed u cate them when they are

chil dren.” To that end, “gov ern ment ought the less in dis crim i nately to aban don to the

in tel li gence and pa tri o tism and prej u dices of fa thers the ed u ca tion of their chil dren, as

that ed u ca tion is of still greater im por tance to the State than to the fa thers.”27

Sim i larly, in The So cial Con tract (1762) Rous seau wrote that “he who dares to un -

der take the mak ing of a peo ple’s in sti tu tions ought to feel him self ca pa ble, so to speak,

of chang ing hu man na ture, of trans form ing each in di vid ual.”28 And, a lit tle closer to

home, in “Con sid er ations on the Gov ern ment of Po land” (1773) Rous seau wrote that

“Ev ery true pa triot sucks in the love of coun try with his mother’s milk. This love is his

whole ex is tence. He thinks of noth ing but his coun try. He lives only for his coun try. Take

him by him self, and he counts for noth ing.”29

Now, we may well agree that love of coun try is an im por tant qual ity, a form of civic

vir tue, which a good ed u ca tion should cul ti vate – along with wider con cerns for all of

hu man ity – but shrink from the idea that it should in ef fect elim i nate all in di vid u al ity.

For a to tal i tar ian re gime, how ever, con trol of pop u lar ed u ca tion is a fun da men tal means

of seek ing to im pose uni for mity and ad her ence to the re gime. The child be longs to the

State rather than to his or her fam ily. That par ents might seek to nur ture in their chil dren

com mit ment to a re li gious tra di tion, to dis tinc tive val ues, or in deed to any en tity in the

civil so ci ety that could be a source of com pet ing val ues is seen as a di rect threat to the

State’s au thor ity.

Al though the op po si tion be tween Com mu nism and re li gion is in her ent and un avoid -

able in the to tal claims which each makes upon the hu man spirit, it should be noted that

Marx and Engels them selves did not call for the sort of at tacks upon re li gion that be -

came a char ac ter is tic of all of the re gimes call ing them selves Marx ist. To Marx and

Engels, re li gion was the prod uct of un just so cial and eco nomic re la tion ships, and would

wither away when they did. Le nin and his suc ces sors, how ever, in sisted that re li gion was

an in tol er a ble ri val to the rul ing Party for the to tal loy alty of the masses, and a dan ger -

ous source of al ter na tive ways of un der stand ing and liv ing in the world.

A study of Po land around 1980 noted that “[p]lanned sec u lar iza tion and anti-re li -

gious pol icy, key fea tures of athe ist to tal i tar i an ism, are them selves a sec u lar ver sion of

the mil len nial fan tasy: planned sec u lar iza tion is typ i cally de scribed by its pro po nents as


27 Jean-Jac ques Rous seau, The So ci al Con tract and Dis cour ses, trans la ted by G.D.H. Cole, Lon don:

Eve ry man, 1993, 139, 147-48.

28 Rous seau, 214.

29 In József Nagy and Péter Sze be nyi, Cur ri cu lum Po li cy in Hung ary, Bu da pest: Hung ari an Insti tu te for

Edu ca ti o nal Re se arch 1990; The Mi nor Edu ca ti o nal Wri tings of Jean Jac ques Rous seau, trans la ted by

Wil li am Boyd, New York: Te achers Col le ge, 1962, 97.

a means to the re al iza tion of those val ues which Chris tian ity it self pos tu lates but is un -

able or un will ing to im ple ment.”30

There is noth ing ac ci den tal about this quasi-re li gious em pha sis upon win ning the

hearts and souls of the ris ing gen er a tion. “One im por tant char ac ter is tic of a to tal i tar ian

re gime is that it is not sat is fied with sim ple obe di ence from its sub jects but also tries to

ob tain their en thu si as tic sup port.” It is of cen tral im por tance to such re gimes that “the

peo ple ac tively want what their rul ers want them to want” and there is “en thu si as tic

una nim ity through out the whole of so ci ety.”31

While an au thor i tar ian re gime may be sat is fied with obe di ence, a to tal i tar ian re gime

seeks de vo tion that will be self-per pet u at ing. “Any one seiz ing power wishes to keep it

for a cer tain length of time; it is how ever a spe cial fea ture of peo ple’s rev o lu tions to set

their goals on the pros pect of a bound less fu ture” through “cul ti vat ing rev o lu tion ary

suc ces sors.”32

The pro ject of us ing pop u lar ed u ca tion as a means of im pos ing a sin gle set of val ues

and loy al ties upon an en tire ris ing gen er a tion, in the in ter est of the State and its rul ing

elite, was not in vented in our own age, how ever, nor was the Com mu nist re gime in the

So viet Un ion the first to seek to im ple ment it.

The French Jac o bins of 1792 ar tic u lated this am bi tion as clearly as it has ever been

stated. “It is in na tional schools,” Danton told the Con ven tion, “that chil dren must suck

re pub li can milk. The Re pub lic is one and in di vis i ble; pub lic in struc tion must also be re -

lated to this cen ter of unity.” Only in this way could the “to tal re gen er a tion” of the

French peo ple called for by Robespierre and his al lies be ac com plished. But this could be

ac com plished only through res o lute de nial of the claims of par ents. As a Jac o bin or a tor

warned his col leagues,

You will lose the young er ge ne ra ti on in aban do ning it to pa rents with pre ju di -

ces and ig no ran ce who give it the de fec ti ve tint which they have them sel ves.

The re fo re, let the Fat her land take hold of chil dren who are born for it alo ne.33

While the Jac o bin pro gram did not pre vail, the na tion-build ing elites who made pop u lar

ed u ca tion a pri or ity in the United States and other in dus tri al iz ing na tions through out

the nine teenth cen tury had some thing rather sim i lar in mind. With out in tend ing to sug -

gest a “moral equiv a lence” be tween the ed u ca tional goals of to tal i tar ian re gimes and

those of lib eral de moc ra cies, it is ap pro pri ate to rec og nize that few po lit i cal lead ers in


30 Ma ciej Po mi an-Srzed nic ki, Re li gi ous Change in Con tem po ra ry Po land: Se cu la ri za ti on and Po li tics,

Lon don: Rout led ge & Ke gan Paul, 1982, 185.

31 Michael Lind say, “Con tra dic ti ons in a To ta li ta ri an So cie ty,” The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 39, July-Sep tem -

ber 1969, 31-33.

32 Ma ri an ne Bas tid, “Eco no mic Ne ces si ty and Po li ti cal Ide als in Edu ca ti o nal Re form Du ring the Cul tu -

ral Re vo lu ti on,” The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 42, April-June 1970, 16.

33 Re fe ren ces for Dan ton, Ro be spier re and Bil laud-Va ren ne found in Char les L. Glenn, The Myth of the

Com mon School, Uni ver si ty of Mas sachu setts Press, 1988, 291-2.

times of rapid so cial change can re sist the temp ta tion to seek to pro mote their own

agenda for the fu ture through the in stru men tal ity of school ing – what ever par ents want

for their chil dren.

Hor ace Mann and his al lies in mak ing ed u ca tion a pri mary con cern of gov ern ment

were con vinced that so ci ety could not af ford to al low par ents to de ter mine who would

ed u cate their chil dren. The “prej u dices and ig no rance” of par ents would lead them to

fa vor schools and teach ers shar ing their be nighted views, and thus the grand pro ject of

cre at ing a new hu man ity through school ing would be frus trated.

There is no lib eral de moc racy, in deed, that has not ex pe ri enced the ten sion be tween

the ed u ca tional mis sion of the State and that of the fam ily, and it has of ten been the

source of ma jor con flict, as in the early 1980s in France and Spain.34

An ed u ca tional pro gram by and for the State poses an al most ir re sist ible temp ta tion,

for the State’s ed u ca tors, to see them selves as know ing better than par ents what is good

for their chil dren. Sooner or later, such a pédagogie l’état poses se vere prob lems for a

dem o cratic so ci ety that, through the pro cess of mod ern iza tion, has be come in creas ingly

di verse in val ues. “Even the well-in ten tioned state,” writes le gal phi los o pher John Rob -

in son, “tends to ho mog e nize its cit i zens, delegitimizing all loy al ties ex cept those that

bind the in di vid ual to the state ... The fam ily is a nat u ral an ti dote to the state’s to tal i tar -

ian ten den cies. As does a church, it gen er ates loy al ties that ri val in in ten sity those that

the state evokes, and it con veys be liefs that can un der mine the ide ol ogy that the state is

pur vey ing.”35

Eth i cist Rich ard Baer has pointed out that “...a gov ern ment mo nop oly school sys -

tem with a cap tive stu dent au di ence – a sys tem which in sig nif i cant cur ric u lar mat ters is

no lon ger lo cally con trolled, and which, es pe cially at the pre-col lege lev els, is no gen u ine

mar ket-place of ideas – will al most al ways be ex pe ri enced as co er cive and op pres sive by

var i ous dis sent ing mi nor i ties.”36

While the ed u ca tor-State is al ways tempted to set its goals above and in op po si tion to

those of par ents, the Jac o bin pro gram was adopted with spe cial en thu si asm by con tem -

po rary Marx ist/Le nin ist re gimes. Fi del Cas tro, for ex am ple, has in sisted that Cuba

could man age its econ omy with out ma te rial in cen tives through cre at ing a “new man”

who would re spond suf fi ciently to moral in cen tives, the de sire to serve the Rev o lu tion.

Cuba, ac cord ing to Cas tro, “can not en cour age or even per mit self ish at ti tudes ... The

con cept of so cial ism and com mu nism, the con cept of a higher so ci ety, im plies a man de -

void of those feel ings ...”37 “From an early age” chil dren “must be dis cour aged from ev -

ery ego tis ti cal feel ing in the en joy ment of ma te rial things, such as the sense of in di vid ual


34 Char les L. Glenn, Choi ce of Schools in Six Na ti ons, Was hing ton, D.C.: U. S. De part ment of Edu ca ti -

on, 1989; Ger ard Le clerc, La ba tail le d’école: 15 siècles d’histoire, 3 ans de com bat, Pa ris: De no ël, 1985.

35 John H. Ro bin son, “Why School ing Is So Con tro ver si al In Ame ri ca To day,” Not re Dame Jour nal of

Law, Ethics and Pu blic Po li cy 3, 4, 1988.

36 Richard A. Baer, Jr., “Cen sors hip and the Pu blic Schools,” ty pe script (Cor nell Uni ver si ty) 1984.

37 Qu o ted by Jo seph A. Kahl, “The Mo ral Eco no my of a Re vo lu ti o na ry So cie ty,” in Cu ban Com mu -

nism, edi ted by Irving Lou is Ho ro witz, Tran sac ti on Books 1970, 100.

prop erty, and be en cour aged to ward the great est pos si ble com mon ef fort ....”38

The to tal i tar ian ed u ca tional pro gram has been at tempted on the larg est scale in

China, where a ma jor pre oc cu pa tion of the re gime in power since 1949 has been with

cre at ing a “to tally mo bi lized so ci ety” through a “rad i cal trans for ma tion of man.”39

It is char ac ter is tic of to tal i tar ian re gimes to dis miss dis sent as a relic of the “prej u -

dices and ig no rance” as so ci ated with the older gen er a tion. Af ter all, “all right-minded

peo ple are unan i mous and en thu si as tic about the build ing of a new so cial or der and sup -

port the rul ers be cause they pro vide in spi ra tion and lead er ship for this com mon pur -

pose. Dis agree ment co mes only from a mi nor ity who have been cor rupted by evil in flu -

ences of the old so ci ety ..., which im plies that op po si tion will fade away as the new

so ci ety de vel ops.”40

But op po si tion does not fade away; the in stinct of par ents to pass on what has

shaped and given mean ing to their own lives to their chil dren can not be erad i cated so

eas ily. As to tal i tar ian po lit i cal con trol slipped in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope, one of the

fo cal points of dis sat is fac tion in each na tion was the ed u ca tional sys tem. Al ter na tive

schools were es tab lished or re vived, pro pos als to end the gov ern ment mo nop oly of

school ing were ad vanced as part of the agenda of po lit i cal re form, and par ents were

drawn into the ed u ca tional pro cess in ways that are fun da men tally dif fer ent from the

“mo bi li za tions” that are a ba sic tac tic of Marx ist/Le nin ist re gimes. Through this

grass-roots pro cess, the de lib er ately-sup pressed civil so ci ety be gan to re as sert it self.

In Po land, the So viet-bloc na tion where ar gu ably civil so ci ety sur vived most in tact

and in de pend ent school ing emerged with the great est vigor af ter the fall of the Com mu -

nist gov ern ment, in Hun gary, and in the Czech Re pub lic, by all ac counts a rel a tively

healthy and di ver si fied so ci ety and ed u ca tional sys tem have arisen. In Hun gary, for ex -

am ple, this can be seen as a log i cal de vel op ment from a de cade of ef forts, be gin ning be -

fore the fall of the Com mu nist re gime, to re make and re vi tal ize the state ed u ca tional sys -

tem from a top-down com mand struc ture to one driven by lo cal de ci sion mak ing within

a frame work of school au ton omy. There was a grow ing rec og ni tion that in no va tion in

the in ter est of im proved school ing “is in con ceiv able in a sit u a tion where a firmly cen -

tral ised con trol is in vari ably main tained.”

The de ci sion by the Hun gar ian Com mu nist Party, in 1982, to aban don the highly po -

lit i cized con trol of school ing in the in ter est of stim u lat ing school-level re sponse to di -

verse needs was a fun da men tal shift of em pha sis, based upon a new faith in lo cal prob -

lem-solv ing.41 This led to adop tion of a new ed u ca tion law in 1985 that stressed lo cal


38 Qu o ted by Lee Lock wood, Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fi del, New York: Ran dom Hou se 1969, 110.

39 Tang Tsou, “The Cul tu ral Re vo lu ti on and the Chi ne se Po li ti cal Sy stem,” The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 38,

April-June 1969, 64.

40 Michael Lind say, “Con tra dic ti ons in a To ta li ta ri an So cie ty,” The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 39, July-Sep tem -

ber 1969, 32.

41 András Vitányi, re view of Edu ca ti o nal Po li cy and Edu ca ti o nal Con trol by Halász, Lukács and Nagy,

in Edu ca ti o nal Po li cy Re se arch Pa pers 55, Hung ari an Insti tu te for Edu ca ti o nal Re se arch, Ja nu a ry 1983,

9; Lukács 1988, 3-4; Péter Lukács, “Re form and Re form Pro po sals – Chang es in Hung ari an Edu ca ti o nal

au ton omy and teacher ini tia tive, in clud ing se lec tion of text books, and re leased teach ers

from the ob li ga tion to take part in the Pi o neer move ment and other forms of po lit i cal so -

cial iza tion. The of fi cial role of par ent or ga ni za tions was be changed from that of mo bi -

liz ing par ents po lit i cally to that of ex ert ing pa ren tal in flu ence on the school.42

While the cyn i cal sug gested that the gov ern ment was of fer ing au ton omy be cause it

could not pro vide ad e quate fund ing, there was also a grow ing rec og ni tion that this re -

form was es sen tial. Schools were charged with de vel op ing in di vid ual or ga ni za tional

struc tures and ap proaches to ed u ca tion through ex ten sive in volve ment of teach ers, and

the lat ter were given sub stan tial de ci sion-mak ing au thor ity in school man age ment.

Hun gar ian pol icy mak ers be fore and af ter the fall of the com mu nist re gime were thus

de bat ing is sues which are cen tral to de bates in the United States and West ern Eu rope as

well: where we should and where we should not have cen tral reg u la tion; which are the

ar eas where it is de sir able to have al ter na tives and plu ral ism, and which are the ar eas

where they are not de sir able? There was grow ing agree ment that what ever na tional core

cur ric u lum is de vel oped “should not im pose any sin gle ide ol ogy or re li gion; it should en -

able the churches and pri vate schools to ex press their own world views in their de tailed

cur ric ula. In other words, it should open the way to ideo log i cal plu ral ism.”43

It is one thing, of course, to tol er ate ideo log i cal plu ral ism and al ter na tive ways of

teach ing and learn ing, and an other to struc ture the ed u ca tional sys tem so that di ver sity

is ac tively en cour aged and schools are liv ing com mu ni ties of learn ing, re spon sive to the

needs of par tic u lar groups of chil dren, to their par ents, and to a so ci ety in con stant

change. That chal lenge has not been fully met in most coun tries, in clud ing the United

States, though our Dutch and Bel gian friends have come closer than the rest of us to

meet ing it. Old hab its die hard, as do old at ti tudes and as sump tions, and many

well-mean ing pol icy-mak ers are un will ing to trust the en er gies of civil so ci ety and of

teach ers to ed u cate chil dren well, with out the heavy hand of gov ern ment di rect ing.

“Where do cit i zens ac quire the ca pac ity to care about the com mon good?” le gal

scholar Mary Ann Glendon asks. “Where do peo ple learn to view oth ers with re spect

and con cern, rather than to re gard them as ob jects, means, or ob sta cles?” In fam i lies, in

re li gious and other vol un tary as so ci a tions, in schools which are re spon sive to the con -

cerns of par ents. “We should not have to apol o gize for de fin ing our so ci ety as one that

re lies heavily on fam i lies to so cial ize its young cit i zens,” she points out, “and that en -

cour ages, aids and re wards per sons who per form fam ily ob li ga tions. But an in dis pens -

able el e ment of any such ef forts to im prove con di tions for the nur ture of cit i zens must be

to at tend more closely to the struc tures of civil so ci ety with which fam i lies are in a sym -

bi otic re la tion ship.”44


Po li cy,” ty pe script, 1988, 3-4.

42 Ha lasz on pa rent par ti ci pa ti on; Ha lasz, “The Effi cien cy Pro blem ...”; Lukács, “Re forms and Re form

Pro po sals ...” 9.

43 Nagy and Sze be nyi, 13.

44 Mary Ann Glen don, Rights Talk: The Impo ve rish ment of Po li ti cal Dis cour se, New York, Free Press,

More than ever, this has be come an ur gent need as we see the dis tress ing phe nom e -

non that Havel pointed out in 1992: “we are wit nesses to a bi zarre state of af fairs: so ci -

ety has freed it self, true, but in some ways be haves worse than when it was in chains.”

The ben e fits of free dom al ways come with as so ci ated dan gers, as Plato warned in his de -

scrip tion of the dem o cratic re gime. Marx ists were not al to gether wrong in stress ing the

con tra dic tions in her ent in civil so ci ety, though their so lu tion was pro foundly mis guided.

“For the old de moc ra cies as for the new,” his to rian Ger trude Himmelfarb points out,

“it is not enough, as Havel dis cov ered, to re store civil so ci ety; it is also nec es sary to re -

form and remoralize its in sti tu tions ... as they con front the hard [prob lems of dem o cratic

so ci ety – ed u ca tion, wel fare, crime, pop u lar cul ture, and, above all, the fam ily.”45

Schools that truly be long to the par ents who send their chil dren, schools that are un -

apol o getic about an ap proach to ed u ca tion that is based upon con vic tions about the na -

ture of a life well lived, pro vide set tings of un par al leled in ten sity for the de vel op ment of

the hab its of re spon si ble ac tiv ity on the part of adults and chil dren alike. The pro mo tion

of such schools – by free dom from ex ces sive reg u la tion, by in cen tives, by an in sis tence

upon high stan dards – is an ap pro pri ate goal of pub lic pol icy in ev ery na tion.


1991, 129, 135.

45 Ger tru de Him mel farb, One Na ti on, Two Cul tu res, New York: Ran dom Hou se, 2001, 42-43.

The Civil Society, the Government, and the Marketdealing with Education Pluralism

Jan De Groof

I. The Relevance of Comparative Education Law

With ref er ence to the re port pro duced by two ac a dem ics at the Boston Uni ver sity School

of Law they re peated the maxim that leg is la tion is an in dis pens able and ir re vers ible in -

stru ment in ac com plish ing eco nomic, so cial and po lit i cal trans for ma tion. How ever,

views dif fer on the ap pro pri ate meth od ol ogy for draft ing laws to fa cil i tate those

changes.1

Com par a tive law ought to be a vi tal part of the prep a ra tion of new leg is la tion and

the im ple men ta tion or amend ment of ex ist ing leg is la tion. Young de moc ra cies, such as

Rus sia and South Af rica, have even guar an teed the su prem acy of in ter na tional law in

their con sti tu tions and have laid down an ex plicit con sti tu tional ob li ga tion to use rel e -

vant com par a tive law as an in stru ment and touch stone when draft ing laws or re solv ing

le gal dis putes.

The same can also be said of the pri macy of qual ity care in ed u ca tion. Re search into

and the or gani sa tion of sys tems to eval u ate qual ity can hardly be set up as purely na -

tional un der tak ings now a days. Ev ery na tional ad min is tra tion and all ap plied re search is

based to an im por tant de gree on com par a tive ed u ca tional sci ence.

Com par a tive law can also in volve a crit i cal chal lenge and act as a spur where con tent

is con cerned for the le gal spec i fi ca tion of most pri or i ties in ed u ca tion pol icy, like qual ity

care.2

Com pa ra bil ity is thus needed as a way of dis cov er ing where one’s own ed u ca tion

pol icy is sit u ated and pos si bly as a source of in spi ra tion for new law-mak ing. The need

The Civil Society, the Government, and the Market dealing with Education Pluralism 21

1 The aut hors re fer to the exis ting li te ra tu re on the sub ject and brief ly sum ma ri se the fol lo wing po si ti ons:

“(1) Neo-clas si cal eco no mists ba si cal ly tre a ted a society’s eco no mic and ot her in sti tu ti ons as a black box,

in sti tu ti o nal eco no mists in ste ad iden ti fied in sti tu ti ons as the prin ci pal va ri a ble in eco no mic ana ly sis”.

2 Although se ver al Vo lu mes of the Eu ro pe an Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy sho wed that com pa -

ra ti ve edu ca ti on law is still all too of ten con fi ned to the de scrip ti ve sta ge, qua li ty care has to fit in with the

Eu ro pe an de mand for the plan ning of a com mu ni ty-wide spa ce for edu ca ti on and scien ce.

for com pa ra bil ity and an in ter na tional le gal di men sion to ed u ca tion, through stand ardi -

sa tion, ac tion programmes and le gal prac tice, is bound to in crease in the fu ture.

Not a few changes in leg is la tion are them selves a re sponse to in ter na tional trends.

Work that has con trib uted to ana lys ing the con di tion of na tional sys tems of higher ed u -

ca tion un der taken by the Or gani sa tion for Eco nomic Co op er a tion and De vel op ment in

its na tional re views of ed u ca tion and the sur vey on In ter na tional In di ca tors of Ed u ca -

tion Sys tems (INES), the data bank “Eurydice” of the Eu ro pean Un ion, have been in -

stru men tal in putt ing this pro cess in train. Gov ern ments rou tinely cite de vel op ments in

the in ter na tional arena as one of the main jus ti fi ca tions for amend ing higher ed u ca tion

leg is la tion. That in ter na tional de vel op ments are re flected in na tional leg is la tion will

doubt less strengthen the drive to wards a greater in ter na tional co her ence in ed u ca tion

sys tems, in its ter mi nol ogy and in stru men tal i ties at a time when a greater de gree of flex i -

bil ity in the ad min is tra tive and fi nan cial re la tion ships be tween gov ern ment and higher

ed u ca tion fig ures high on the po lit i cal agenda.

2. A ma jor fo cus of com par a tive (ed u ca tion) law lies on prac ti cal aims, such as the ad -

vance ment of leg is la tion, ju di cial de ci sion-mak ing and the har mo ni sa tion on – to more

ex tent – the uni fi ca tion of ed u ca tion law.3 In Eu ro pean Un ion per spec tive, the term ‘co -

her ency‘ is also rel e vant, de pend ing on the con cerned mat ters.4 The ELA(“Eu ro pean As -

so ci a tion for Ed u ca tion Law and Pol icy”)-con gress and pub li ca tion on Le gal sta tus of

Teach ers drew f.g. at ten tion to ma jor dif fer ences in le gal is sues be tween teach ers in the

var i ous Eu ro pean coun tries and ar gued in fa vour of har mo ni sa tion of na tional reg u la -

tions in the light of the prin ci ple of the free move ment of work ers.5

Find ings of com par a tive le gal stud ies are also ap plied to the de vel op ment of in ter na -

tional law. As an aid to na tional leg is la tion, com par a tive law has al ready es tab lished a

con sid er able prac tise.6

The dis cus sion on (non-)trans fer abil ity of leg is la tion leads to the con clu sion that the

dis cus sion about the ap pli ca tion of for eign so lu tions should be taken on the ba sis of

care ful study of the his tor i cal, cul tural, geo graph ical and eco nomic en vi ron ment of a le -

gal so lu tion as well as ex ist ing le gal reg u la tions.7 The pos si bil i ties for in cor po rat ing for -

eign leg is la tion into el e men tary, pri mary and sec ond ary ed u ca tion are prob a bly more

lim ited due to dif fer ences in cul ture, eco nom ics, etc. Look ing at ac tual de vel op ments in

sys tems of higher ed u ca tion in Eu rope, dif fer ences be tween Eu ro pean coun tries ap pear

to be di min ish ing, due to the fact that the na tional sys tems of the var i ous coun tries are


3 See Dor beck-Jung B.R., The Con cep tu a li za ti on of Com pa ra ti ve Edu ca ti o nal law, in DE GROOF

J.(ed.), The le gal sta tus of te achers, Leu ven, 1995, p. 126.

4 See De Groof J. Friess B., Oppor tu ni ties and li mi ta ti ons for a Eu ro pe an edu ca ti on po li cy, Eu ro pe an

Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy, 1997, Vol. 1, nr. 1-2, p. 9-17.

5 De Groof J., The le gal sta tus of te achers – the glo bal fra me work – an in tro duc ti on, in De Groof J., Ibi -

dem, p. 11-38.

6 Gros sfeld B., Macht und Ohnmacht der Rechts ver gleichung, Tübing en, 1984, p. 38.

7 Orbeck-Jung B.R., ibi dem, p. 128.

faced with sim i lar prob lems.8

But this should not lead to the state ment that in cor po ra tion is be com ing as com mon

ac cepted. There is no room how ever for purely na tional ed u ca tion pol icy, al though na -

tional leg is la tors still have to le giti mise Eu ro pean ten den cies.

More than us ing com par a tive law as a “res er voir of le gal so lu tions,”9 – from which

the best prac tise will have to be cho sen, com par a tive ed u ca tion law can be come an ef fec -

tive con tri bu tion to some con ver gency or a ‘har mo ni sa tion’ of law.10

Un avoid ably, each com par a tive ap proach needs to dis cuss the re la tion be tween ed u -

ca tional law and pol icy in more de tail11. Ed u ca tional leg is la tion has strong in stru men tal

as pects, be cause it serves cer tain pol icy goals. There fore ed u ca tional leg is la tion can be

re garded as ‘purposal law’. But if ed u ca tional law is re garded merely as an in stru ment of

ed u ca tional pol icy, the com par i son will fo cus on pol icy goals, and lit tle or no at ten tion

will be paid to le gal prin ci ples and val ues. A crit i cal ap proach to com par a tive ed u ca -

tional law will have to in volve a crit i cal re flec tion on pol icy as well as re veal ing any con -

tra dic tions be tween law and re al ity. The func tion of law is to in te grate the var i ous prag -

matic, eth i cal-po lit i cal, moral and ju rid i cal points of view, chiefly in the field of

ed u ca tion.

Be sides the use of le gal prac tise as “so cial en gi neer ing,”12 com par a tive ed u ca tional

law could also be sit u ated in the ob jec tive of com mon prin ci ples (of ed u ca tion law) – to

some re spect ‘a uni ver sal struc ture of ed u ca tional law’ ac cord ing the no tion of le gal pos -

i tiv ism.13

3. The in ter na tional di men sion of ed u ca tion in volves an at tempt to pro mote more


8 See: Kom mis si on der Eu ropäi schen Ge mein schaf ten, Qu a litätsma nag ment und Qu a litätssiche rung im

eu ropäi schen Hoch schul we sen, Luxem burg, 1993.

9 Zwei gert X., Kötz X., Intro duc ti on to Com pa ra ti ve Law, Oxford, 1992, p. 44-45.

10 In light of the sha red he ri ta ge in the Bri tish con cept of com mon law, it is in cre a sing ly clear that le gal is -

su es in va ri ous coun tries can be ad dres sed in si mi lar fas hi ons. For exam ple, as the US strug gles with le gal

ques ti ons sur roun ding school choi ce that have (to some ex tent) been re sol ved in England, Ca na da, and

Aus tra lia, Ame ri cans can le arn from how le gal sys tems ba sed on com mon law and pre ce dent have come

to terms with this thor ny is sue.

11 De Groof J. (ed.), Sub si di a ri ty and Edu ca ti on, Aspects of Com pa ra ti ve Law, 1994, Acco, Leu ven, p.

449; De Groof J. (ed.), The Le gal Sta tus of Te achers in Eu ro pe, 1995, Acco, Leu ven, p. 324; De Groof J.

and Fiers J. (eds.), The Le gal Sta tus of Mi no ri ties in Edu ca ti on, 1996, Acco, Leu ven, p. 435; De Groof J.

and Pen ne man H. (eds.), The Le gal Sta tus of Pu pils in Eu ro pe, 1998, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, Den

Haag, p. 472; Akker mans P., De Groof J. and Pen ne man H. (eds.), Edu ca ti on law and po li cy in an ur ban

so cie ty, 1999, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, Den Haag, p. 329; Ber ka W., De Groof J. and Pen ne man H.

(eds.), Au to no my and Edu ca ti on. Ye ar book of the Eu ro pe an Asso ci a ti on for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy,

2000, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, Den Haag, p. 420; De Groof J., De Smet C. and Pen ne man H. (eds.), Art

meets Law in Edu ca ti on, 2001 Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, Den Haag, p. 225.

12 Accor ding to the ide as of R. Pound on so ci o lo gi cal ju ris pru den ce : ‘The La wy er as a So ci al Engineer’,

Jour nal of Pu blic Law, 1955/3, p. 292 and id., Ju ris pru den ce, Min ne so ta, 1959, vol. 4, ci ta ted by Dor -

beck-Jung B.R., Ibi dem, p. 129, e.v.

13 See P.J. Vvn Nie kerk, A.K. Koe koek, The o ry of pu blic com pa ra ti ve law: the struc tu ral-em pi ri cal me -

thod, Ars Ae qui, 5/1994, p. 349.

“unity in di ver sity”, whilst the inter na tion ali sa tion of so ci ety and train ing also could

call for some le gal rev o lu tion.

Even though the prin ci ples of sub si di a ri ty and na ti o nal res pon si bi li ty for the

po li cy are as of edu ca ti on and cul tu re are res pec ted as ne ces sa ry fe a tu res of the

his to ri cal ly grown cul tu ral di ver si ty of Eu ro pe, the per ma nent flow of per -

sons and ide as wit hin the re alm of re search and ad van ced trai ning is bring ing

about una voi da ble in sti tu ti o nal and struc tu ral mo di fi ca ti ons in the na ti o nal

sys tems.14

This is par tic u larly the case in the im ple men ta tion phase of the Bo lo gna Dec la ra tion

among na tions Europeanwide, and the strive to more ‘read abil ity’ of ed u ca tion struc ture

will not be lim ited to the higher educationsector, and to pan-Eu ro pean coun tries.

The sup po si tion that the uni for mity of the ed u ca tion sys tem in the “East ern Bloc”

will soon give way to the va ri ety that is the hall mark of West ern Eu rope, be came a re al -

ity.15

The ques tion will raise un avoid ably to which ex tent the ba sic fun da men tal rights

deal ing with rights and free doms are re sponded in all mod ern states: are there some

com mon ‘con sti tu tional prin ci ples’ deal ing with ed u ca tional rights?16

Also what the Uni ted Sta tes and Aus tra lia con cerns, it is rat her dif fi cult to dis cuss a

uni form edu ca ti on po li cy, for the dif fe rent sta tes are in di vi du al ly res pon si ble for their

edu ca ti on sys tems, boast va ried tra di ti ons and as a re sult are be hol den to dif fe rent edu -

ca ti on ru les. No net he less, the se coun tries eit her have dif fe rent le vel of in cre a sing co he -

ren cy and co pes with si mi lar or iden ti cal items of edu ca ti on le gis la ti on agen da. The

more:

The past 50 ye ars have wit nes sed a con si de ra ble growth in the in flu en ce of the

law on edu ca ti on sys tems in many com mon law coun tries. Indeed, in the US

(...)17, an ar gu ment can be made that edu ca ti on has be co me le ga li sed. (...) Si -

mi lar ar gu ments have been made in ot her com mon law coun tries, most no ta -

bly Aus tra lia, Ca na da, New Ze a land and the UK.18

So, the ques tion ought to be for mu lated if the ex is tence, rec og ni tion and de vel op ment of


14 Gel lert Cl., Chang ing Pat terns of Eu ro pe an Hig her Edu ca ti on, in Gel lert Cl., Hig her Edu ca ti on in Eu -

ro pe, ‘Higher Edu ca ti on Po li cy Series’, Lon don, 1993, page 19.

15 Bir zea C., Edu ca ti o nal Po li cies of the Coun tries in Tran si ti on, Coun cil of Eu ro pe, Stras bourg, 1994,

page 33 et seq.

16 Bel gi um is a clas sic exam ple of the ex pli cit re fi ne ment of con sti tu ti o nal prin ci ples: De Groof J., La

Révi si on de la Con sti tu ti on de 1988 et 1’enseignement, Brus sels, 1990.

17 Aut hors ad ded : ”... (US), the home to the most ex ten si ve his to ry in vol ving edu ca ti on and the law ...".

18 Rus so, Ch., Ste wart, D., The pla ce of Edu ca ti on Law kn the in ter na ti o nal Com mu ni ty, Edu ca ti on

Law Jour nal, 2001, p. 18.

non-gov ern men tal schools be long to the “com mon con sti tu tional prin ci ples”19.

The com par a tive com mon law prac tice stresses the is sue of pro tec tion of in di vid ual

rights as over all pur pose of ed u ca tional law:

“In this con text, leg is la tion rep re sents a pro cess that fo cuses on : the in di vid ual as the

bearer of rights, the use of le gal con cepts and modes of rea son ing and the pro vi sion of le -

gal tech niques to en force and pro tect rights”20.

But, the ef fect of ed u ca tion law – wher ever – touches by ex cel lence the schools. “The

mes sage is that leg is la tion is ev i dent in the in crease in le gal pro cesses be ing used to frame

and chal lenge pol i cies, prac tices and de ci sion-mak ing in all ed u ca tion in struc tions but,

most no ta bly (...) schools”.21

World wide, the con cern ex ists that ed u ca tion be came more legal ised22, but the in ter -

pre ta tions of this phe nom e non slightly dif fer. How ever, the ser vice-based rule of the ed u -

ca tion law should be stressed, namely his func tion al ity for de vel op ment of Per son and

So ci ety.23

II. Short Historic Overview: Monopoly versus Pluralism in theEducation Domain

24

4. Be fore the Re nais sance in the 12th cen tury, ed u ca tion was a Church mat ter. With the

ad vent of a com mer cial and in dus trial econ omy (in the sphere of crafts) in the 11th-12th

cen tu ries, the mer chants and busi ness men in the towns dis cov ered the ben e fits of be ing

able to read and write. By form ing the com mu nal au thor i ties, they es tab lished a net work

of el e men tary lay schools for the pur poses of pro vid ing ed u ca tion which met the needs

of the mer chant classes and crafts men in the towns.

Since the Church had pre vi ously had a mo nop oly of ed u ca tion, the for mer was op -

posed to the free mar ket con cept for ed u ca tion which was de fended by the cit i zens of the

towns. Town-by-town agree ments were reached be tween se nior mem bers of the ec cle si -

as ti cal com mu nity and se nior mem bers of the mu nic i pal com mu nity.

The laicization of ed u ca tion dur ing the Mid dle Ages can be seen within the con text


19 Glenn, Ch and De Groof, J., Fin ding the Right Ba lan ce, Free dom, Au to no my and Accoun ta bi li ty in

Edu ca ti on, Vo lu me II, Utrecht, Lem ma, 2002, p. 350.

20 Rus so Ch., Ste wart D., ibi dem. See also Har ris N., Edu ca ti on re form and the law in England and Wa -

les, Aus tra lia and New Ze a land, Jour nal of Law and Edu ca ti on, 1997, 2(1), p. 3.

21 Ibi dem, and Ram say X., Shor ten X., Edu ca ti on and the Law, But ter worths, 1996.

22 Kirp X., Jen sen X., School Days, Rule Days: The Le ga li sa ti on and Re gu la ti on of Edu ca ti on, Fal mer

Press, 1986.

23 De Groof J., The over all im por tan ce of edu ca ti on law and the sta tus of te achers, Pa ris, 1995, Unes co.

24 Also ba sed on De Rid der-Sy moens Hil de, Enseig ne ment et pou voirs à tra vers les âges, in De Groof J.,

Sub si di a ri ty and edu ca ti on. Aspects of com pa ra ti ve edu ca ti o nal law, Leu ven, 1994, p. 185-189. See se lec -

ti ve bi bli og rap hie in this ar ti cle.

of a gen eral trend to wards the secu lar is ation of so ci ety. Cer tain ar eas of the law, which

not only in cluded mar riage but also so cial wel fare and pub lic health, grad u ally passed

from the mem bers of the Church into the hands of the sec u lar pow ers. It was only in

Cath o lic coun tries that, un der the in flu ence of the Coun ter-Ref or ma tion, there was a

move back wards; or rather the State again trans ferred ar eas of pub lic in ter est to the

Church (end of the 16th -17th cen tu ries).

In the Mid dle Ages, there was not re ally any dis tinc tion be tween the in sti tu tions of

the pri mary school and the sec ond ary school. Since the 12th cen tury (which saw fairly

im por tant geo graph ical changes), ba sic ed u ca tion had been pro vided in the ver nac u lar.

As soon as a pu pil knew how to read and write (and per form cal cu la tions), he was able

to prog ress to the Latin school. The mo nop oly of the Church on the Latin schools lasted

much lon ger (mo nas tic, chapterhouse and church schools). It was only in the most com -

mer cial and eman ci pated towns (North ern It aly, the for mer Neth er lands or the cur rent

Ben elux coun tries, the Han se atic towns or the Rhine re gion) that the mu nic i pal au thor i -

ties or in di vid u als were able to es tab lish schools at sec ond ary level. These schools pro -

vided ed u ca tion of a gen eral na ture (the seven lib eral arts25).

It was also in the large towns that, at the end of the Mid dle Ages, pri vate en ter prise

founded busi ness schools and pro fes sional schools for the learn ing of lan guages, ac -

coun tancy, the art of let ter writ ing, etc.

Un der the in flu ence of the Frères de la Vie Com mune and, sub se quently, hu man ist

ped a gogues and pro fes sors, ed u ca tion was made into a pro fes sional oc cu pa tion dur ing

the 15th and 16th cen tu ries both with re gard to the sci ence of teach ing and the or gani sa -

tion of schools.

Dur ing the 16th cen tury the pri vate board ing school came into be ing, which was an -

other type of ed u ca tion that fell be tween pri mary and sec ond ary ed u ca tion.

5. Through out the Mid dle Ages, the cen tral power, i.e. the sov er eigns, did not play a part

in ed u ca tion. It was a mat ter for the Church, towns and in di vid u als. It was not un til the

16th cen tury that sov er eigns be gan to show an in ter est in ed u ca tion and there were sev -

eral rea sons for this.

Firstly, in spired by clas si cal au thors, the hu man ists prop a gated the idea that qual ity

of life could only be im proved by the civil and moral ed u ca tion of each in di vid ual. And it

fell to the State to sup ply the re sources to make it pos si ble to pro vide this ed u ca tion, par -

tic u larly by cre at ing and con trol ling schools.

Sec ondly, the tur bu lent era of the Re form and the Coun ter-Ref or ma tion changed the

whole of Chris tian ity into a con glom er a tion of States which tried to achieve their in de -

pend ence against fairly var ied re li gious back grounds. The new con cept of the State was

based on the fol low ing for mat: a sin gle State, a sin gle sov er eign, a sin gle po lit i cal sys tem

and a sin gle re li gion. Re li gious and moral ed u ca tion was sup posed to af firm the au thor -


25 The se ven li be ral arts as de fi ned in the ear ly Middle Ages em bra ce all the dis ci pli nes which a cul ti va ted

man was sup po sed to mas ter. The first three arts (the tri vi um)

ity of the king and the State and per suade sub jects to show loy alty and de vo tion to the

mon arch. In their strug gle against her esy and po lit i cal dis si dence, the sov er eigns be gan

to take an in ter est in ed u ca tional mat ters. They knew that ed u ca tors were of ten the

prop a ga tors of “new” ideas and they real ised that schools were one of the best ways of

in doc tri nat ing and dis ci plin ing sub jects or, as J Lelièvre wrote:

“From the time that the Mon ar chy as serts its ab so lut ism, it is con cerned with the me -

thod i cal shap ing of hearts and minds”26.

Thirdly, the élite real ised that school ed u ca tion helped to cre ate an in dus tri ous and

obe di ent workforce. In fact, the vir tues which were most fre quently taught were those of

duty and in dus tri ous ness. At the same time, how ever, the cen tral power was afraid of too

wide spread a dis tri bu tion of the prac tice of read ing and writ ing among the lower so cial

classes. Not only would read ing pro vide a chan nel for dis si dent in for ma tion, but an ed u -

cated class of crafts men and work ers would no lon ger be in clined to work hard for de ri -

sory sal a ries. Gen eral lit er acy could up set the so cial or der.

In re al ity, it was only dur ing the Age of the En light en ment in the 18th cen tury that

sov er eigns oc cu pied them selves with the mat ter of school ed u ca tion in a more sys tem atic

way and with greater ef fect, par tic u larly since they be gan to see the ben e fits of more

wide spread ed u ca tion.

In some coun tries more than in oth ers, they man aged to lay claim to ar eas which had

tra di tion ally been re served for the Church, the com mu nal au thor i ties and even pri vate

en ter prise. The be lief that the State is re spon si ble for the “pub lic good” and that moral,

so cial and pro fes sional ed u ca tion play an im por tant role in this be came the Leitmotiv of

the En light en ment. En light ened des pots went fur ther than the sov er eigns of the Re nais -

sance. They par tic u larly tried to secu lar ise the schools to the det ri ment of the Church or

at least ex er cise more con trol over them and reg u late and con trol the or gani sa tion and

con tent of school and non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion.

For the first time in his tory, teacher train ing and par tic u larly the train ing of pri mary

school teach ers was taken se ri ously by the cen tral power. Proper min is te rial de part ments

were cre ated and the fairly abun dant wealth of leg is la tion gov ern ing ed u ca tion which

dates from this pe riod shows the in ter est of the sov er eigns in these mat ters.

6. Par tic u larly in the case of pri mary schools, gov ern ments only made par tial prog ress.

In sev eral Cath o lic coun tries and par tic u larly in the for mer Aus trian Neth er lands, this

led to a vi o lent ed u ca tional dis pute. The Church al lied it self with the particularist pro -

tests of the lo cal au thor i ties and par ents who re belled against the loss of tra di tional priv -

i leges. In Protestant coun tries, the re sponse was gen er ally less vi o lent since, at the time of

the Ref or ma tion, ar eas tra di tion ally re served for the Ro man Cath o lic Church had al -

ready been trans ferred to the sec u lar pow ers or had been main tained.


26 Le lie vre J., L’éducation en Fran ce du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, ci ta ted in De Rid der Sy moens H., Enseig -

ne ment et pou voirs à tra vers les âges, in De Groof J., Subsi di a ri ty and edu ca ti on. Aspects of com pa ra ti ve

edu ca ti o nal law, Leu ven, 1994, p. 185.

How ever, this does not mean that the dif fi cul ties of mod ern is ing schools were not

some times in sur mount able. Ev i dence of this fail ure is the fact that the sys tem of

non-gov ern men tal schools was very suc cess ful in the 18th cen tury. The so cial élite was

not sat is fied with the pri mary schools or the pub lic col leges or pri vate tu tors or gov er -

nors. Pri vate board ing schools, also called ‘maisons d’éducation‘, pro vided a more

“mod ern” and “à la carte” form of ed u ca tion than the of fi cial schools ad vo cated by the

State. Well-known board ing schools such as those in Paris, Lille, Brussels, Co logne and

else where, had an in ter na tional clientèle. As it ap peared im pos si ble to pro hibit such

schools, the sov er eigns had to be con tent with cer tain forms of con trol.

The French Rev o lu tion ar ies were even more keenly aware of the bonds which ex isted

be tween the po lit i cal and so cial struc tures and school ed u ca tion. The cit i zen, “the new

man”, had to be trained us ing ap pro pri ate meth ods. They par tic u larly em pha sized the

“right to in struc tion” which had to be en sured by the pub lic au thor i ties and pro vided by

staff who were em ployed, paid and su per vised by the State. In brief, they de vel oped ideas

which had al ready to a large ex tent been for mu lated by the En light en ment.

It was con se quently only from the 19th cen tury on wards that the ped a gog i cal and

ed u ca tional con cepts which had been elab o rated dur ing the En light en ment were sys tem -

at i cally ap plied and de vel oped. Well, if we can still talk about gen eral as pects be fore

1800, the na tion States of the 19th and 20th cen tu ries “na tion al ised” school ed u ca tion

to an ever greater ex tent. It is cer tainly still pos si ble to dis cern gen eral trends in dif fer ent

coun tries, in clud ing the be lief that so cial and eco nomic de vel op ment is de pend ent on the

avail abil ity of ed u ca tion to as many peo ple as pos si ble. It fol lows that ed u ca tion has to

be com pul sory and, con se quently, in struc tion avail able to ev ery one.

Since the his tory of ed u ca tion is also “na tion al ised”, there is n’t any over all pic ture of

the his tory of schools at a Eu ro pean level avail able. It is only in the case of the uni ver si -

ties that such a pic ture is in the pro cess of be ing formed. Un like in the case of pri mary

and sec ond ary ed u ca tion, the sov er eigns have since the be gin ning been in ter ested in the

uni ver si ties and have been in volved in uni ver sity mat ters.27

7. For his tor i cal and re li gious rea sons, in Af ri can ed u ca tion sys tems, for mal non-gov ern -

men tal ed u ca tion ex isted long be fore the first gov ern ment schools.28

In terms of fund ing, the met ro pol i tan gov ern ments pro vided sub stan tial grant-in-aid

sub si dies to mis sion ary schools be fore in de pend ence. Non-gov ern men tal schools were

na tion al ized through leg is la tive ac tion in the Cen tral Af ri can Re pub lic.

Even when pri vate (mis sion ary) schools were ap proved they had to com ply with


27 Ru egg W. and De Rid der-Sy moenS, H., A his to ry of the uni ver si ty in Eu ro pe, Vo lu me 1: Uni ver si ties

in the Middle Ages, Cam brid ge, 1992; Ru egg W. and De Rid der-Sy moens, H., A his to ry of the uni ver si ty

in Eu ro pe, Vo lu me 2: Uni ver si ties in Ear ly Mo dern Eu ro pe (1500-1800), Cam brid ge, 1996.

28 Bray, Mark., The pri va te costs of pu blic school ing, IIEP/UNESSCO, 1999, Pa ris; Chap man, D.W.,

Mahlk, L.O. and Smul ders, A.E.M., Per ga mon, Pa ris; Che diel, R.W., Se kwao, N. and Ki rum ba, P.L., Pri -

va te and com mu ni ty schools in Tan za nia (Main land), IIEP/UNESCO, 2000, Pa ris; Cohn, E. and Ges ke,

T.G., The Eco no mics of Edu ca ti on, Per ga mon, 1990, Oxford.

strict gov ern ment reg u la tions and were con sid ered a tem po rary phe nom e non. The most

ef fec tive means of the gov ern ment con trol over non-gov ern men tal schools was through

teach ers re cruited and paid by the gov ern ment. Re gard less of man age ment, the gov ern -

ment ap proved non-gov ern men tal schools had cer tain com mon stan dards, fol lowed the

same syl labi and pre pared stu dents for the same ex am i na tions. The post-in de pend ence

pe riod was also a time of rapid de vel op ment of com mu nity schools, mostly in sub ur ban

and ru ral ar eas. The com mu ni ties and PTAs who set up these schools ex pected the gov -

ern ments at a later stage to in ter vene and take care of the school man age ment. On the

con trary, some gov ern ments, for ex am ple in Kenya suc cess fully en cour aged a greater

com mu nity role in ed u ca tion de vel op ment.

III. The Economic Discours Dealing with Education29

1. Introduction

8. Un equiv o cally, a great in flu ence on the de sign of ed u ca tional pol icy in clud ing out lines

for fi nanc ing mech a nisms has come from the mul ti lat eral or gani sa tions,30 par tic u larly

from the EU and the OECD. With re spect to this, the ques tion is now also be ing posed

“how the pub lic sec tor could use and make use of per for mance con tract ing”31 and how

“New Pub lic Man age ment” can be in te grated in the so cial, wel fare and ed u ca tion sec tor.32

The OECD for ex am ple will cer tainly be on its guard against com ing across as be ing

too pa tron iz ing and will con tinue sys tem at i cally to point out na tional dif fer ences. For

ex am ple:

“The ques tion of which model is better is a nat u ral one, but not en tirely ap pro pri ate.

Each ed u ca tion sys tem is a work ing sys tem, which to a greater or lesser de gree has sat is -

fied the re quire ments of its so ci ety. The dif fer ent ‘mod els’ rep re sent a long his tory of de -

ci sions taken na tion ally and are sub ject to a cer tain in er tia that makes it dif fi cult to in -

tro duce sub stan tial changes over night, if for no other rea son than that some fea tures of

the sys tem are of ten sub ject to ne go ti a tion in the frame work of col lec tive bar gain ing

agree ments. The suc cess of a model may de pend on less quan ti fi able char ac ter is tics of

the ed u ca tion sys tem, such as the teach ing meth ods used of the ex tent of re me dial help

avail able”.33

The ques tion posed is whether such a con clu sion will still be cor rect in view of ed u ca -

tional pol icy be com ing sig nif i cantly more in ter na tional in char ac ter.


29 See Also De Groof J, Com pe ti ti ve ness and plu ra lism in edu ca ti on – A few con si de ra ti ons, in Zeit -

schrift für Bil dungs ver wal tung, 2003, Jahrgang 18, Heft 1, p. 10-49.

30 Cfr. De Groof J., The Over all Impor tan ce of Edu ca ti on Law, in Sub si di a ri ty, ibi dem.

31 OECD, Per for man ce Con trac ting, Puma/PAC(99)2, Pa ris, 1999.

32 Clar ke J., et al New Ma na ge ri a lism, new Wel fa re?, Sage, Lon don, 2000.

33 OECD, Edu ca ti on Po li cy Ana ly sis 1997, CERI, p. 24.

2. An ‘Economistic’ Di a lo gue in Edu ca ti on?

9. It would be in cor rect to sim plify the dis cus sion on this mat ter into a mere ap pli ca tion

of ‘economism’34 that seems to have char ac ter ised ed u ca tional pol icy over the past few

de cades. ‘Economism’ means that, more than ever be fore, ed u ca tional pol icy will be de -

ter mined by fi nan cial and eco nomic con sid er ations.35

Nat u rally, it can hardly be de nied that the ter mi nol ogy em ployed has be come no tice -

ably ‘economistic’: ‘accountiblity’, ‘effectivity’, ‘ef fi ciency’, ‘man age ment’,...

Ad di tion ally, ed u ca tion is be ing re garded – con tin u ally and ex plic itly – as a tool for

deal ing with un em ploy ment, above all in the Mem ber States of the Eu ro pean Un ion

where eco nomic di a logue con tin ues to dom i nate in com mu nity programmes and stand -

ardi sa tion.

The re struc tur ing of higher ed u ca tion through out all of Eu rope,36 as de lin eated by

the Bo lo gna Dec la ra tion: ‘The Eu ro pean Higher Ed u ca tion Area’- and that will be re -

vamped in the United King dom, takes the prem ise of pro mot ing ‘em ploy abil ity’ and the

‘com pet i tive ness‘ of ter tiary ed u ca tion in Eu rope in re la tion to the ‘mar ket’ in the USA

and Ja pan.

Such a one-sided prem ise is not with out its crit ics;37 it char ac ter ises chang ing at ti -

tudes also in the minds of rec tors and the ac a demic lead er ship who had ret i cently re -

ceived doc u ments from the Eu ro pean Com mis sion and had re jected them as be ing too

eco nomic in in spi ra tion.

3. The Appli ca ti on of Free-Mar ket Prin ci ples

10. On the other hand, there ap pears to be a gen eral con sen sus about the ne ces sity to in -

cor po rate the prin ci ple of ‘ac count abil ity‘, for ex am ple as a prin ci ple of proper man age -

ment and as a duty of re spon si bil ity for spend ing gov ern ment re sources but also for the

right of par tic i pa tion that goes hand-in-hand with this and, more par tic u larly, con sumer

and pa ren tal rights. And un til no di vi sion on this mat ter should ap pear to ex ist be tween

ideo log i cal lean ings or be tween ‘con ser va tives’ and ‘pro gres sives’.38

Fur ther more, vir tu ally all dem o cratic re gimes placed em pha sis on ac count abil ity and


34 Cal dwel B.J., Pa ra dox and Uncert ain ty in the Go vern an ce of Edu ca ti on, in Bae re H., Boyd L. (eds.),

Re struc tu ring School: An Inter na ti o nal Per spec ti ve on the Mo ve ment to Trans form Con trol and Per for -

man ce of Schools, Lon don, The Fal mer Press, 1993, p. 160 et seq.

35 Wie le mans W., Edu ca ti o nal po li cy in EU coun tries. Facts, trends and cri ti cal in ter pre ta ti on, The Cat -

ho lic Uni ver si ty of Leu ven, 1997.

36 Alre a dy sig ned by more than 40 mi nis ters on be half of their go vern ments.

37 De Groof J., On “the Eu ro pe an Hig her Edu ca ti on Area” af ter the Bo log na De cla ra ti on of 19 June

1999, Eu ro pe an Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy, nr. 2, 1999, p. 77-79.

38 Hu sen T., Tui yn man A., Halls V.D. , (eds.), School in Mo dern Eu ro pe an So cie ty, Oxford,, Per ga mon

Press, 1992, p. 44 et seq

au ton omy (more in de pend ence) of and for ed u ca tional in sti tu tions. Both the need for

ob jec tive and trans par ent bud get ary tech niques and, from one point of view, also for

more free dom in ed u ca tion and free dom of ed u ca tion led si mul ta neously to both greater

flex i bil ity in ed u ca tional man age ment and com pet i tive ness.39

There fore, the duty of re spon si bil ity (‘ac count abil ity’) to the gov ern ment and to pub -

lic opin ion should also have led to a de crease on the tra di tional in flu ence of cen tral ad -

min is tra tion and the teach ing un ions. Some times, how ever, it ap pears that State con trol

has been some what ‘re de ployed’ and that the un ions are now do ing their ut most to ex -

pand their in flu ence at a de cen tral ised level.

To gether with the de gree to which qual ity cri te ria are met, it is ‘con sumer choice’ that

leads – in some coun tries, at least – to the mostly su per fi cial rank ing of schools,40 to a

kind of ‘marketising’ of the ed u ca tion sec tor and even to a cer tain sort of stu dent (group)

se lec tion.

The ‘value for money’ ap proach de mands an ex pla na tion from the au thor i ties on

other pol icy ob jec tives: equal op por tu ni ties for stu dents, the dem o cratic right to qual ity

ed u ca tion for all, ex tended care, at ten tion given to mi nor i ties.

The in ter na tional and na tional agen das are now gov erned by the ques tion con cern -

ing which lim its to set with re spect to the one-sided eco nomic vi sion on ed u ca tion. It

can not be de nied, of course, that ed u ca tion also con sti tutes a type of eco nomic goods: ‘a

ser vice’ which co mes un der gen eral free mar ket prin ci ples – as set out by the Eu ro pean

Com mu nity – as far as the Mem ber States of the Eu ro pean Un ion are con cerned.

At the same time, one of the Con ven tion’s points for spe cial at ten tion – com piled by

the Eu ro pean Sum mit of Laken (2001) and fol low ing the ‘Treaty of Nice’ (2000) in

prep a ra tion for a ‘Eu ro pean Con sti tu tion’ – ap pears to per pet u ate the ex is tence of ed u -

ca tion as ‘cul tural goods’. To safe guard these cul tural goods, pro tec tive mea sures can be

taken that are on bad terms with the free mar ket prin ci ple. How ever, this does not mean

that com mer cia li sation of and com pe ti tion be tween the ed u ca tion on of fer has to be

ended, tak ing the hy poth e sis that this might be con sid ered in the first place. In stead, it is

a chal lenge of unit ing the ‘en ter prise cul ture’ with the ‘equal right to ed u ca tion’ that has

to fea ture in a dem o cratic ed u ca tional re gime.

4. Indi vi du al ‘Consumerism’

11. How ever, sev eral other points within ed u ca tion and on the right to ed u ca tion are

fairly di rectly, and some times rather one-sidedly, con nected with the ‘economistic’ di a -

logue on ef fi ciency.




40 And, con se quent ly, no long er so le ly con cer ning uni ver si ties, po ly tech nics and col le ges of hig her edu -

ca ti on, ... In the Uni ted King dom, the se rank ings are cus to ma ri ly pu blis hed in the na ti o nal press and lar -

ger re gi o nal new spa pers.

Mar tin Cave takes the view that fi nanc ing tech niques in the ed u ca tion sec tor, such as

vouch ers, is the ap pli ca tion of ‘allocative ef fi ciency’, and he sup plies the fol low ing de -

scrip tion:

“This means en sur ing that the over all struc ture of out put and the match ing of in di -

vid ual con sum ers to par tic u lar ser vices are in the pub lic in ter est. In the stan dard sit u a -

tion of well in formed con sum ers ex er cis ing in di vid ual pref er ences, this ob jec tive is best

achieved by al low ing con sum ers to ex er cise a full de gree of choice over a large range of

op tions – leav ing them to de cide not only which par tic u lar good or ser vice to buy from a

given range, but also to de ter mine their over all al lo ca tion of spend ing across dif fer ent

types of ser vice”.41

Of par tic u lar in ter est, too, is the ques tion con cern ing the de gree to which com pe ti -

tion can pro duce so cially cor rec tive re sults, and whether this one-sided eco nomic or

mar ket-led ap proach also si mul ta neously tar gets so cial in equal i ties.

Mar tin Carnoy ar gues along the fol low ing lines:

“Thus in tro duc ing com pe ti tion be tween schools may ac tu ally ex ac er bate in equal i -

ties in the ed u ca tional sys tem.”42

Edwin West had ar gued con versely in his re port that com pe ti tion would con trib ute

to a right to choose for lower in come groups.43 Carnoy’s re ply:

“West would limit vouch ers to low-in come fam i lies and re strict privatisation to the

poor as a means of equal iz ing an oth er wise un equal sys tem. This is a good an swer to the

dis tri bu tion of choice prob lem, but it does not ad dress the ques tion of ef fec tive ness”.44

12. The ma te rial dif fer ence clearly lies in the des ti na tion of the cred its or tax ben e fits.

Both in the case of vouch ers and tax cred its, the re sources are not in tended for schools

but for par ents. Par ents are fi nanced di rectly in the case of vouch ers; in the case of tax

cred its, par ents re ceive the tax re duc tion im me di ately.

Ed u ca tion ‘cheques‘45 are then used in a com pet i tive ed u ca tion ‘mar ket’. Neville

Har ris de scribes vouch ers as fol lows:

“The idea be hind a voucher sys tem is that the con sumer can ‘pur chase’ a place at the

in sti tu tion of his or her choice up to the nom i nal value of the voucher. Some ver sions of

this prin ci ple re cog nise the con sumer’s right to sup ple ment this amount and use the

voucher in pur chas ing a place at an in de pend ent school”.46

One of the prin ci pal ideas be hind vouch ers re mains that fam i lies them selves must

take the ini tia tive and be come or gan is ers of ed u ca tion. Eu ro pean ideas are more crit i cal


41 Cave M., Voucher pro gram mes and their Role in Dis tri bu ting Pu blic Ser vi ces, OECD Jour nal on

Bud get ing, OECD, 2001, p. 63.

42 Car noy M., Is Pri va ti sa ti on through Edu ca ti on Vouchers re al ly the Answer?: A com ment on West,

The World Bank Re se arch Obser ver, vol. 12, no 1, p. 113.

43 West E.G., Edu ca ti on vouchers in prac ti ce and prin ci ple: a world sur vey, Fe bru a ry 1996.

44 Ibi dem, p. 114.

45 see also Oi del, Qu’est-ce que le chèque sco lai re?, ‘Working Papers’, 1996, 17 p.

46 Har ris N., Law and edu ca ti on: re gu la ti on, con su me rism and the edu ca ti on sy stem, Lon don, 1993, p.

15.

on the sub ject: the par ents are with out a doubt in ter ested par ties but do not usu ally have

the pro fes sion al ism at their dis posal to ar range ed u ca tion them selves.

13. Ed u ca tional in sti tu tions can rely on con tin u ously awarded, usu ally based on ob jec -

tive pa ram e ters, fi nan cial trans fers from the State, which must guar an tee their qual ity of

ex is tence as long as the school’s gov ern ing body com plies with all the stan dards.

For that rea son also, the “reg u lated com pe ti tion model” is, as it were, a char ac ter is -

tic of sev eral ed u ca tional sys tems in Eu rope as com pared to the “model of non-reg u lated

com pe ti tion” and the “model of plan ning by the pub lic au thor i ties”, in line with the dis -

tinc tion made by the Eu ro pean Com mis sion.47

In any event, the ma jor ity of ed u ca tion re gimes com ply with the char ac ter is tics of

this “reg u lated com pe ti tion model” and, par tic u larly, – to a greater or lesser de gree

– with the guar an teed re gime of ‘pa ren tal choice of school’, mean ing that par ents can

en rol their child at their pre ferred school from among a rea son able se lec tion. This im -

plies, among other as pects, the ex is tence of a plu ral ity of schools – do re mem ber that the

Eu ro pean Court de ter mined “ex ter nal plu ral ism” as the chief char ac ter of Eu ro pean hu -

man rights deal ing with ed u ca tion -, free or quasi free en trance so that fees do not dis tort

com pe ti tion be tween schools,48 the ex is tence of fa cil i ties, par tic u larly of pub lic trans -

port, rel e vant in for ma tion, – so that ed u ca tion can be fol lowed in sim i lar cir cum stances.

An other char ac ter is tic of this model seems to be the ho mo ge ne ity of the ‘prod uct’49

and the dis tri bu tion sys tem that en cour ages schools to en rol the max i mum num ber of

pu pils.50

14. Both the com pet i tive Eu ro pean model and the sys tem of vouch ers carry the same

risk, these be ing that the so cial equal ity of stu dents and par ents do not re ceive suf fi cient

chances. Stud ies also show that de moc ra ti sa tion of ed u ca tion has not yet been com -

pleted in Eu rope de spite sig nif i cant so cial pro vi sions for the less well-to-do classes.

Choice of courses of study and schools are still de ter mined to a con sid er able de gree by

so cial sta tus. Schools shift stan dards, tak ing their stu dent pub lic into ac count and op er -

ate open or veiled se lec tion mech a nisms. Op po site the ‘elite schools’ there are schools

that some times even be come ghet tos for young peo ple at risk or who are ed u ca tion ally

dis ad van taged.

There fore, the gov ern ment should take into ac count a di ver si fied range of in di ca tors

in or der to de sign a mor ally and so cially re spon si ble dis tri bu tion model of fi nan cial re -


47 Eu ro pe an Com mis si on, Edu ca ti on and Cul tu re, So cra tes Pro gram, ‘Key To pics in Edu ca ti on in Eu ro -

pe, vo lu me 2, ‘Financing and Ma na ge ment of Re sour ces in Com pul so ry Edu ca ti on. Trends in na ti o nal

policies’, Luxem burg, 2000, p. 285-286.

48 And that no school ac qui res a com pe ti ti ve ad van ta ge be cau se its fees are lo wer or hig her than tho se of

ot hers.

49 Sta te re gu la ti ons de ter mi ne the over all cur ri cu lum, edu ca ti on aims and tar gets, the edu ca ti on prin ci -

ples with which all schools are ex pec ted to com ply, ...

50 Eu ro pe an Com mis si on, ibi dem, p. 285.

sources and of out put-cri te ria that does not con flict with the school’s socia li sa tion task.

Ul ti mately, the ed u ca tional es tab lish ment must also be judged on the de gree in which

the equal op por tu ni ties for all are aimed at and achieved.

With this in mind, the Czech and Hun gar ian ex pe ri ences are rel e vant51. The cen trally

planned sys tem was aban doned and re placed by a school a fi nanc ing sys tem that al lo -

cate pub lic funds ac cord ing to the num ber of stu dents en rolled in a school. Ac cred ited

non-state schools, pri vate and re li gious, are also el i gi ble for gov ern ment sub si dies. Re -

search, con ducted by Filer R. K. and Münich D.52 showed that non-state schools

emerged at lo ca tions with ex cess de mand and lower qual ity state schools, and that the

com pe ti tion from non-state schools cre ated in cen tives for state schools: state schools

slightly im proved the qual ity of ed u ca tional in puts used and sig nif i cantly im proved their

out put, qual ity of grad u ates. As con cerns the tech ni cal schools, they con cluded that

non-state schools re act to re gional la bour mar ket con di tions in terms of tech ni cal pre -

mium and un em ploy ment rate; such re ac tions to mar kets sig nals were not found by state

schools.

5. Free dom of Choi ce and Pa ren tal Rights – Applied to ‘Vouchers’.

15. Par ents and stu dents are in deed also de scribed in the lit er a ture as ‘con sum ers‘. ‘Con -

sum ers’ who should be re garded as full cit i zens who stand for full op por tu nity of choice,

this means a right made fi nan cially pos si ble by the com mu nity to choose the type of

school that op ti mally meets with the fam ily’s ed u ca tional and ideo log i cal op tions.

Neville Har ris brought this to mind say ing that “choice” is the cen tral el e ment in ev -

ery con cept of ‘con sum er ism’.

“Con sum er ism in re la tion to pub lic ser vices is a more di verse con cept than it is in the

con text of a pri vate en ter prise mar ket sys tem”.53

Fol low ing a lit er ary study, he de cided that ‘choice’ was also a key el e ment in the ‘ed u -

ca tion pub lic ser vice’, to gether with ac cess, in for ma tion, rep re sen ta tion and re dress.

Con sumer choice is, of course, not the only “driv ing force be hind the al lo ca tion of re -

sources” since pub lic in vest ments also fol low po lit i cal and so cial pol icy.

It is not for rea sons of in ter na tional and na tional law alone that state mo nop o lies are

fun da men tally wrong. It goes with out say ing that they do not cor re spond to the di ver -

sity in avail able ed u ca tion that makes the right to choose pos si ble. The gov ern ment must

not put it self in the place of par ents in or der to limit such a per sonal right to choose, even


51 See also in fra.

52 Sup por ted by a grant from the So ci al Con se quen ces of Eco no mic Trans for ma ti on in East Cen tral Eu -

ro pe pro gram of the Insti tut für die Wis sen schaf ten vom Men schen, Vien na; the data sur vey was sup por -

ted by PHARE and the Na ti o nal Coun cil for East Eu ro pe an and Eu ro a si an Stu dies, Octo ber 2000.

53 Har ris N., Law and edu ca ti on: re gu la ti on, con su me rism and the edu ca ti on sy stem, Lon don, 1993, p.

9 et seq.

if it ap pears from com par a tive pol icy and le gal per spec tive that the au thor i ties must be

vig i lant that the ed u ca tional needs of all chil dren are safe guarded54 – in other words,

also those who go for a neu tral, plu ral is tic gov ern men tal school and those who do not

like the ex ist ing de nom i na tional schools for ex am ple.

This of fer of ‘free’ schools will also in trin si cally re spect the fun da men tal dem o cratic

val ues of the coun try and the in ter na tional com mu nity and will help to make the ‘socia -

li sa tion’ of young peo ple pos si ble.55

The im ple men ta tion of these prin ci ples does ap pear to be de ter mi nant, in a sense the

rel e vant ‘con di tion‘ when pos ing the ques tion about vouch ers and, fur ther more, about

‘tax cred its’ as well.

One of the dif fer ences be tween the Amer i can and Eu ro pean ap proaches is that

vouch ers (just as tax cred its) serve as a strat egy to break through state mo nop o lies or

quasi-mo nop o lies – as was also the case in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope – and thus (in di -

rectly) to help fi nance non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion. The point of view ac cord ing to

which vouch ers aim to “pri va tise” ed u ca tion to a cer tain de gree ap pears to be even more

sig nif i cant.

6. Edu ca ti on Plu ra lism

16. The con text within which the dis cus sion con cern ing the free dom of ed u ca tion is tak -

ing place is in flu enced di rectly by the de gree to which ed u ca tional plu ral ism has al ready

been achieved. In vir tu ally all Eu ro pean coun tries, or, at least, the Mem ber States of the

Eu ro pean Un ion, the prin ci ple of ed u ca tional free dom is set down in a reg u la tory con -

text and sys tems of sub si dies ex ist in the ma jor ity of coun tries.56 The sal a ries of non-gov -

ern men tal schools are paid by pub lic au thor i ties in half of the coun tries of the Eu ro pean

Un ion. A var ied sys tem of sub si di sa tion ex ists with re spect to op er a tional costs and

those linked to cap i tal (pur chase, rental and main te nance of build ings). Only in It aly and

Greece there is no con sis tent sys tem of fi nance for in de pend ent schools (most de nom i na -

tional and other schools owned by churches or trust ees in Eng land, Wales and North ern

Ire land are pub licly funded as part of the pub lic sec tor). G.J. Leenknegt rightly con -

cludes that the sub si di sa tion of non-gov ern men tal schools can be re ferred to as a ‘com -

mon con sti tu tional prin ci ple or tra di tion’ within the Eu ro pean Un ion.57 In sev eral coun -

tries, the co-ex is tence of ed u ca tional net works was le giti mised by the con sti tu tion maker

not only through the ex er cise of fun da men tal free doms but also through qual ity care:




55 Mi now M., Part ners, Not Ri vals, Pri va ti za ti on and the Pu blic Good, Bos ton, 2002.

56 See be low.

57 Leenk negt G.J., Vrij heid van Onder wijs in Vijf Eu ro pe se Lan den, De ven ter: Schoor dijk Insti tuut,

1997.

each mo nop oly suf fers loss of qual ity.58

It could be de cided that vouch ers are not nec es sary in the de gree to which the of fered

plu ral ism has been es tab lished in law and in terms of pol icy in the coun try con cerned.

As al ready in di cated, it should also be pointed out that the Church-State re la tion ship

also dif fers sub stan tially, a fact that is so cru cial for ed u ca tion: Eu rope ver sus Amer ica.

Al though sev eral symp toms can be ac knowl edged for the ‘Wall of Sep a ra tion’ in the

United States ap pear ing to be im per fect, it should be stated, none the less, that pos i tive

col lab o ra tion and/or sup port be tween church(es) and the au thor i ties is a char ac ter is tic

fea ture in al most all the coun tries of con ti nen tal Eu rope. Also in volved in this is the pos i -

tive at ti tude, – to a greater or lesser de gree, of course59 – of the State and/or de cen tral -

ised pub lic ad min is tra tion with re spect to de nom i na tion ally and ideo log i cally or philo -

soph i cally based gov ern ing bod ies of schools and schools based on a spe cific ed u ca tional

vi sion (Steiner, Decroly, Yenaplan, Mon tes sori, Davidoff,...).

Edu ca ti on Plu ra lism and Com pe ti ti ve ness

1. Intro duc ti on

17. Ed u ca tion free dom could over pass ri val ed u ca tional the o ries, steer ing in di vid ual de -

vel op ment (f. eq. lib er al ism) and col lec tive de vel op ment (f. eq. Marx ism), aim ing to

com bine both as pects of hu man wel fare, learn ing (hu man de vel op ment) and choos ing

(hu man free dom).60

Once gov ern ment was con ceived in terms of an op ti mal man age ment of a ter ri tory

and its pop u la tion, Ian Hunter ar gued that it mul ti plied into a num ber of do mains, each

in creas ingly con trolled by its own ex pert per son nel.

“These were the cir cum stances in which, dur ing the eigh teenth cen tury, states man

and bu reau crats in a State like Prus sia, first be gan to pro pose the build ing of a State

school sys tem : as a means for the mass moral train ing of the pop u la tion with a view to


58 De Groof J., De over heid en het ge sub si dieerd on der wijs (Les pou voirs pu blics et l’enseignement sub -

ven ti onné), Brus sel, 1985, first chap ter.


Edu ca ti on, Vo lu me I, Utrecht, Lem ma, 2002, p. 624.

60 Bow les and Gin tis com men ted the ‘liberal edu ca ti o nal theory’ (Amy Gut mann, De mo cra tic Edu ca ti -

on, Prin ce ton, New Jer sey, 1987 and id., Li be ral equa li ty, Cam brid ge, 1980): “... Li be ral edu ca ti o nal the -

o ry jus ti fies school ing as a form of do mi na ti on in which the free dom of the stu dent is sub or di na ted to an

in sti tu ti o nal will. An ade qua te con cep ti on of hu man na tu re must re cog ni se that le ar ning oc curs through

the exer ci se of free dom. Such a con cept al lows the ful fillment of the li be ral vi si on and cor res ponds to the

no ti on of pro gres si ve so ci al char ge as the full de mo cra ti sa ti on of so ci al life”, ‘Can the re be a li be ral edu ca -

ti on in a de mo cra tic so cie ty?’, in Gi roux H.A., Mcla ren P.L., eds., Cri ti cal pe da go gy, the sta te and the cul -

tu ral strug gle, New York, 1989, p. 24.

en hanc ing the strength and pros per ity of the State and thereby the wel fare of the peo -

ple.”61

Un der the ref or ma tion and the coun ter-ref or ma tion the churches had be gun to de -

velop their own school sys tems in de pend ently of the State, as in stru ments of mas sive

cam paigns to christianise and ‘confessionalize’ the daily life of the la ity.

In the po lit i cal rea son ing that in some coun tries be gan to be for mu lated af ter the Sec -

ond World war, it was seen as the re spon si bil ity of po lit i cal gov ern ment to ac tively cre ate

the con di tions within which en tre pre neur ial and com pet i tive con duct be come pos si ble.

Po lit i cal sci en tists seem to sup pose that a “re vived communitarism cou ples an em pha sis

on in di vid ual re spon si bil ity with a cri tique of the all-pow er ful State”.62

Sev eral stud ies sug gest a “re treat from the State”, a “degovernmentalisation of the

State”63 but cer tainly not a “degovernmentalisation” per se. What has been at is sue has

been the de sign of tech niques that can pro duce a de gree of “autonomisation” of en ti ties,

a “responsibilisation” and “em pow er ment” to sec tors and agen cies dis tant from the

cen tre. Pub lic au thor i ties seek – from Fin land to Aus tra lia, ad vo cated by po lit i cal re -

gimes from left and right – to em ploy forms of ex per tise in or der to gov ern so ci ety at a

dis tance with out sys tem atic re source to any di rect forms of re pres sion or in ter ven tion.

Gov ern ments con ceive “so cial ac tors” in new ways as sub jects of re spon si bil ity, au -

ton omy and choice and seek to act upon them through shap ing and uti lis ing their free -

dom. This leads to a so called “plu ral isa tion” of so cial tech nol o gies and gov ern men tal

ac tiv i ties: quasi-au ton o mous non-gov ern men tal or gani sa tions have pro lif er ated, tak ing

on reg u la tory func tions.

More over, the en hance ment of the pow ers of the cli ent as cus tomer spec i fies the sub -

jects of rule in a new way: as ac tive mem bers of so ci ety, seek ing to “en ter prise them -

selves”, to maxi mise their qual ity of life and those of their rel a tives through acts of

choice, “ac cord ing their life a mean ing and value to the ex tent that it can be ra tion al ised

as the out come of choices made or choices to be made”.64

In most Eu ro pean coun tries, state sub si dies for non-gov ern men tal schools are an im -

por tant means to re al ize an ed u ca tional sys tem which meets the needs of par ents and pu -

pils. The un der ly ing idea is that the par ents them selves, or so cial struc tures and or ga ni -

za tions, bear part of the re spon si bil ity for the ed u ca tional sys tem as the es tab lish and

man age non-gov ern men tal schools. With out fi nan cial sup port by the state, it of ten

proves to be im pos si ble for pri vate in sti tu tors to join the re spon si bil ity of the state. In

that sense, state sub si dies are a log i cal con se quence of the re al iza tion of the ed u ca tional

rights and free doms.65


61 Hun ter I., Assem bling the school, in Bar ry A. e.a., Fou cault and Po li ti cal Re a son. Li be ra lism, neo-li -

be ra lism and ra ti o na li ties of go vern ment, UCL Press, 2001, p.148-145.

62 Bar ry A., e.a., ibi dem.

63 Or a “de-sta ti sa ti on of Go vern ment”?

64 Rose N., Go ver ning the en ter pri sing self, in Heel as P., Mor ris P. (eds.), The va lu es of the en ter pri se

cul tu re: the mo ral de ba te, Lon don, p. 141 e.v.; id., Go ver ning “ad van ced” li be ral de mo cra cies, in Bar ry

A., op. cit, p. 55 e.v.


18. As can be sur mised from the pre ced ing para graphs, the non-gov ern men tal school

has never been ab sent from the ed u ca tional de bate, in any case.

Var i ous socio-po lit i cal the o ries can be cited that take a view on in de pend ent schools.

Thus Herman Avenarius strik ingly de fined the fol low ing prop o si tions.

Dem Eta ti mus gleich wel cher Prägung er schien sie stets als Fremdkörper, als

Gefährdung der Allzuständig keit des Staat es, auch und ge ra de im Bil dungs -

we sen. Teil wei se wur zeln die Be denk en ge gen die Pri vat schu len, die ganz

über wie gend in kir chlicher, vor al lem ka tho li scher Träger schaft geführt wer -

den, in la ïzistisch-an ti kle ri ka len Über zeu gung en; da mit mag es zu sam men -

hängen, daß der po li ti sche Li be ra lis mus, der nach sei ner Staat sauf fas sung die

Pri vat schu le an und für sich befürwor ten müßte, ihr vielf ach mit Vor be hal ten

be geg net ist. Über dies ha ben so zi al re for me ri sche Be we gung en, für die die

öffent liche Schu le ein wicht i ges Instru ment der so zi a len Inte gra ti on von

Schülern un ter schied licher Schich ten und Wel tan schau ung en ist, die Pri vat -

schu le häu fig we gen ih rer tatsächlich oder ver meint lich de sin te gra ti ven Ten -

den zen ab ge lehnt. Ein Umstand, der zusätzlich Wi ders pruch ge gen die Insti tu -

ti on der Pri vat schu le zu er re gen pflegt, ist der pri vat ka pi ta lis ti sche Cha rak ter

man cher Pri vat schu le, durch den Kin der aus wohlha ben den Fa mi lien pri vi le -

giert wer den. In neu e rer Zeit wird die Sor ge laut, daß das öffent liche Bil dung -

sang ebot mit ver brei te tem Stun de naus fall, überfüllten Klas sen, Ausländer -

kin dern, über for der ten Leh rern und Schülern ang esichts der mit den von

die sen Schwie rig kei ten we ni ger be trof fe nen Pri vat schu len Scha den nehmen

könne.66

It is es sen tial that through in de pend ent schools both the con cept of free dom in ed u -

ca tional pro vi sion and the plu ral ism of the ed u ca tion pro vided is guar an teed or fos tered.

For the sake of free dom of choice in deed, – it self founded on the prin ci ple of tol er ance as

well as ideo log i cal and philo soph i cal prin ci ples of non-dis crim i na tion67 -, no ed u ca -

tional mo nop oly from the state or in flu ence of the church can be jus ti fied within the

dem o cratic or der.68

The coun try re port of Ire land f.g. does show a clear move to wards more plu ral ism in

ed u ca tion and new mech a nism of pa ren tal choice. And the next find ing of the pilote

pub li ca tion on Ed u ca tion law in Ire land by D. Glendenning is still quite rel e vant for


Edu ca ti on, Vo lu me II, Utrecht, Lem ma, 2002, p. 350. Other as pects are fur ther ana ly sed in this vo lu me:

Com pe ti ti ve ness and Glo ba li sa ti on, Res pon si bi li ty and De cen tra li sa ti on, Cost-ef fec ti ve ness, the No ti on

of ‘independent’ school. On ot her as pects, a wi der at ten ti on is paid in fol lo wing chap ters : Le gal Fra me -

work of the Free dom of Edu ca ti on, Sub si di sa ti on of non-sta te schools, Au to no my and Accoun ta bi li ty.

66 Ave na ri us, Her mann, Schul rechts kun de, Luch ter hand, 4. Aufl. 2000, S. 197 bis 198.

67 De Groof J., De be scher ming van de ide o lo gi sche en fi lo so fi sche strek king en – Een in lei ding, in Alen

A., Su e tens L. P., Ze ven knel pun ten na ze ven jaar staats her vor ming, Brus sels, 1988, pp. 239-331.

68 De Groof J., Droit à l’instruction et li berté d’enseignement, 1984, Brus sels, p.254.

other Eu ro pean ed u ca tion sys tems or al ter na tives to tra di tional school sys tems:

“Par ents may ex er cise their right to ed u cate their chil dren at home, as a small num -

ber of fam i lies have opted to do, or they may send their chil dren to non-gov ern men tal

schools or to schools re cog nised or es tab lished by the State, if these ex ist. As we have

seen, par ents have tra di tion ally ex er cised their con sti tu tional right to ed u cate through

the agency of the churches who did not, un til re cently, in clude par ents in their man age -

ment bod ies. While con sti tu tional the ory be stows a wide choice of school on par ents, in

prac tice, pa ren tal choice is ex tremely nar row as few al ter na tives ex ist to the tra di tional

de nom i na tional school. Ev i dence is now emerg ing that some par ents are seek ing al ter na -

tives to the tra di tional de nom i na tional schools for their chil dren.”69

2. No ti ons

19. Up un til now, non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion has usu ally been con sid ered as more a

con se quence of his tory, tra di tions, re li gion and cul ture of in di vid ual coun tries rather

than as a well-de fined and cus tom ized area for pol icy and re search. Leg is la tion in coun -

tries across the world is so dif fer ent in this re spect that the same types of schools are

called ei ther ‘pub lic’ or ‘pri vate’ de pend ing on who you talk to, and the va ri ety of terms

one co mes across in clude: non-pub lic, non-gov ern ment, non-state, and in de pend ent

schools.

The def i ni tion com monly used is that ‘pri vate‘ ed u ca tion in sti tu tions are not op er -

ated by a pub lic au thor ity, but are con trolled and man aged by a pri vate body or board of

gov er nors not se lected by a pub lic agency or elected by pub lic vote. Non-Gov ern men tal

Or ga ni za tions (NGO’s) or as so ci a tions, re li gious bod ies, spe cial in ter est groups, foun -

da tions, or busi ness en ter prises, on ei ther a profit-mak ing or non-profit-mak ing ba sis

may op er ate non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion in sti tu tions. In de vel oped coun tries, non-gov -

ern men tal schools are mostly the re sult of di ver si fied de mand and the choice ‘to opt out’

of the pub lic sys tem. But in de vel op ing coun tries, it is the un met de mand and poor ac cess

to the state ed u ca tion that trig gers off the de vel op ment of pri vate’ al ter na tives. What is

clear is that own er ship or fund ing does not ac count for the main dif fer ence be tween pri -

vate and pub lic schools. Non-gov ern men tal schools can have any type of own er ship or

fund ing, and even are 100 per cent fi nanced by state grants. The dif fer ence lies prin ci -

pally in the school’s man age ment. This fac tor of ten makes in ter na tional com par i sons of

non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion dif fi cult.70

A gen eral def i ni tion of non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion is not a sim ple cat e gory to de ter -


69 Glen den ning D., Edu ca ti on and the Law, But ter worths, Du blin, 1999.

70 Bray, Mark., The pri va te costs of pu blic school ing, IIEP/UNESSCO, 1999, Pa ris; Chap man, D.W.,

Mahlk, L.O. and Smul ders, A.E.M., Per ga mon, Pa ris; Che diel, R.W., Se kwao, N. and Ki rum ba, P.L., Pri -

va te and com mu ni ty schools in Tan za nia (Main land), IIEP/UNESCO, 2000, Pa ris; Cohn, E. and Ges ke,

T.G., The Eco no mics of Edu ca ti on, Per ga mon, 1990, Oxford.

mine, due to its nu mer ous types and coun tries’ spe cif ics. In a broad sense, non-gov ern -

men tal ed u ca tion re fers to any type of for mal school, which is not within the pub lic ed u -

ca tion sys tem (non-pub lic, non-gov ern ment). The def i ni tion of ‘pri vate’ is by no means

clear-cut in sit u a tions where many ‘pri vate‘ schools are heavily funded and reg u lated by

the state. In fact, we re ally have a con tin uum of pub lic and pri vate fund ing and con -

trol.71

Some stud ies are re fer ring to non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion in sti tu tions as op er at ing

par al lel to and out side the of fi cial sys tem.

Viewed from a trans na tional Eu ro pean per spec tive, non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion

has very dif fer ent con tent and mean ing to that which it has within each Mem ber State.

Each na tional re port – also in this pub li ca tion, – draws the line which sep a rates of fi cial

from non-of fi cial higher ed u ca tion ac cord ing to spe cific reg u la tive pro ce dures and a spe -

cific na tional le gal frame work. How ever, the di verse higher ed u ca tion sys tems and the

dif fer ent le gal frame works and reg u la tive pro ce dures op er at ing in each coun try mean

that, in cer tain cases, what counts as of fi cial in one Mem ber State may be non-of fi cial in

an other and vice versa. From within a trans na tional com par a tive per spec tive has an

open and more dy namic char ac ter than the of fi cial sec tor and con sti tutes com mon Eu ro -

pean fea tures which could call for trans na tional pos i tive reg u la tive mea sures.

20. Still for any mean ing ful and fair com par i son, it is not enough to know only data on

en rol ment and num ber of teach ers for both cat e go ries, it is nec es sary to achieve an ad e -

quate de gree of ac cu racy in this com par a tive anal y sis, i.e. to com pare com pa ra ble in sti -

tu tions and work ing/learn ing con di tions. Mod ern re search is very care ful in qual i fy ing

which cat e gory of ed u ca tion is better be cause it is not easy to re late cost-. ef fi ciency di -

rectly with per for mance.

The ‘In ter na tional In sti tute for Ed u ca tional Plan ning‘ (UNESCO) dem on strated

that nearly all the coun tries in sub-Sa ha ran Af rica, whether or not they have de cen tral -

ised cer tain man age ment func tions of their ed u ca tion sys tems, are un der go ing fi nan cial

dif fi cul ties. They have in vested enor mously in ed u ca tion since achiev ing in de pend ence

but the re gional or lo cal ad min is tra tions have very lim ited means to sig nif i cantly im -

prove ed u ca tional re sources. Even in the case of Ni ge ria, a large part of state re sources is

de pend ent on grants from the fed eral gov ern ment.

This sit u a tion means that par ent-teacher as so ci a tions, non-gov ern men tal or ga ni za -

tions (na tional and in ter na tional) and the pri vate sec tor are the only forces ca pa ble of di -

ver si fy ing na tional sources of fi nanc ing in the con text of ed u ca tional de cen trali sa tion.

It is wor thy of note that in many Af ri can coun tries, the de vel op ment of pri vate teach -

ing has in creased re mark ably dur ing the past two de cades. Since pri vate teach ing is par -

tially or en tirely fi nanced by non-gov ern men tal re sources, the scope of this kind of de -

cen trali sa tion tends to grow with time.


71 Cfr. Also Con ra die J. and Du Ples sis P., Fi nan cing Edu ca ti on – The Role Fa mi lies and Com mu ni ties

on play, SAELPA Con fe ren ce, 2001, Dur ban.

3. ‘Marketization’ and the Pri va te Sec tor

21. An other con sid er ation fa vour ing ed u ca tional plu ral ism con sists of the pos i tive ef -

fects that re sult from the ped a gog i cal com pe ti tion be tween schools of dif fer ing char ac -

ter. Not merely ideo log i cal or re li gious sol i dar ity, – ex press ing the philo soph i cal con vic -

tions of par ents and pu pils – but also the di ver si fi ca tion of ped a gog i cal con cepts

– whether or not di rectly or in di rectly tied in with phi los o phy – jus tify the ex is tence of a

mul ti plic ity of schools and net works of schools. Free dom of choice pro motes qual ity of

ed u ca tion – at least such was the in ten tion of the found ing fa thers of law and con sti tu -

tion, who felt very strongly about free dom of ed u ca tion.72

Ped a gog i cal free dom as orig i nally in tended, and even the room for ex per i ments of -

fered by in de pend ent schools, has in the mean time been held back to a con sid er able ex -

tent by the more or less uni form ped a gog i cal frame work. Thus, Hermann AVENARIUS

cor rectly writes:

... die Bil dungs ge schich te zei ge, dass die Pri vat schu le sich als natürliches

Expe ri men tier feld und als Schritt macher des pädag ogi schen Fort schritts er -

wie sen habe. Die se The se, die für die Ver gang en heit zut rifft, hat für die Ge -

gen wart an Ge wicht ver lo ren. Vie le Re for men, die zunächst im Pri vat schul -

we sen ini ti iert wor den wa ren, ha ben sich längst im öffent lichen Schul sy stem

durch ge setzt. Heu te ge winnt die Pri vat schu le ihre Anzie hungs kraft eher aus

den oft be haup te ten Mängeln der öffent lichen Schu le: aus den ver breit eten

Kla gen über Leis tungsschwäche, überfüllte Klas sen, Unter richts aus fall, ge -

walttäti ge Kon flik te, Ano ny mität und fortwähren de Verände rung en. In den

Au gen nicht we ni ger Eltern zeich net sich die Pri vat schu le dem ge genüber

durch hohe Qu a litätsstand ards, ein deu ti ge pädag ogi sche oder wel tan schau -

liche Orien tie rung, Verlässlich keit, koop era ti ve Atmosphäre, Über schau bar -

keit und Beständig keit aus. Von je her hat die Pri vat schu le ihre Stärke da raus

ge zo gen, Unzulänglich kei ten des öffent lichen Schul we sens aus zug leichen.

(“The his tory of ed u ca tion shows that pri vate schools are a nat u ral field for ex per i ments

and may set the pace for ed u ca tional prog ress. This the ory, while cor rect for the past, has

lost its weight at pres ent. Many re forms which at first were tried in pri vate schools have

long since be come part of the pub lic sys tem. To day pri vate schools gain their at trac tive -

ness in stead from what are con sid ered the in ad e qua cies of pub lic schools: from wide -

spread com plaints about weak nesses in achieve ment, over-crowded classes, pu pils drop -

ping out, vi o lent con flicts, an o nym ity, and con stant changes. In the eyes of many par ents

pri vate schools stand out by com par i son for high stan dards of qual ity, co her ent ped a -

gog i cal or philo soph i cal [weltanschauliche] ori en ta tion, re li abil ity, co op er a tive at mo -


72 De Groof J., De over heid en het ge sub si dieerd on der wijs, 1985, Brus sels, p. 268.

sphere, trans par ency [Überschaubarkeit] and sta bil ity. Pri vate schools are draw ing their

strength from this [per cep tion] of the in ad e qua cies of the pub lic ed u ca tion sys tem”)

22. In Higher Ed u ca tion in par tic u lar ref er ence can be made to a cer tain “market -

ization” of ed u ca tion.73

Both stud ies Legalislating for higher ed u ca tion in Eu rope, pub lished by the Coun cil

of Eu rope,74 con cluded that in coun tries where the de vel op ment of a pri vate sec tor as

such is rel a tively re cent phe nom ena, it can be ob served that pri vate in sti tu tions emerge

al most in stantly, of ten where the base of the pub lic sec tor sup ply is lim ited.

“The abil ity to re spond swiftly to mar ket de mands con trasts few with the slower re -

sponse from the pub lic sec tor in sti tu tions.”75

An a lysts ex pressed con cern on the ef fect of com pe ti tion and ra tion al is ation and

com pe ti tion for re sources be come a daily source of sol i tude.

“Mar ket re la tions form the back ground of the growth of non of fi cial higher ed u ca -

tion in other ways. Apart from the glob al iza tion of the econ o mies in mon e tary and fis cal

terms, in crease in the de mand for hu man cap i tal within the in for ma tion and knowl edge

so ci ety has cre ated ed u ca tional de mand which gave rise to new lu cra tive ed u ca tion mar -

kets be yond the con fines of for mal state funded ed u ca tion sys tems. In other words pri -

vate higher ed u ca tion pro vi sion has been sig nif i cantly in creas ing in what pre vi ously was

a prov ince of state mo nop oly. This has been en cour aged by both state and EU pol i cies on

higher ed u ca tion as such pol i cies emphasised com pe ti tion and in tro duced mar ket-like

re la tion ships in the al lo ca tion of re search grants and stu dent places. In deed, most of the

doc u ments on ed u ca tion by the Com mis sion, seem to blur the dis tinc tion be tween pri -

vate and pub lic ed u ca tional pro vi sion and emphasise in stead com pet i tive ness and the

growth of an ad e quately skilled hu man cap i tal in the con text of new socio-eco nomic

con di tions. This is also viewed as a weapon to fight the everthreatening mon ster of high

un em ploy ment.”76

If fran chis ing could be re garded as an in di ca tion pub lic higher ed u ca tion in sti tu tions

in one Mem ber State may and do of fer ser vices in an other coun try as a com mer cial ac tiv -

ity. MBA’s are also of fered now across the EU largely as a mar ket com mod ity. The re sult

of all this has been the growth of ed u ca tional in sti tu tions in clud ing firms which en tered

the mar ket of ed u ca tion and train ing. The im me di ate con se quence has been the growth

of the non-gov ern men tal higher ed u ca tion sec tor pro vi sion.

Also in the higher ed u ca tion sec tor, non-gov ern men tal in sti tu tions chal lenge the


73 Wil li ams G. L., The mar ke ti za ti on of Hig her Edu ca ti on: Re forms and po ten ti al re forms in hig her edu -

ca ti on fi nan ce, in Dill D. and Sporn B., Emer ging Pat terns of So ci al De mand and Uni ver si ty Re form.

Through a Glass Dar kly, Oxford, 1995.

74 In ‘t Veld R., Füssel H.-P., Ne a ve G., Re la ti ons Bet ween Sta te and Hig her Edu ca ti on, Klu wer Law

Inter na ti o nal, The Ha gue-Lon don-Bos ton, 1996; De Groof J., Ne a ve G., Svec J., De mo cra cy and Go vern -

an ce in Hig her Edu ca ti on, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, The Ha gue-Lon don-Bos ton, 1998.

75 In ‘t Veld R., e.a., ibi dem, p. 60.

76 Ko ko sa la kis N., art cit., p. 26-27.

self-con fi dence of tra di tional state-cen tred gov ern men tal ed u ca tion sys tems.

The “de-Europeanization” of ed u ca tion was char ac ter ised – ac cord ing to Guy

NEAVE – to frag men ta tion and ter ri to rial dif fer en ti a tion, the cod i fi ca tion of laws and

the ra tion al is ation of Gov ern ment, the re gional di men sions and the achieve ments of the

Na tion State.77

In ad di tion be yond the less or more ex ist ing Eu ro pean di men sion of ed u ca tion,

global socio-eco nomic forces af fect pro foundly na tional ed u ca tion sys tems: the ‘market -

ization’ of (higher) ed u ca tion at large is a global, not just Amer i can or Eu ro pean phe -

nom e non. One of the last draft laws, in tro duced in the na tional par lia ment of South Af -

rica tries to reg u late pri vate, com mer cial ac tiv i ties of pri vate in sti tu tions and also

Rus sian leg is la tion, from the first ver sion of ba sic Law on Ed u ca tion of 1993 had to deal

with com mer cia li sation of ‘the pub lic good’, also in the non-ter tiary sec tor.78

The ‘en ter prise cul ture‘ does not af fect per haps that much schools and com pul sory

ed u ca tion, but the growth of tra di tional ed u ca tion mar kets ought to be seen in the con -

text of mo bil ity and competitivity, re cog nis able in many na tions and pro moted by su -

pra-na tional pro grams of the Eu ro pean Un ion f.g. and by the mod ern in for ma tion and

tech nol ogy so ci ety.

Al though still a few coun tries do cer tif i cate learn ing ex pe ri ences abroad, the inter na -

tion ali sa tion of ed u ca tion re quires for the im me di ate fu ture that the non-ter tiary sec tor

opens rec og ni tion of pro grams who are ac tu ally not un der con trol of the na tional Min is -

tries and were the in de pend ent school sec tor will prob a bly hold a strong po si tion: open

dis tance learn ing, con tin u ing ed u ca tion, fran chis ing, elec tronic tech nol ogy, ex port of

ed u ca tion ser vices, ...

The re lated pol icy items for the pub lic school sys tem seems un til now not to clar i fied

in most coun tries.

Each state has to reg u late any way this ini tia tives by qual ity as sur ance, qual ity con -

trol and rec og ni tion mech a nism, trans par ency rules, ... Prob a bly States will be in vited to

in cor po rate qual i fied non-state ed u ca tion ser vices into the pub lic sys tem.

If States are not able to run these tasks cor rectly out, fraudulous ac tiv i ties or fake di -

plo mas are in ev i ta ble, as is al ready the case in ter tiary ed u ca tion. Reg u la tion and qual ity

con trol are strictly needed in fa vour of con sumer pro tec tion.

These ques tions of globalisation and inter na tion ali sa tion, com pet i tive ness and flex i -

bil ity will interpell and even destabilize the pub lic, state and also the state-funded ed u ca -

tion sys tem. The more States are guar an tee ing and reg u lat ing ap pro pri ately free dom of

and in ed u ca tion, the better the pub lic sys tem is equipped to open with the purely pri vate

(and mostly trans na tional) school sec tor.


77 Ne a ve G., In quest of a con ti nui ty : The Eu ro pe an di men si on in the his to ry of hig her edu ca ti on, Eu ro -

pe an Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, 1997, vol. I, nr. 1-2, p. 49-55.

78 De Groof J. (ed.), Com ments on the Law on Edu ca ti on of the Rus si an Fe de ra ti on, Leu ven, 1993, 223

blz.

4. Go vern ment Ver sus Edu ca ti on Free dom?

23. The prin ci ple of free dom of ed u ca tion in cludes the re jec tion of pre ven tive mea sures

or pre lim i nary per mis sions, hin der ing the es tab lish ment of schools. In his tory, that many

ex am ples could be men tioned who fo cussed on lim i ta tion of ed u ca tion free dom or in -

stru ment of pol i tics.

Af ter the 1789 Rev o lu tion, un der French Rule, dif fer ent sub se quent and con stantly

chang ing reg u la tions were im ple mented with re gard to the sys tem of ed u ca tion79. The

Im pe rial De cree of March 17, 1808, was the most rad i cal and at the same time the last

ba sic law in this se ries of reg u la tions. It as signed the pro vi sion of ed u ca tion in its en tirety

to the Université impériale. No school or any other ed u ca tional struc ture could be

opened out side the state in sti tu tion with out its per mis sion. No body was al lowed to

open a school or to be a pub lic ed u ca tor who was not a cer ti fied mem ber of the

Université.80

His tory has made clear how the pol icy of kings and rul ers with re gard to ed u ca tion

was based on the pur suit of a mo nop oly for the State. Within the realm they wanted

unity with re gard to the ed u ca tion and rais ing of chil dren, in ac cor dance with the fun da -

men tal prin ci ples of the State. Fur ther more, the ed u ca tional pol icy was in keep ing with

the de sire to sub ju gate the Church and its or gani sa tion, as much as pos si ble, to the State.

The gov ern ment did also see this as an in stru ment to safe guard the qual ity of ed u ca tion

and as a means to in de pend ently con trol the af fairs of the schools, which where com -

pletely within its (civil) ju ris dic tion.81

It would quickly be come ob vi ous that f.g. the Dutch King Willem’s ed u ca tional pol i -

cies played a part in the oc cur rences that led to, and caused, the Bel gian rev o lu tion.82


79 Cf. Gi ron A., Dic ti on nai re de droit ad mi ni stra tif et de droit pu blic (Dic ti o na ry of ad mi ni stra ti ve and

pu blic law), part II, na me ly “Instruc ti on pu bli que” (Sta te edu ca ti on), Brus sels, 1895, pa ges 274-279; Tie -

le mans F.,Réper toi re de l’administration et du droit ad mi ni stra tif de la Bel gi que (Re view of the ad mi ni -

stra ti on and ad mi ni stra ti ve right in Bel gi um), part. VIl, Brus sels, 1846, na me ly “Edu ca ti on ”, page

100-101.

80 (Art. 1) L’enseignement pu blic, dans tout l’empire, est con fié ex clu si ve ment à l’Université (Art. 2) Au -

cu ne éco le, au cun éta blis se ment quel con que d’instruction ne peut être formé hors de l’Université impéri a -

le, et sans l’autorisation de son chef. (Art. 3) Nul ne peut ou vrir d’école, ni en seig ner pu bli que ment, sans

être mem bre de l’Université impéri a le, et gra dué par l’une de ses fa cultés.

81 For exam ple De Vroe de M., Van school mees ter tot on der wij zer. De oplei ding van de leer krach ten in

Bel gië en Luxem burg, van het ein de van de 18de eeuw tot om streeks 1842, Leu ven, 1970. Afo re men ti o -

ned com mit tees were abo lis hed as laid down in the Regent’s De cree of May 31, 1831 (Idem, page 387).

82 See for exam ple on Dutch go vern ment in the Low Coun tries: Stok man S., De re li gieu zen en de on der -

wijs po li tiek der re ge ring in het Ver enigd Ko nink rijk der Ne der lan den (1814-1830), The Ha gue, 1935; De

Nooy J., Een heid en vrij heid in het na ti o na le on der wijs on der ko ning Wil lem I, Utrecht, 1939; Sluys A.,

Ge schie de nis van het on der wijs in de drie gra den in Bel gië tij dens de Fran se over heer sing en on der de re ge -

ring van Wil lem I, Ghent, 1913; Ter lin den, Ch., Guil lau me Ier, Roi des Pays-Bas, et l’Eglise ca tho li que en

Bel gi que (1814-1830), Brus sels, 1906; Note that al re a dy in Arti cle 140 of the Dutch Con sti tu ti on of 1814

sta te edu ca ti on was de cla red an ob ject of the con stant care of the go vern ment “in or der to fos ter re li gi on

as a con ti nu ous sour ce of sup port for the Sta te and to en han ce know led ge”. This mo ti va ti on was drop ped

La li berté de l’enseignement fut, pour l’Eglise ca tho li que, le prix du con cours

qu’elle ap por ta au mou ve ment révo lu ti on nai re, qui abou tit en 1830 à la sépa -

ra ti on de la Bel gi que et de la Hol lan de (For the Cat ho lic church, free dom of

edu ca ti on was the pri ce for the sup port the Church had gi ven to the re vo lu ti o -

na ry mo ve ment which re sul ted in the se pa ra ti on of Bel gi um and Hol land in

1830).83

One of the first de crees of the Bel gian Pro vi sional Gov ern ment was to set up an ad vi -

sory com mit tee to deal with the ed u ca tional pol icy which should be adopted, as well as

the proc la ma tion of free dom of ed u ca tion.

Fi nally, one must en sure that the ad min is tra tive prac tice re gard ing the reg is tra tion of

in de pend ent schools does not cause di rect or in di rect ob sta cles to the ef fec tive im ple -

men ta tion of the free dom of ed u ca tion, as is not rarely the case in young de moc ra cies.84

Pro ce dures on the ‘reg is tra tion’, but also on ‘attentation’, ‘licence’, ‘ac cred i ta tion’,

‘rec og ni tion’ of fer of ten lit tle guar an tee in the way of le gal se cu rity. It is more over very

much a ques tion of whether there is con sti tu tional pro tec tion and sec ondly of whether

there is no ob li ga tion of a law of gen eral ap pli ca tion, which will hin der arbitranness or

dif fer ing in ter pre ta tions re gard ing the ba sic con di tions.

24. In this sense, free dom of ed u ca tion re sists all forms of in doc tri na tion by the au thor i -

ties. This is be cause the fol low ing – al ways ap pli ca ble – truth was felt to be rel e vant: “...

dans la plupart des Etats, les hommes qui gouvernent ont voulu diriger l’instruction dans

un sens fa vor able à leur politique, et cette prétention a donné lieu à d’autres luttes où la

liberté d’enseignement a été tantôt vaincue, tantôt victorieuse” (... in most states, the

peo ple in gov ern ment want to steer ed u ca tion in a di rec tion which is fa vour able to their

pol i cies, and this high-hand ed ness has led to other con flicts – whereby ed u ca tional free -

dom is some times s vic tim, some times vic tor.).85

On the other side, plu ral ism in ed u ca tion was not al ways taken for granted by

Churches and de fend ers of quasi-mo nop oly of de nom i na tional schools. In her mas terly

work Ed u ca tion and the Law, Dympna Glendenning started her book with the fol low -

ing state ment, what is com mon for a large num ber of na tions:

“In the not too dis tant past, many Eu ro pean coun tries sought to re tain their ho mog e -

nous char ac ter by re strict ing the free dom of thought and ac tion of cit i zens by im pos ing,


from the con sti tu ti on in 1915: Van Der Pot, L.W., Hand boek van het Ne der land se Staats recht (edi ted by

A.M.), Zwol le, 1977, page 436.

83 Vaut hier M., Précis du droit ad mi ni stra tif de la Bel gi que, Brus sels, 1950, part. II, page 587.

84 See f.g. De Groof J. (ed.), Com ments on the Law on Edu ca ti on of the Rus si an Fe de ra ti on, Leu ven,

1993, 223 blz.; De Groof J. (ed.), Edu ca ti o nal Po li cy in Rus sia and its Con sti tu ti o nal Aspects, Leu ven,

1994, 166 blz.; De Groof J., Bray E., Edu ca ti on un der the new con sti tu ti on in South Afri ca, Leu ven, Acco,

1996, p. 371; De Groof J., Mal her be E.F.J., Hu man rights in South Afri can Edu ca ti on. From the con sti tu ti -

o nal dra wing board to the chalk board, Leu ven, 1997, p. 316.

85 Tie le mans F., op. cit., page 100; see also be low.

the val ues of the ma jor ity on all per sons. It is now com monly ac cepted in the west ern

world that hu man so ci ety is fis sile and that di verse opin ions need to be re flected in so ci -

ety gen er ally. By adopt ing a plu ral ist ap proach, it is ar gued, tol er ance and di ver sity is

fos tered re sult ing in a fruit ful in ter ac tion be tween peo ple which per mits free dom to "the

quest ing, na ture of the hu man soul". Thus, a plu ral ist out look, which re spects and for -

mally ac com mo dates the be liefs and val ues of a di ver sity of cul tures and in di vid u als, is a

com mon fea ture of most west ern so ci et ies which is re flected in many di men sions of life

in clud ing ed u ca tion.”86

The dem o cratic prin ci ple as serted by the Leg is la tor of the Con sti tu tion, that forms

the ba sis for free dom of ed u ca tion, is founded on the con fi dence that hu man be ings will

freely make use of their rights, while at the same time re spect ing other peo ple’s rights and

lib er ties.87

To en sure proper ed u ca tion is there fore a con tin u ous strug gle. In the words of the

French con sti tu tion al ist, Esmein:

“La ques tion de la liberté de l’enseignement reste toujours ouverte; c’est la tend ance

trop naturelle des maîtres de l’Etat, quels qu’ils soient, de sup porter impatiemment la

liberté des autres” (The ques tion of free dom of ed u ca tion re mains al ways open. It is a

nat u ral ten dency of the gov er nors of the State, who ever they may be, to be re luc tant in

sup port ing other peo ple’s rights).”88

The ap proach to free dom of the dem o cratic State, which was laid down in West ern

Con sti tu tions dur ing the 19th cen tury, is in no way lib er tine but it is a re sul tant of the le -

gal re la tion be tween pub lic au thor i ties and cit i zens. The pub lic au thor i ties, whose

power is founded on the peo ple, may not ex ert that power in ar eas where cit i zens in di -

vid u ally de ter mine their at ti tude with re gard to the pow ers that be; if this were not so,

the State would be able to ma nip u late its cit i zens in or der to per pet u ate its ex is tence. The

ar eas in volved are es pe cially those that are con cerned with spir i tual free dom: con -

science, re li gion, speech, press, as so ci a tion etc.

The prin ci ple of free dom of choice means thus that no pres sure may be ex erted in any

way with the aim to “in flu ence” that choice in or der to fa vour a spe cific type of

education. Var i ous na tional le gal stip u la tions con firm ex plic itly that par ents are free to


86 Glen den ning D., Edu ca ti on and the Law, But ter worths, Du blin, 1999, p. 1.

87 It is ob vi ous that an un fet te red sa fe gu ar ding of the free dom of edu ca ti on has also re sul ted in less po si -

ti ve out co mes. “ ... le pays pas sa brus que ment d’un excès à l’autre, de la con train te à la li berté to ta le, de la

ty ran nie à une semi-anar chie.” (“... the coun try went ab rupt ly from one ex tre me to the ot her, from coer ci -

on to to tal free dom, from dic ta tors hip to par ti al anar chy.”) (Le régi me sco lai re en Bel gi que et en Hol lan -

de, Pa ris, un da ted, page 14). “Après 1830, la li berté d’enseigner fut ab so lue; on peut le dire, elle fut

exagérée, car le pre mier venu, fût-il sans ca pa cités, pou vait s’ériger en in struc teur d’autrui” du BUS de

War naf fe, L’école li bre, Leu ven, un da ted, page 23. See also De Vroe de M., op. cit., page 385 and fur ther.

“Mais cet abus même de la li berté, quo i que re gret ta ble, a été ad mis par l’Etat, ce qui démon tre su ra bon -

dam ment que c’est bien la li berté de l’enseignement que le con sti tu ant a eu en vue; ce qui ex clut net te ment

tou te idée de mo no po le au pro fit de l’Etat.. Saint-Remy A., Li berté d’enseignement et ses droits, Nova et

Ve te ra, 1947, no. 3-4, page 19.

88 Eléments de droit con sti tu ti on nel, français et com paré, part II, Pa ris, 1921, pa ge599.

send their chil dren to the school of their choice and that they should not be forced in any

way to let their chil dren at tend a school which is not of their own choos ing.

5. The Inter link of Edu ca ti on Free dom with ot her Fun da men tal Rights

25. The free dom of and the right to ed u ca tion tie in with other ba sic rights. They au to -

mat i cally con jure up a num ber of other ba sic rights, are pre con di tions for the ful fil ment

of other ba sic rights, and are of ten as so ci ated with free dom of thought, of re li gion, con -

science and ex pres sion.89 This term also re fers back to a prin ci ple which has tended to be

for got ten in mod ern times: the right to ed u ca tion as the guard ian of de moc racy, by pro -

vid ing ad e quate train ing to ev ery cit i zen so as to en sure that ev ery one is ca pa ble of ex er -

cis ing his or her dem o cratic rights.

The right to ed u ca tion stands first as a guar an tee of the pos si bil ity to com mu ni cate a

re li gious faith or a philo soph i cal con cept and thus en sure that plu ral ism is main tained.

When choos ing a school, you ex er cise your free dom of speech.

Al though free dom of speech was in cluded in suc ces sive texts af ter the French rev o lu -

tion, the afore men tioned rights were only re luc tantly rec og nized in ef fec tive leg is la tion,

and – as Duguit re marked in this con text: “l’une d’elles, 1a liberté de l’enseignement,

rencontre en core des adversaires bruyants” (one of these, the free dom of ed u ca tion, still

has very out spo ken ad ver sar ies).90

In ter na tional trea ties bear wit ness to these re la tion ship (see Art. 9.1 and 10.1 of the

Eu ro pean Con ven tion on Hu man Rights (ECHR)).91

The right to ed u ca tion is also re lated to the (con sti tu tional) free dom of as so ci a tion.

Edu ca tion al ists seek ing to im ple ment sim i lar teach ing programmes are en ti tled to as so -

ci ate with each to form a board of gov er nors whose pur pose is to de velop the teach ing

programme and ac quire the nec es sary hu man re sources and equip ment.

Free dom of ed u ca tion also plays a very im por tant role in guar an tee ing the right to

de vel op ment, which is one of the ba sic pro vi sions in cluded in the Af ri can hu man rights

char ter. It is in fact an all-em brac ing programme whose aim is to pro vide hu man be ings

with com plete pro tec tion. The right to de vel op ment has far-reach ing con se quences in so -

far it con tains a re quire ment to pro mote co op er a tion be tween Af ri can states and calls on

all coun tries to strive to at tain an ap pro pri ate level of de vel op ment.

As so ci ated with the right to de vel op ment are all the other hu man rights and chiefly

the right to equal treat ment. The right to ed u ca tion has a key role to play in this re spect

and this is also re cog nised in Art. 13 of the In ter na tional Treaty on Eco nom i cal, So cial


89 See also on “the na tu re of edu ca ti on rights”, Glenn, Ch and De Groof, J., Fin ding the Right Ba lan ce,

Free dom, Au to no my and Accoun ta bi li ty in Edu ca ti on, Vo lu me II, Utrecht, Lem ma, 2002, p. 93.

90 Op. cit., page 71.

91 See also, De Groof J and Lau wers G., No per son shall be de nied the right to edu ca ti on, Nij me gen,

Wolf Le gal Pu blis hers, 2004, p. 725.

and Cul tural Rights (I.T.E.S.C.R.).

The right to ed u ca tion can be achieved as a re sult of the re quire ment for coun tries to

pro mote in ter na tional co op er a tion so as to en sure that ba sic rights and free doms are at -

tained and en joyed in all coun tries. When ed u ca tional rights are ex er cised they do in a

small way act as a stim u lus for end ing dis crim i na tion and in equal ity by re mov ing in tel -

lec tual, tech ni cal and so cial dis ad van tages. The ed u ca tion in sti tu tions may them selves

evoke the non-dis crim i na tory prin ci ple when free dom of ed u ca tion run into dif fi cul ties.

26. Ba sic rights are not lim ited to the rights of in di vid u als in re la tion to the state. Peo ple

ex er cise rights tak ing part in the ac tiv i ties of col lec tive bod ies, of ten in the con text of a

phi los o phy which has been pro vided with an in sti tu tion al ised set ting.

Be cause of their ac tiv i ties, these col lec tive bod ies may be con sid ered to be work ing in

the pub lic in ter est, be cause they as sume a role that would oth er wise have to be filled by

the state and its var i ous ser vices. Pri vate or gani sa tions and in sti tu tions are par tic u larly

ac tive in the ed u ca tional, cul tural, wel fare and so cial ar eas and they are granted sub si -

dies in rec og ni tion of their ser vices, pro vided they meet the ob jec tive con di tions the gov -

ern ment sets for such aid.

In this re spect, the time-hon oured bor der line be tween the pub lic and pri vate fields of

com pe tence seems to have be come blurred.

The rights of these col lec tive groups and the “so cial iza tion of fun da men tal rights”

have al ready been de scribed in a le gal con tract as the “third-gen er a tion” of hu man

rights, sub se quent to the prin ci ples of the free dom and the equal ity. How ever, the ques -

tion still needs to be asked whether the level of pro tec tion en joyed by an in di vid ual and

his de vel op ment is im proved by these rights. For there are ev i dently sit u a tions where the

in di vid ual is un suit able for a group, and may even act as an ob struc tive force.

In fact, the right to ed u ca tion is pre sented as the col lec tive right of a peo ple, it is ap -

plied by groups of like-minded peo ple and is sup ported by the gov ern ment in the in ter -

ests of the ba sic rights of ev ery one.

6. Civil So cie ty

27. If the state de cides to sub si dize non-gov ern men tal schools, it is faced with a di -

lemma. It seems only rea son able that the state will want to as cer tain that the func tion ing

and out come of the non-gov ern men tal schools it fi nances, meets cer tain stan dards, laid

down in var i ous for mal con di tions.

The other side of the story is that the free schools – once again to var i ous ex tents and

not al ways di rectly pro por tional to the de gree of gov ern ment sub si di sa tion – are bound

to re spect the gov ern ment reg u la tions on cur ric ula, at ten dance, ad mis sions, qual ity as -

sur ance, in spec tion and con trol of ac count abil ity, the cer tif i ca tion and em ploy ment of

teach ers and other cat e go ries of staff, and school build ings.


The bal ance be tween state sub si di sa tion con di tions and the ped a gog i cal free dom of

non gov ern men tal schools dif fers be tween na tions ac cord ing to the re cog nised role of

these schools and, to some ex tent, to the gen eral at ti tude of the State vis-à-vis the par tic i -

pa tion of civil so ci ety in gen eral and (non) de nom i na tional in sti tu tions in par tic u lar.92

In re cent years, there has been in most Eu ro pean coun tries a slow but very marked

shift in the al lo ca tion of re spon si bil ity for the or gani sa tion and con trol of ed u ca tion

(also in the pub lic ed u ca tion sec tor) by de cen trali sa tion out to the lo cal school com mu -

nity. As far as prac ti ca ble, par ents were given more au thor ity to shape the cur ric u lum

and re spon si bil ity for school ef fi ciency.

The de bate around the “au ton omy” of the school does not skirt the “state-aided

schools”, and the trends ap pear to be sim i lar in all Eu ro pean coun tries. This like wise ap -

plies to some Eu ro pean coun tries with a so cial ist in spired wel fare econ omy such as Nor -

way, Swe den and Fin land, where – to a rather lim ited ex tent – state sub si di sa tion ex ists

for in de pend ent ed u ca tion, de spite con sti tu tional pro tec tion for pa ren tal choice and a

strong tra di tion of per sonal free dom and Protestant Chris tian ity.

And yet, a new gen er a tion of ed u ca tion leg is la tion is sweep ing across the whole of

Eu rope, af ter the pe riod of the last de cade, around the in tro duc tion of the core cur ric u -

lum com mon stan dards, ed u ca tion ob jec tives and pro files, fi nal at tain ment tar gets.

In so far as rais ing aware ness of re spon si bil ity (via “au ton omy” and de vo lu tion of

au thor ity) of the ed u ca tional in sti tu tion is one of the ex plicit ob jec tives, the more one of

the clas si cal dis tinc tions be tween of fi cial and non-of fi cial schools loses it self in the dis -

tance.93 This de vel op ment ex ac er bates the de bate about free dom and di ver sity in ed u ca -

tion, and the claims of equal ity of op por tu nity which re quire sub sidy. From then on, the

ba sic re quire ments of qual ity and prac ti cal ity on the part of the school are met.

Pa ren tal choice need then no lon ger be a priv i lege, but can be in sisted upon as a

socio-cul tural right for ev ery one.

The fact that fund ing sys tems in the Eu ro pean coun tries and a for ti ori world wide dif -

fer, some times even to a large ex tent, in di cates that fun da men tally dif fer ent choices have

made in shap ing ed u ca tion rights and the over all ed u ca tion frame work.

In the fol low ing para graphs, we will com pare some fund ing sys tems for non-gov ern -

men tal schools to dem on strate the var i ous ways in which the State may re al ize its re -

spon si bil ity for a plu ral is tic ed u ca tion sys tem.




93 A con ci se sum ma ry of the cur rent sta te of play may be found in the re cords of the Annu al Mee ting of

the Eu ro pe an Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy Asso ci a ti on (ELA) in Salzburg. It is, by the bye, no ac ci dent that

the first com pa ra ti ve stu dy should have ta ken as its sub ject the ap pli ca ti on of the prin ci ple of sub si di a ri ty

in the Mem ber Sta tes of the Eu ro pe an Uni on. See Ber ka W., De Groof J. and Pen ne man H. (Eds.), Au to no -

my in Edu ca ti on, 2000, Klu wer Law Inter na ti o nal, Den Haag, p. 451.

7. Qu a li ty Con trol and Accoun ta bi li ty: the Lo gic Con se quen ce of Edu ca ti on Free dom

A. Qu a li ty Con trol as Root ed in Edu ca ti on Le gis la ti on

28. Qual ity care can not in any way be con sid ered to be a new con cept in ed u ca tion leg is -

la tion.94 The stan dard of ed u ca tion was usu ally used as a norm in the ear li est or ganic ed -

u ca tion laws. In some Mem ber States of the Eu ro pean Un ion, an in de pend ent pri mary

school could, his tor i cally, be adopted un der an ‘adop tion con tract’ and make a claim for

sub sidy. Other laws pro vided for a sys tem of pa tron age of in de pend ent sec ond ary

schools, pro vided they un der took to be sub ject to in spec tion.

Con se quently, non-of fi cial schools ob tained con di tional sub si dies and rec og ni tion

even though they had not en tered into a con tract with the lo cal au thor ity, prov ince or

na tional gov ern ment. The Bel gian leg is la tor, for ex am ple, was in flu enced at the time by

the reg u la tions in force in Eng land and the Neth er lands.

Ed u ca tional his to ri ans have shown how de cent ed u ca tion pro vi sion could not be

guar an teed with out gov ern ment in ter ven tion, and even the in vet er ately, lib eral au thors

of the Con sti tu tion pointed out from the very early days the dan ger of char la tans and

spec u la tors who mis used the free dom they en joyed.

The prin ci ple by which the gov ern ment which is pro vid ing fund ing en forces qual ity,

sound ness, ef fi ciency and le gal se cu rity is el e vated to a con sti tu tional stan dard in a num -

ber of coun tries like in the Neth er lands,95 but could chiefly be an chored in the ed u ca tion

laws, al though in most coun tries it still re mained a rather static and dor mant con cept.

This is why the in spec tor ate was set up, and de mands writ ten in re gard ing struc ture, cur -

ric u lum, teach ing ma te ri als and school equip ment, and the skill di plo mas and the ap -

proval or sanc tion ing of cer tif i cates has been geared to this from way back. Only in more

re cent times has the leg is la tor writ ten qual ity care into the stat u tory in stru ments in more

ex plicit terms, fear lessly draw ing the card of in ter na tional screen ing and ap ply ing the

test of in ter na tional in di ca tors.

The search for a bal ance be tween free dom and, there fore, re spon si bil ity of the gov -

ern ing bod ies or ad min is tra tive au thor i ties of schools on the one hand, and the driv ing,

guid ing role of the gov ern ment on the other hand, con tin ued to be a de ci sive fac tor in the

de bate and in de ci sion-mak ing – though not, it is true, with any great uni for mity.

Some con sti tu tional courts, for mally, des ig nated the prime im por tance of ‘de cent ed -

u ca tional pro vi sion’ as the guide line for gov ern ment in ter ven tion96 – al beit with re spect


94 Eu ro pe an Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Laws and Po li cy, Jour nal of the Eu ro pe an Asso ci a ti on for Edu ca ti on

Law and Po li cy, Klu wer, The Ha gue, 1997, Vo lu me 1, no. 1-2.

95 Espe ci al ly art.208 of the Dutch Con sti tu ti on.

96 Like in Bel gi um Judgment of the Court of Arbi tra ti on, no. 25/92, 2 April 1992, Mo ni teur bel ge, 14

May 1992.

for the school gov ern ing bod ies’ own vi sions on the form and con tent of ed u ca tion.97,98

The de mand for “good qual ity ed u ca tion” was pro claimed as a mat ter of pub lic in ter -

est.99

In the ma jor ity of coun tries in Eu rope, leg is la tors have also ex plic itly taken up the

op tion of bas ing or gani sa tion, ra tion al is ation and cur ric ula on qual ity cri te ria. Qual ity

stan dards at meso and mi cro level are also be ing erected or have been the sub ject of re -

cent judge ments in courts of ap peal and dis trict courts,100,101 in clud ing those re lat ing to

the ad mis sion or ex clu sion of pu pils, con ten tious is sues sur round ing ex ams102 and the

staff char ter.103,104

B. Three Re marks on Qu a li ty Control’s Agen da

29. Fur ther le gal re fine ment of qual ity care needs to be pro moted, as a right, some thing

which the pu pil or stu dent is en ti tled to. This is an other rea son why com par a tive ed u ca -

tion law can be in spir ing, and the young de moc ra cies are show ing a ma jor de gree of ma -

tu rity in this re spect. The qual ity of gov ern ment in ter ven tion is, for that mat ter, best

eval u ated in terms of the ef forts it makes to pro mote qual ity in the school, uni ver sity or

other higher ed u ca tion in sti tu tion. This is known in the jar gon as ‘re mote steer ing‘,

‘steer ing at a dis tance‘.

Mean while, gov ern ment, min is ters and rep re sen ta tives of school gov ern ing bod ies

will be do ing no small ser vice by putt ing the qual ity de bate on com pul sory ed u ca tion

(and higher ed u ca tion) high on the agenda from an in ter na tional per spec tive.

We would like to briefly pres ent three ideas.

a)A com par a tive and pan-Eu ro pean study, which mainly ap ply to higher ed u ca -

tion,105 ad vances the view that the prag matic aus ter ity pol i cies in Eng land and the Neth -


97 e.g. Judgment of the Court of Arbi tra ti on, no. 18/93, 4 March 1993, Mo ni teur bel ge, 24 March 1993.

98 Judgment of the Court of Arbi tra ti on, no. 25/92, 2 April 1992, Mo ni teur bel ge, 10 June 1992.

99 Judgment of the Court of Arbi tra ti on, no. 73/96, 11 De cem ber 1996, Mo ni teur bel ge, 10 Ja nu a ry

1997.

100 Judgment of the Court of Arbi tra ti on, no. 42/96, 2 July 1996, Mo ni teur bel ge, 17 July 1996.

101 See case law men ti o ned in De Groof, J. & Ma hieu, P., De school komt tot haar recht. De uit oe fe ning

van rech ten in het on der wijs, Antwerp, 1994; c.f. judgment of the Coun cil of Sta te, no. 47.031,

27 April 1994, J. dr. jeun., 1995, no. 142, p.77.

102 On the con tri bu ti on of a jury from an edu ca ti o nal in sti tu ti on to get the stu dent to im pro ve the qua li -

ty of his work ‘in his own interests’: judgment of the Coun cil of Sta te, no. 39.179, 7 April 1992, R.A.C.E.,

1992.

103 In this case by the ap point ment of pe ople who are being con si de red for a ‘permanent appointment’:

e.g. judgment of the Coun cil of Sta te, no. 35.608, da ted 28 Sep tem ber 1990, no. 35.409, 6 July 1990, no.

33.931, 6 Fe bru a ry 1990, R.A.C.E., 1990.

104 cf. Ca hiers voor Onder wijs recht en Onder wijs be leid, no.1, on staf fing po li cy at the uni ver si ties wit -

hin the Fle mish Com mu ni ty.

105 De Groof J., Ne a ve G., Svec J., De mo cra cy and Go vern an ce in Hig her Edu ca ti on, Klu wer Law Inter -

na ti o nal, 1998.

er lands only pro duced a more or less co her ent gov ern ment strat egy af ter the event.

Sim i larly, qual ity care – as a mea sure – seems af ter the event to fit in neatly with the

re sponse which pol i ti cians are be ing forced to for mu late as an up-to-date vi sion of uni -

ver sity au ton omy – partly due to pres sure from the so cial-eco nomic en vi ron ment.

Thefact that most gov ern ments do not al low them selves to be car ried away by the

higher and higher bids of and ex plo sion in qual ity agen cies, which some times have a fla -

vour of com mer cial ism, but use gov ern ment in stru ments for this, plus the un adul ter ated

tech niques of peer re view and vis i ta tion com mit tees, can be said to be healthy. At the

same time it has be come clear that it has not been the ed u ca tion sec tor him self which

have taken the lead in mak ing qual ity care ex plicit.

b)Sec ond, qual ity care is in trin si cally as so ci ated with the def i ni tion of ped a gog i cal

au ton omy. An glo-Saxon writ ers, in par tic u lar, make a dis tinc tion be tween the mech a -

nisms of strict con trol, the su per vis ing role and eval u a tion of out put at a dis tance. Some

mod els of fer an orig i nal and bal anced ac count of the var i ous su per vi sory tech niques, in -

clud ing pro cess and prod uct con trol.

There is not a sin gle voice in au thor ity which would still de fend the par ing down of

gov ern ment su per vi sion to the mere ver i fi ca tion of whether ad min is tra tive and bud get -

ary pro ce dures are be ing ob served to the let ter (and in the area of per son nel pol icy, of fi -

cial ba sic reg u la tions con tinue to be vi tal, for qual ity among other things). How ever,

what the ed u ca tion in sti tu tions have to face is that the prod uct de pends on a sound pro -

cess. They also have to be pre pared to an swer the ques tion, which is be ing asked

through out Eu rope, whether in ex change for quasi-au ton omy in the pro cess area, their

free dom as far as the de liv ery of prod ucts is con cerned is not be ing re stricted too much,

as dis cussed above.

c)There is more and more con sen sus on im ple ment ing qual ity care as a prin ci ple of

proper ad min is tra tion (to be en forced upon ed u ca tional in sti tu tions), on the one hand,

and on the need to in ves ti gate the ex ces sive and over de tailed na ture of ex ist ing reg u la -

tions (to be en forced on the gov ern ment), on the other hand. The qual ity of leg is la tion,

in other words.

This need for screen ing, in clud ing the (in-built) re strain ing char ac ter with re spect to

the in ter na tional prin ci ple of mo bil ity and non-dis crim i na tion, con cerns, in the first in -

stance, the le gal po si tion of var i ous ech e lons of staff, not to serve cor po rate in ter ests, but

to com mand better op por tu ni ties for qual ity in free dom.

C. Three Cha rac te ris tics of Qu a li ty Con trol

30. Would it be bold to say that the cur rent and an tic i pated reg u la tions on qual ity care in

the na tional ed u ca tion sys tem are only a snap shot of a par tic u lar mo ment in time, that

the bal ance which we are aim ing for will shift, and on the fol low ing three points to be


go ing on with:

a)The ba sic rule re mains that if qual ity re quire ment are not im ple mented, the rec og -

ni tion of di plo mas is with drawn and sub si di sa tion will be stopped. The ob jec tion pro -

fessed al most up to now to pos i tive, and if nec es sary also neg a tive sanc tion ing op por tu -

ni ties in the area of qual ity con trol: this is un sus tain able in the long-term. In cen tive

fund ing should in deed be af forded more op por tu ni ties.106

b)Qual ity eval u a tion touches all as pects of the run ning of an in sti tu tion, and so is not

con fined to the mis sion but also in cludes man age ment and ad min is tra tion, their trans -

par ency and co he sion. This need not con flict with the po si tion of the Dutch ed u ca tion

law yer, ex-Sec re tary of State for Ed u ca tion and vice-chan cel lor Pro fes sor J. Co hen, who

started from the prem ise that what is se duc tive about a school is, in some sense, the gen -

tle and con trolled chaos which can op er ate there, cer tainly in an in sti tu tion where free -

dom is the great est good and the ‘un pre dict able’ must be cher ished.

c)One of the most am bi tious pow ers of the Eu ro pean Un ion – which has gone al most

un no ticed – will from now on be qual ity care and its Eu ro pean di men sion. Mem ber

States ought to in clude this di men sion in their na tional pol i cies. It leads to in sti tu tions

stress ing their dis tinc tive fea tures in ped a gog i cal au ton omy in qual ity con cern and in

qual ity of chances strat egy more force fully, even tu ally even to a de gree of rank ing of in -

no va tive and en ter pris ing ed u ca tional in sti tu tions – even though power and pres tige

usu ally speak for them selves. It also re quires min i mum stan dards for eval u a tion tech -

niques to guar an tee com pa ra bil ity.

Any way, all strat e gies for qual ity in ed u ca tion will have to boast a part ner ship be -

tween au ton o mous in sti tu tions and a dy namic gov ern ment. They are, as it were, ‘sen -

tenced to each other’, tied to gether in ser vice of the com mu nity.107


106 The ques ti on is “Who’s res pon si ble after as ses sment of edu ca ti o nal in sti tu ti ons?” is also par ti cu lar ly

re le vant for the non-ter ti a ry sec tor. What hig her edu ca ti on con cerns: will a mi nis ter have the me ans to im -

ple ment “re com men da ti ons” from vi si ta ti on com mis si ons as in French, Bri tish and most Eu ro pe an sys -

tems, or to im ple ment im pro ve ment plans as in the Dutch sy stem? This ques ti on was ans we red in a dif fe -

rent way in the Da nish and the Dutch le gis la ti on. Accor ding to Da nish law, the mi nis ter will not be

obli ged to im ple ment the fin dings of ex ter nal eva lu a ti on, be cau se the re is a com ple te au to no my of the in -

sti tu ti ons. Accor ding to the Dutch con ven ti on the mi nis ter will bare the over all res pon si bi li ty; the in spec -

to ra te will mo ni tor the im pro ve ment plans and its ef fects. The Fle mish sy stem fos ters co-res pon si bi li ty, a

di a lo gue be tween uni ver si ties and the mi nis ter. First, in case of sys te ma tic ne glect (not ran dom or coin ci -

den tal but sys te ma tic ne glect) of more than one year the re will be coer ci ve and re me di al re com men da ti -

ons. Ta king into ac count the hier ar chy of this kind of re com men da ti ons (ad vi sa ble, de si ra ble, coer ci ve),

we re fer again to the Bri tish sy stem. In case of sys te ma tic ne glect of such kind of coer ci ve re com men da ti -

ons and a con fir med lack of qua li ty, in sti tu tes could be fi nan ci al ly pe na li sed. In le gal terms this ques ti on

also touches the prin ci ple of equal tre at ment of stu dents. Fur ther mo re it might vi o la te the prin ci ple of

com pe ti ti on on equal terms be tween hig her edu ca ti on in sti tu ti ons, ... .

107 On Eu ro pe an coop era ti on in qua li ty as su ran ce in hig her edu ca ti on. See also De Groof J., About Au a -

li ty rights in Edu ca ti on, Eu ro pe an Jour nal for Edu ca ti on Law and Po li cy, Vo lu me 2, n° 1, 1998, p. 1-5;

De Groof J., Le gal as pects of qua li ty con trol, in Maas sen, P.A.M., Schee le, K., (Eds.), Chang ing con texts

of Qu a li ty as se sments, Cheps, De ven ter, 1998.

D. A Pro po sal of Lar ger Inter na ti o nal Coop era ti on

31. Rec om men da tions on Eu ro pean Co-op er a tion in Qual ity As sur ance – as those men -

tioned in 1998 could be ex tended to a larger in ter na tional ed u ca tion com mu nity.

The free move ment of goods, per sons, ser vices and cap i tal (Ar ti cle 3.c EC Treaty)

ought to be in line with the con tri bu tion to ed u ca tion and train ing of qual ity as well as

the flow er ing of the cul tures of the Mem ber States (Ar ti cle 3.p EC Treaty).

In ac cor dance with the prin ci ple of subsidiarity set out in Ar ti cle 3b of the Treaty, the

Un ion is to take ac tion only if and in so far as the ob jec tives of the pro posed ac tion can -

not be suf fi ciently achieved by the Mem ber States and can there fore, by rea son of the

scale or ef fects of the pro posed ac tion, be better achieved by the Com mu nity.

For the area of ed u ca tion and train ing, Ar ti cles 149 and 150 state that the Un ions

role is to en cour age co-op er a tion be tween Mem ber States and, if nec es sary, to sup port

and sup ple ment their ac tion while fully re spect ing the re spon si bil ity of the Mem ber

States for the con tent of teach ing and the or gani sa tion of ed u ca tion and train ing sys tems

and their cul tural and lin guis tic di ver sity.

Rec om men da tions and the “Open Co or di na tion Method” re spect the di ver sity of

the Eu ro pean ed u ca tion and train ing sys tems and builds on vol un tary co-op er a tion and

ad ap ta tion. Com mu nity ac tion in the field could have an added value in so far as the ad -

van tages of co-op er a tion at the Eu ro pean level, es pe cially in qual ity as sess ment and

qual ity as sur ance, can not be achieved by one Mem ber State alone or a sin gle group of

Mem ber States with out es tab lish ing links to all the oth ers. The pace of change in this

area makes per ma nent ex change of ex pe ri ence and full in for ma tion on all de vel op ments

in the Mem ber States nec es sary in or der to keep up. As this ex change would draw on

avail able at the su pra-na tional level prob lem-solv ing ca pac ity, it could build up the mo -

men tum and give a sub stan tial and ef fec tive boost to the qual ity of ed u ca tion at a larger

ex tent than Mem ber-States of the Eu ro pean Un ion.

Rec om men da tions and the “Open Co or di na tion Method”, in line with the Lis bon

Strat egy lay par tic u lar em pha sis on the ad van tages of Eu ro pean co-op er a tion in qual ity

as sess ment and qual ity as sur ance in help ing Mem ber States to meet the new qual ity de -

mands on ed u ca tion sys tems. Per ma nent ob ser va tion and com par i son of the im pact of

the le gal and in sti tu tional frame works on per for mance will help to avoid pos si ble un de -

sired side-ef fects of qual ity as sur ance pro ce dures in the dif fer ent Mem ber States and

con trib ute to in creas ing ef fec tive ness. Co-op er a tion will also make it eas ier to de velop

strat e gies for in no va tion in ed u ca tion sys tems.


Edu ca ti on Free dom in the Ne ther lands and ot herEU-coun tries: Di lem mas and Debates

Ben P. Ver meu len1

The free dom of ed u ca tion as guar an teed in in ter na tional law and in na tional con sti tu -

tions has two di men sions. First, it con tains a col lec tive right, the free dom of or ga ni za -

tions and groups of in di vid u als – within cer tain le gal lim its – to es tab lish and op er ate

state-in de pend ent schools based on a spe cific de nom i na tion, phi los o phy or ped a gogy.

Sec ond, there is the in di vid ual free dom of par ents to choose the school that they want

for their chil dren.

I am a firm be liever in the free dom of ed u ca tion. In my view both the or ga ni za tional

free dom of ed u ca tion and free pa ren tal choice are pos i tive val ues. This does not, how -

ever, make me blind for cer tain prob lem atic side ef fects of the free dom of ed u ca tion. Nor

does it make me blind for some plau si ble crit i cisms of the Dutch ed u ca tion sys tem,

which still is one of the most lib eral when it co mes to pa ren tal choice and the free dom

(and gov ern ment fund ing) of state-in de pend ent schools.2

I will just touch upon a few top ics. First I will give a short sketch of the hu man rights

pro vi sions that guar an tee the free dom of ed u ca tion (par. 1). Then I will dis cuss five

church and state mod els, some which are com pat i ble with these pro vi sions and some of

which are not (par. 2). Fur ther on I will de scribe the ba sic struc ture of the Dutch school

sys tem, that gives a prom i nent place to the free dom of ed u ca tion (par. 3). Fi nally I will

dis cuss some so cial and moral di lem mas and prob lems – linked to the free dom of ed u ca -

tion – that the Dutch sys tem is cur rently fac ing (par. 4).

Al though my pa per will con cen trate on the sit u a tion in the Neth er lands, I as sume

that the is sues dis cussed are also rel e vant in most other Eu ro pean coun tries.

The is sues and de bates I will deal with are less rel e vant for the fields of vo ca tional

train ing and higher ed u ca tion. I will there fore fo cus on pri mary and sec ond ary education.

Edu ca ti on Free dom in the Ne ther lands and ot her EU-coun tries: Di lem mas and Debates 55

1 Dr. B.P. Ver meu len is Pro fes sor of Con sti tu ti o nal and Admi ni stra ti ve Law, Vrije Uni ver si teit Amster -

dam; Pro fes sor of Edu ca ti on Law, Vrije Uni ver si teit Amster dam and Rad boud Uni ver si teit Nij me gen;

Mem ber of the Onder wijs raad (Edu ca ti on Coun cil), the per ma nent ad vi so ry board of the Mi nis ter of

Edu ca ti on; and Mem ber of the Advies com mis sie Vreem de ling en za ken (Immi gra ti on Coun cil), the per ma -

nent ad vi so ry board of the Mi nis ter of Immi gra ti on and Inte gra ti on.

2 See on this to pic also my ‘Regulating School Choi ce to Pro mo te Ci vic Va lu es: Con sti tu ti o nal and Po li ti -

cal Issu es in the Ne ther lands, in: P.J. Wolf/S. Ma ce do (eds.), Edu ca ting Ci ti zens. Inter na ti o nal Per spec ti -

ves on Ci vic Va lu es and School Choi ce, Was hing ton 2004, p. 31-66.

1. Inter na ti o nal – hu man rights – law con cer ning free dom of edu ca ti on

Sev eral hu man rights trea ties guar an tee the col lec tive and in di vid ual as pects of the free -

dom of ed u ca tion. I will men tion the most rel e vant ones.

For in stance, there is Ar ti cle 2 of the First Pro to col to the Eu ro pean Con ven tion on

Hu man Rights (ECHR),3 bind ing most Eu ro pean coun tries, in clud ing all EU-mem ber

states. It de clares: ‘No per son shall be de nied the right to ed u ca tion. In the ex er cise of

any func tions which it as sumes in re la tion to ed u ca tion and teach ing, the State shall re -

spect the right of par ents to en sure such ed u ca tion and teach ing in con for mity with their

own re li gious and philo soph i cal con vic tions.’ It is clear that the sec ond sen tence of this

pro vi sion guar an tees the in di vid ual (pa ren tal) free dom of ed u ca tion. The (col lec tive)

right to es tab lish non-state de nom i na tional schools and other free schools is im plic itly

guar an teed in this pro vi sion.

Fur ther more, whereas Ar ti cle 13(3) of the In ter na tional Cov e nant on Eco nomic, So -

cial and Cul tural Rights (ICESCR) just like Ar ti cle 2 of Pro to col 1 to the ECHR com -

prises the free dom of par ents, Ar ti cle 13(4) ICESCR ex plic itly guar an tees the free dom to

es tab lish and di rect ed u ca tional in sti tu tions. Ar ti cle 14 of the EU Char ter on fun da men -

tal rights like wise pro claims the free dom to es tab lish non-state schools, as well as the

right of pa ren tal choice. Though le gally non-bind ing, it re flects a Eu ro pean con sen sus.

The Char ter forms part of the Treaty Es tab lish ing a Con sti tu tion for Eu rope. If this

treaty en ters into force, it will be come bind ing EU-law.

It must be stressed, that al though the afore men tioned pro vi sions of hu man rights

trea ties and EU-law al low for the ex is tence of sep a rate non-state schools, they prob a bly

do not oblige the state to fund such schools. There is no case law that these pro vi sions

pos i tively man date gov ern ment fund ing for pri vate non-state schools. It there fore ap -

pears that al though the Eu ro pean states are free to choose the Dutch sys tem, that funds

state schools and non-state schools on an equal ba sis, they are also free to de cide to fund

only state schools or to only par tially fund non-state schools.

This au ton omy of the na tional state to reg u late its ed u ca tional sys tem as it re gards

best is re flected in ar ti cle 149 and 150 of the EC Treaty, which sol emnly de clare that

EC-law must leave the sov er eignty of the state with re gard to ed u ca tion un im paired.

This au ton omy is also re flected in the case law of the Eu ro pean Court on Hu man Rights,

that leaves the States par ties in this field a wide mar gin of ap pre ci a tion. For in stance in

the re cent Sahin-judg ment the Court ruled, that Tur key - com mit ted to a strict sep a ra -

tion of church and state - is free to pro hibit the head scarf and other re li gious signs in its

schools.4


3 See on this pro vi si on J. de Groof, G. Lau wers (eds.), No per son shall be de nied the right to edu ca ti on.

The in flu en ce of the Eu ro pe an Con ven ti on on Hu man Rights on the rights to edu ca ti on and rights in edu -

ca ti on, Nij me gen 2004.

4 ECHR 29 June 2004 (Sa hin v. Tur key), § 102: ‘A mar gin of ap pre ci a ti on is par ti cu lar ly ap propri a te

when it co mes to the re gu la ti on of Con trac ting Sta tes of the we a ring of re li gi ous sym bols in te aching in sti -

2. Se pa ra ti on of church and sta te

This brings me to a short anal y sis of the prin ci ple of sep a ra tion of church and state. To a

cer tain ex tent this prin ci ple is in her ent in and flows from hu man rights trea ties. All

EU-coun tries sub scribe to this prin ci ple. How ever, it seems clear to me that there is not

just one cor rect and ac cept able ver sion of this prin ci ple; there are sev eral plau si ble mod -

els of church-state sep a ra tion. It may be use ful to dif fer en ti ate be tween five mod els that

may be placed on a con tin uum, rang ing from sys tems in which schools are in stru ments

of athe ist in doc tri na tion to sys tems where schools are means to re al ize theo cra tic ide als.

(1) On the one hand of the spec trum there is the po si tion of to tal i tar ian sec u lar ism. In

this view, schools are mere or gans of the state that have to prop a gate an athe ist doc trine.

Quite of ten it is com bined by a na tion al ist ide ol ogy, aim ing at obe di ence to wards a su -

preme leader or party. Re li gions are re garded as false ide ol o gies, cre at ing su per sti tious

be liefs and tend ing to op pose the state, which have to be erad i cated by pub lic ed u ca tion.

There is no room for non-state schools.

(2) Then there is the strict separationist view. This view is not anti-re li gious, but a-re li -

gious or sec u lar. Strict separationism, in spired by the his tor i cal ex am ples of the civil

wars in the six teenth and sev en teenth cen tu ries, as well as by the strug gle of French and

Ital ian gov ern ments against the power of the Ro man Cath o lic Church in the nine teenth

cen tury, seeks to ex clude re li gion from the sphere of pub lic ed u ca tion. It pre sup poses a

strong sep a ra tion of church and state.

In this view, re li gion is a purely pri vate mat ter, be long ing to the realm of in di vid ual

choices; the state is con cerned with pub lic mat ters. Re li gion and pol i tics should be kept

apart; when they are mixed – the state dic tat ing or fa vor ing re li gious be liefs, or re li gion

us ing the state for its pur poses – both of them suf fer. There fore the state should be neu -

tral on re li gious mat ters, and this neu tral ity is best main tained by keep ing re li gion and

pol i tics apart, by keep ing re li gious views out side the pub lic school, and by ab stain ing

from fund ing of non-state schools.

Quite of ten this po si tion is com bined with the ideal of a pub lic school as the com mon

school, This school is not only com mon in that it is open and avail able for all. It is also

the com mon school in that it teaches the val ues and norms that are shared in Eu ro pean

so ci ety, that link in di vid u als to a shared be lief in the same ba sic, nonsectarian and im -

par tial prin ci ples of the En light en ment, some what like John Dewey’s civil re li gion. In

this per spec tive, the com mon school stresses gen eral civic vir tues, such as tol er ance,

respect and ra tio nal ity, thereby fur ther ing mu tual un der stand ing; whereas re li gious

schools are seen as sources of so cial di vi sion, de voted as they are to their own spe -

cific-sec tar ian pur poses, keep ing pu pils apart and strength en ing oppositions.


tu ti ons [...]. It should be no ted in this con nec ti on that the very na tu re of edu ca ti on ma kes re gu la to ry po -

wers necessary’.

(3) A third model is what might be called the plu ral ist or co oper ation ist view. Ac cord ing

to this view re li gion is not a sep a rate sphere, which has only a lim ited rel e vance for pub -

lic af fairs, but on the con trary has a bear ing on all or many as pects of so cial life. Gov ern -

ment should not take sides among the plu ral ity of re li gious and sec u lar worldviews, and

should en deavor to treat these views on a par, even-handed. The pub lic school should

there fore be neu tral in the sense that it is not dog matic or sec tar ian. It should not iden tity

it self with a par tic u lar ide ol ogy, should not re flect a spe cific faith or ide ol ogy. It must try

to mir ror the plu ral ity of views in so ci ety. In this sense it should not be ideo log i cally

color-blind, but multi-col ored and multi-cul tural.

Fur ther more, it should not only be al lowed to es tab lish non-state schools, de nom i na -

tional or not. These schools – as long as they ful fil the ed u ca tional stan dards – should

also be funded by the state. The prin ci ple of even-hand ed ness de mands that schools that

live up to these stan dards – whether they are run by gov ern ment or by pri vate par -

ties – should be treated on a par.

(4) A fourth view is that of the es tab lished or priv i leged church model. Un der this model

the state and the state church or dom i nant churches form a part ner ship in ad vanc ing the

cause of both re li gion and the state. Gov ern ment rec og nizes and sup ports only the state

church or dom i nant churches. While other re li gions are tol er ated, they do not oc cupy

this fa vored po si tion. When it co mes to ed u ca tion, the ethos in pub lic schools is more or

less – broadly – based upon the fa vored re li gion or re li gions, al though not in a sec tar ian

way. Non-state schools are al lowed to ex ist, but are not sup ported by the state.

(5) The last model is that of the the oc racy, in which the state rests upon one re li gion, and

does not – or only to a small ex tent – leave room for other re li gions in the pub lic sphere.

Pub lic schools are based upon the state re li gion, which is strictly ob served there. One of

the core tasks of pub lic schools is to fur ther the state re li gion, to in still in their pu pils its

ba sic truths and dogma’s and to live up to the laws of God.

The first model – to tal i tar ian sec u lar ism – is a po si tion that has been taken by Na zism,

fas cism and so viet com mu nism. It is ev i dent that this po si tion is in com pat i ble with the

ba sic prin ci ples and val ues of Eu ro pean so ci ety, as guar an teed in the hu man rights trea -

ties I just men tioned. Ab hor rence of in sti tu tions like the Hitlerjugend mo ti vated the

adop tion of Ar ti cle 2 Pro to col 1 of the Eu ro pean Con ven tion on Hu man Rights that en -

deav ors to safe guard the free dom of ed u ca tion against such in stru ments of brain wash -

ing.

Like wise the fifth model, placed on the other ex treme of the con tin uum – the oc -

racy – that can be found in some Is lamic coun tries, is also ir rec on cil able with these prin -

ci ples and val ues. I re fer to the de ci sions of the Eu ro pean Court of Hu man Rights in the

Refah case, where it was held that the dis so lu tion of the Refah Party, that strived for the


in tro duc tion of the Shari’ah – Is lamic law – in Tur key was jus ti fied, just be cause such a

theo cra tic re gime would be in com pat i ble with Con ven tion val ues.5

Is seems to me that both mod els in fact are based upon the same ideo log i cal struc ture,

the same nor ma tive pre sump tions. It may be said that ‘les extrèmes se touchent’: both

mod els pre sume the ex is tence of an ab so lute value sys tem, that does not leave room for

al ter na tive opin ions, re li gions, world views, and which should be forced upon schools

and their pu pils.

The other three views to a large ex tent can now a days be found in most coun tries in Eu -

rope and Amer ica. For in stance, the USA and Tur key come clos est to the strict

separationist po si tion, al though France also shares many of its char ac ter is tics. The plu -

ral ist-co op er a tion view can be found in the Neth er lands, Bel gium and other coun tries.

The priv i leged church or re li gions po si tion is most clearly adopted in Greece, al though

some as pects can also be found in other coun tries. As far as I can see the ed u ca tion sys -

tems in the new EU-coun tries also can be placed some where on this con tin uum of these

three state-church mod els. All these sys tems ac cept the ex is tence of pri vate ed u ca tional

in sti tu tions. Whether they have a right to gov ern ment fund ing dif fers from coun try to

coun try.

These three mod els – sep a ra tion, plu ral is tic co op er a tion and priv i leged re li gions

– all seem to me to be ac cept able vari ants, which in gen eral are in ac cor dance with the

main val ues and prin ci ples of mod ern so ci ety and which are in har mony with the rel e -

vant hu man rights trea ties. What model is cho sen is there fore pri mar ily a mat ter to be

de cided by the na tional con sti tu tion and leg is la tion.

3. The Dutch school sy stem

As I al ready ob served in par. 2, the Dutch school sys tem is firmly in the mid dle po si tion.

This sys tem – as laid down in Ar ti cle 23 of the Con sti tu tion – is es sen tially a bi nary,

dualistic struc ture. It con sists of two types of schools: (1) pub lic-au thor ity schools and

(2) pri vate, nonpublic schools, which are to a cer tain ex tent op po sites, com ple ment ing

and sup ple ment ing each other – I have called them some times Yin and Yang – and are

treated by the state on an equal ba sis. The pub lic-au thor ity schools and pri vate schools

are funded ac cord ing to iden ti cal or equiv a lent cri te ria.

Pub lic-au thor ity schools are gen er ally gov erned lo cal gov ern ment, of ten by the mu -

nic i pal ex ec u tive. They do not en joy au ton omy in the sense of a free dom to ground their

ed u ca tional prin ci ples in a spe cific re li gion or be lief, but they are free to choose a spe cific

ped a gog i cal ap proach such as Mon tes sori or Dal ton. Ed u ca tion pro vided by these

schools is reg u lated by law: it must be non-de nom i na tional, based on the prin ci ple of


5 Eu ro pe an Court of Hu man Rights 31 July 2001 and 13 Fe bru a ry 2003 (Wel fa re Par ty (Re fah) and

Others v. Tur key).

neu tral ity. Pub lic schools are not al lowed to se lect pu pils and teach ers on the ba sis of de -

nom i na tional cri te ria. These schools, be ing freely ac ces si ble to all pu pils, have a (lim ited)

pri macy, since gov ern ment has to guar an tee that within a small dis tance from home

there is a pub lic school for ev ery pu pil that wants to at tend one (the so-called ‘guar an tee

func tion of the pub lic school’).

In de pend ent ‘pri vate’ (that is, non-state) schools are run by cor po rate bod ies un der civil

law. Though in gen eral they are fully gov ern ment-funded, they en joy a con sti tu tion -

ally-safe guarded au ton omy: the free dom of ed u ca tion, the right to es tab lish a school and

to or ga nize this school – and the ed u ca tion pro vided there – ac cord ing to a spe cific de -

nom i na tion or ped a gog i cal phi los o phy. In prin ci ple pri vate schools have the right to se -

lect pu pils on the ba sis of re li gious af fil i a tion, but only when their ad mis sion pol icy is

based on a con sis tent ap pli ca tion of cri te ria di rectly de rived from its re li gious char ac ter.

More than two-thirds of all pu pils go to a pri vate school; most of them are (for mally)

Ro man Cath o lic or Protestant. It has to be stressed, how ever, that many (the ma jor ity) of

these schools do not, in fact, have a strongly dis tinc tive re li gious char ac ter any more,

pres ent them selves as ‘open’ and plu ral is tic, and have thereby for feited their right to se -

lect pu pils on the ba sis of de nom i na tional cri te ria.

4. Dilemma’s and ques ti ons

As I said, I firmly be lieve in this sys tem. It is su pe rior in terms of in di vid ual free dom. It

cre ates a cer tain amount of com pe ti tion be tween a va ri ety of schools, which pro vides

par ents and pu pils a real op por tu nity to choose. Fur ther more, it al lows par ents that are

dis sat is fied with the ex ist ing schools to or ga nize them selves and to es tab lish a new

– gov ern ment funded – school of their lik ing. And in gen eral, non-state schools are func -

tion ing fairly well.

A mo nop o lis tic state school sys tem would de prive par ents of op por tu ni ties to choose

and es tab lish the school of their lik ing, and would de stroy one of the main vir tues of the

Dutch school sys tem, its open ness to pri vate ini tia tives, which made it pos si ble that the

ma jor ity of (pri mary) school board mem bers con sist of par ents.

But as I also in di cated ear lier, it raises some se ri ous di lem mas and maybe even has se -

ri ous neg a tive side ef fects. In this para graph I will touch upon the most im por tant is sues.

4.1 Free dom of edu ca ti on det ri men tal to in te gra ti on and co he si on?

There are im por tant, in ter re lated is sues cur rently con front ing the Dutch ed u ca tion

system. The main ques tion is whether and how the state can – through the school -

system – im ple ment val ues like so cial co he sion, equal ity and cit i zen ship in a multi cul -


tural and multi-eth nic so ci ety, while at the same time re spect ing ed u ca tional free dom.

These prin ci ples – on the one hand co he sion, equal ity and cit i zen ship, on the other hand

col lec tive free dom of ed u ca tion and in di vid ual free dom of choice – some times may

strengthen each other. How ever, they also some times con tra dict each other, point ing in

dif fer ent or even op po site di rec tions. It is an im por tant task of the state – but also, to an

ex tent, an im por tant task of schools – to try to reach an op ti mum, in which those prin ci -

ples and val ues all are re spected as far as pos si ble. But such a har mony can not al ways be

re al ized, and then we have to de cide which prin ci ples should pre vail over other prin ci -

ples.

A first is sue is whether – in spite of the fact that non state schools are func tion ing rel a -

tively well, that their ex is tence gives par ents free dom of choice etc. – the state for rea -

sons of in te gra tion and ad vance ment of so cial co he sion should only fund the ‘com mon,’

sec u lar state school, the pub lic-au thor ity school that is equally ac ces si ble to all and pro -

vides a neu tral cur ric u lum. The ar gu ment be hind the plea for such a com mon school is

that in a so ci ety as re li giously and cul tur ally dif fer en ti ated as the Dutch, it is nec es sary to

use the school as an in stru ment for in te gra tion, teach ing chil dren of dif fer ent eth nic, re li -

gious, so cial and cul tural back grounds to live peace fully to gether, train ing them to re -

spect each other, in still ing in them the ba sic val ues of de moc racy and the rule of law, and

cre at ing equal op por tu ni ties for all. In fact this ar gu ment pro poses to change the Dutch

sys tem into some thing like the Amer i can sys tem of com mon (pub lic) school ing. I pre -

sume that such an ar gu ment surely also is at trac tive in East ern Eu ro pean coun tries, that

face sim i lar prob lems of in te gra tion and co he sion.

Crit ics of the dualistic school sys tem, than, ar gue that we can and should pub licly

fund only the com mon state schools. Au thor i ties should ex pect schools to con trib ute to

the re moval of so cial in equal i ties and re li gious and cul tural ‘apart heid’, should cre ate

the con di tions for full par tic i pa tion of all in so ci ety. Be cause pri vate, and es pe cially de -

nom i na tional, schools were es tab lished to per pet u ate rather than to re move group loy al -

ties – to seg re gate in stead of in te grate – they can not ad e quately con trib ute to so cial and

cul tural in te gra tion. There fore, they should give up their dis tinc tive re li gious char ac ter.

But when they do so, they have thereby lost their le git i macy to stay apart from the pub lic

school sys tem and should sim ply be taken over by the state.

This ar gu ment puts de nom i na tional schools in an im pos si ble po si tion. As long as

they are truly dis tinc tive and re li gious, it is pre sumed that they can not ful fill their in te -

gra tive tasks and should there fore not be funded by the gov ern ment. But as soon as they

be gin to ful fill these tasks and con trib ute to so cial in te gra tion, they have to give up their

re li gious char ac ter is tics and have no rea son any more to stay out side the state school sys -

tem. I will dis cuss this is sue fur ther in the next sub para graphs.


4.2 Free dom of edu ca ti on as a sour ce of se gre ga ti on?

The plea in fa vor of the com mon state school is in spired by the as sump tion that a plu ral -

ist school sys tem in fact leads to a split be tween schools along eth nic and re li gious lines.

It has to be ad mit ted that the free dom of ed u ca tion may have some role in the so cial pro -

cesses lead ing to wards mono-re li gious and mono-eth nic schools. How ever, this role is

surely only a small one. The large ma jor ity of de nom i na tional schools (main stream

Cath o lic and Protestant schools) do not se lect on the ba sis of re li gion; only a lim ited

num ber of schools con sis tently do so. It should be stressed that a non-state de nom i na -

tional school that is not con sis tent in its se lec tion thereby for feits its right to re fuse pu pils

on re li gious grounds.

It should also be noted that a sys tem in which only pub lic-au thor ity schools are

funded may lead to the growth of pri vate com mer cial schools – at this mo ment the num -

ber of such schools is neg li gi ble – thereby cre at ing a di vi sion be tween pri vate schools for

the rich and pub lic schools for the rest. Of course, there is some di vi sion along so cio eco -

nomic lines in the cur rent sys tem. But it is prob a ble that gov ern ment fund ing of pri vate

schools min i mizes the so cio eco nomic di vide and pre vents it from get ting worse. Ac cord -

ing to the law, pri vate gov ern ment-funded schools must be free: ad mit tance may not de -

pend on the fi nan cial con tri bu tions of the par ents.

Fur ther more, it is true that for some 15 years now there has been a trend to ward a di vi -

sion be tween ‘white’ and ‘black’ schools. But it is de bat able, how ever, whether this trend

is mainly caused by the Dutch school sys tem. It seems that this trend to a larger ex tent

merely re flects de mo graphic and hous ing pat terns, and can also be found in coun tries

where the model of a com mon sec u lar school sys tem is strongly fa vored, as in the United

States and France. In gen eral, a school in a ‘black’ neigh bor hood is ‘black,’ whereas a

school in a ‘white’ neigh bor hood is ‘white,’ ir re spec tive of whether it is a neu tral pub -

lic-au thor ity school or a pri vate de nom i na tional school.

4.3 Isla mic schools as sour ces of dis in te gra ti on?

The de bate con cern ing the le git i macy of the dualistic school sys tem has re cently been

trig gered by fears con cern ing the growth of the num ber of Is lamic schools and the sus pi -

cion that these schools are fi nanced and in flu enced by gov ern men tal or ga ni za tions from

Mus lim coun tries, re sist ing in te gra tion and prop a gat ing fun da men tal ism. But re ports

on this is sue by the In ter nal Se cu rity Ser vice and the Ed u ca tion In spec tor ate do not sup -

port these sus pi cions.

The en su ing de bates in Par lia ment made clear once again that all schools and all

courses should re main within the bound aries of the law and should re spect the prin ci ples

of de moc racy and rule of law. It should be stressed that the free dom of ed u ca tion does


not safe guard ab so lute ed u ca tional au ton omy. For in stance, the state is al lowed to lay

down cer tain min i mum ed u ca tional stan dards. These stan dards may also pre scribe that

all les sons – in clud ing re li gious in struc tion in Is lamic and other de nom i na tional schools

– take into ac count min i mum stan dards of tol er ance and re spect for other views. The In -

spec tion has now been au tho rized to su per vise even the re li gious in struc tion classes.

How ever, the de bate has been re in tro duced by wor ries con cern ing the qual ity of

‘black schools’, schools with more than 50% pu pils from eth nic and cul tural mi nor i ties.

A dom i nant po lit i cal view is, that Is lamic schools are coun ter pro duc tive be cause they

tend to be ‘black’ schools: they only re cruit their pu pils from eth nic and cul tural mi nor -

ity groups. It is pre sumed that such schools hin der the ef fec tive clos ing of the in tel lec tual

gap be tween pu pils of ma jor ity and of mi nor ity groups. I will dis cuss this fur ther in par.

4.4.

4.4 For ced de se gre ga ti on?

It must be ad mit ted that seg re ga tion in ed u ca tion along eth nic and socio-eco nomic lines

is prob lem atic. For in stance, it is surely more dif fi cult to re al ize a min i mum of com mu ni -

ca tion and so cial in te gra tion be tween ‘black’ and ‘white’ chil dren in eth ni cally and cul -

tur ally seg re gated schools than it is when the school pop u la tion con sists of an ad e quate

‘mix’. Given such a ‘mix’, it is more prob a ble that Dutch will be the main lan guage spo -

ken on the play ground and those friend ships be tween ‘black’ and ‘white’ chil dren will

de velop. In ad di tion, there is some em pir i cal ev i dence that pu pils with learn ing dis ad -

van tages may ben e fit from the pres ence of pu pils with out such dis ad van tages. It is there -

fore un der stand able that one is look ing for in stru ments to coun ter the trend to wards

fur ther seg re ga tion.

One way that is cur rently sug gested is a gov ern ment pol icy pre scrib ing schools to

achieve an ad e quate mix of ‘black’ and ‘white’ pu pils. How ever, such a pol icy, when not

vol un tary, may eas ily be in com pat i ble with hu man rights pro vi sions.6 One has to keep in

mind that the ex is tence of ‘white schools’ and ‘black schools’ is to a large ex tent brought

about by the eth nic com po si tion of the dis trict in which the school is lo cated. Coun ter -

ing seg re gat ing ten den cies by im pos ing quo tas etc. – nec es sar ily lead ing to the re fusal of

pu pils merely be cause they would dis turb the re quired eth nic mix – will prob a bly be re -

garded as a breach of the prin ci ple of pa ren tal choice. An al lo ca tion of pu pils to a spe -

cific school would vi o late the rights of par ents as guar an teed in Ar ti cle 2 Pro to col 1

ECHR. Fur ther more a com pul sory de seg re ga tion scheme would be in com pat i ble with

the re quire ment that the pub lic school sys tem has to ad mit ev ery child (Ar ti cle 2 sec tion

(4) of the Dutch Con sti tu tion). Fi nally such a pol icy when based on eth nic quo tas would

be in con tra ven tion with the Algemene wet gelijke behandeling (the Equal Treat ment


6 B.P. Ver meu len, Wit te en zwar te scho len, Den Haag 2001.

Act)7, the Con ven tion on the Elim i na tion of Ra cial Dis crim i na tion (CERD) and Di rec -

tive 2000/43/EC. A quota-sys tem, how ever well in ten tioned, would amount to (pro hib -

ited) di rect dif fer en ti a tion based on ra cial or eth nic or i gin. It is true that the CERD and

the Di rec tive al low for com pen sat ing mea sures fa vour ing eth nic mi nor i ties in or der to

re al ize full equal ity (pos i tive ac tion). But a com pul sory mix ing pol icy would quite of ten

be dis ad van ta geous to in di vid ual per sons be long ing to eth nic mi nor i ties, while it would

fre quently hin der them to re al ize their choices.8 It should be ob served that Mo roc can

and Turk ish par ents quite of ten pre fer the school nearby – even though it is a ‘black’

school – not only for prac ti cal rea sons but also be cause that school is spe cial ized in

teach ing mi nor ity chil dren and re ceives more fund ing than the av er age school.

A sec ond pro posal that aims at de seg re ga tion is, that all newly founded schools with too

many pu pils with learn ing dis ad van tages should re ceive less gov ern ment fund ing (or

even loose al gov ern ment fund ing). In a pol icy doc u ment of April 2004, the cab i net ac -

cepted this pro posal and will in tro duce a bill to im ple ment it.9

How ever, this is prob lem atic. First there is the prac ti cal prob lem, that it in fact pro -

hib its the foun da tion or con tin u a tion of (all) new schools in ur ban ar eas where mainly

eth nic and cul tural mi nor ity groups – and thus a con cen tra tion of pu pils with learn ing

dis ad van tages – live.

An other prob lem is that the con se quence is that no new Is lamic schools can be es tab -

lished – which prob a bly is one of the main rea sons why it is pro posed. Is lamic schools

re cruit pri mar ily im mi grant chil dren with learn ing dis ad van tages; all of them are ‘black’

schools. Thus an os ten si bly neu tral cri te rion in fact amounts to dif fer en tial treat ment of

Is lamic schools. Such dif fer en tial treat ment is not al ways pro hib ited. How ever, it should

then be jus ti fied by strong ar gu ments. The ques tion is, thus, whether a re stric tion of the

free dom to es tab lish one’s own schools, which pri mar ily af fects re li gious mi nor i ties, can

be jus ti fied in the light of equal ity prin ci ples laid down in the Con sti tu tion and in hu man

rights trea ties (such as Ar ti cle 14 in con junc tion with Ar ti cle 2 Pro to col 1 ECHR).

An other op tion put for ward is to strengthen the po si tion of pu pils and their par ents.10

Quite of ten it is as sumed that de nom i na tional schools (ab)use their right to se lect in or -

der to re fuse mi nor ity chil dren, which leads to a dis pro por tion ate num ber of these chil -

dren in pub lic-au thor ity schools (that do not have this right). By giv ing par ents a le gal


7 As de ci ded by the mo ni to ring body on the Equal Tre at ment Act, the Com mis sie Ge lij ke Be han de ling

(CGB), in CGB 6 No vem ber 2001, Admi ni stra tief rech te lij ke Bes lis sing en 2002, 48.

8 The use of ethnic quo ta sys tems in or der to re ach an ade qua te mix in the lar ger ci ties was de cla red un -

law ful, vi o la ting the CERD: Ko nink lijk Bes luit 19 juli 1974, Staats blad 1974, 496; Ko nink lijk Bes luit 10

sep tem ber 1974, Staats blad 1974, 556; Pre si dent Recht bank Rot ter dam 10 maart 1981, Recht spraak

Vreem de ling en recht 1981, 113. Cf. also Kan tong erecht Eind ho ven 28 maart 1984, Recht spraak Vreem -

de ling en recht 1984, 122.

9 Ka mer stuk ken II 2003-2004, 29536 nr. 1, p. 10.

10 Ka mer stuk ken II 2001-2002, 28000 VIII, nr. 71.

claim to have their chil dren ad mit ted to the school of their choice a de sir able mix will

con se quently come about – so it is pre sup posed.

I have se ri ous doubts con cern ing such a pol icy. First, an un con di tional free dom of

choice would be in con sis tent with the free dom of ed u ca tion – the right to se lect on de -

nom i na tional grounds – as en shrined in Ar ti cle 23(5) and (6) of the Con sti tu tion. It is

true that this right may be re stricted. But a le gal mea sure, that de nies that right even to

the small num ber of de nom i na tional schools that con sis tently ap ply their re li gious cri te -

ria when ad mit ting and re fus ing pu pils, would surely be un con sti tu tional, would surely

be in com pat i ble with the free dom of ed u ca tion.

Fur ther more, the pro po nents of this op tion seem to be lieve that strength en ing pa ren -

tal choice would re sult in an ad e quate ‘eth nic mix’. This be lief is in cor rect. The ex is tence

of seg re ga tion in ‘white’ and ‘black’ schools is largely the re sult from hous ing pat terns,

and not of frus tra tion by school boards of pa ren tal choice. To the con trary, seg re ga tion

is in part also the re sult of pa ren tal choice, the prod uct of the so-called ‘white flight’ and

the pref er ence of large num bers of Mo roc can and Turk ish par ents for pub lic and Is lamic

schools and neigh bour hood schools.11

Maybe a more ef fec tive course will be the strength en ing of lo cal ed u ca tion pol icy. From

1997 on wards, lo cal au thor i ties are re spon si ble for the fund ing of school ac com mo da -

tion, and are the com pe tent body for plan ning and co or di nat ing it.1212 Fur ther more, in

1998 an Act of Par lia ment came into force that as signs to lo cal au thor i ties the power to

pre scribe how schools have to spend the funds they have re ceived for the as sis tance of

pu pils with ed u ca tional dis ad van tages.13

This pol icy to del e gate vi tal pow ers to mu nic i pal i ties is in spired by the idea that an

in te gral ap proach to re lated prob lems (socio-eco nomic in equal ity, seg re ga tion of cul tur -

al mi nor i ties, ju ve nile de lin quency, early school-leav ing) is nec es sary, and that co or di na -

tion of youth and wel fare work, em ploy ment-find ing and ed u ca tion is re quired. This co -

or di na tion can not take place at the level of the cen tral gov ern ment or the school. Local

gov ern ment can best re al ize it. Es pe cially lo cal au thor i ties in the ma jor cit ies are wor ried

by ten den cies to wards ‘ghettoisation’, and hope that ed u ca tional pol icy, strength en ing

the com mu nity-build ing ca pac i ties of ‘mag net schools’, may coun ter these ten den cies.

In 2002/2003 the Dutch Ed u ca tion Coun cil (Onderwijsraad) has sug gested to Cab i net

and Par lia ment to se ri ously dis cuss this op tion of lo cal de seg re ga tion pol i cies.14 It may


11 S. Kar sten et al., School keu ze in een mul ti-et ni sche sa men le ving, Amster dam 2002; Onder wijs raad

(Edu ca ti on Coun cil), Vas te grond on der de voe ten. Een ver ken ning in za ke ar ti kel 23 Grond wet, Den

Haag 2002.

12 Wet van 4 juli 1996 in za ke de de cen tra li sa tie van huis ves tings voor zie ning en, Staats blad 1996, 402.

13 Wet van 15 mei 1997 in za ke het ge meen te lijk on der wij sach ter stan den be leid, Staats blad 1997, 237.

14 Vas te grond on der de voe ten. Een ver ken ning in za ke ar ti kel 23 Grond wet, Den Haag 2002; Onder -

wijs en bur ger schap, Den Haag 2003. In 2003 a sy stem has been in tro du ced in Flan ders that com bi nes the

prin ci ple of pa ren tal choi ce with the right of school boards to re fu se pu pils when the re la ti ve per cen ta ge of

be that there are in deed suf fi cient rea sons to spread pu pils over all schools within the

mu nic i pal ity. The Ed u ca tion Coun cil stip u lated how ever that a co er cive ar range ment

should:

» ex plic itly be de clared by Act of Par lia ment to be le git i mate;

» be jus ti fied by co gent in ter ests;

» not be based on eth nic cri te ria (be cause that would be in com pat i ble with

hu man rights pro vi sions), but on ed u ca tional cri te ria (learn ing dis ad van -

tages) of the pu pils, for in stance de ter mined by (for eign) home lan guage or

the level of ed u ca tion of their par ents;

» leave in tact the free dom of the ‘or tho dox’ de nom i na tion schools to re fuse

pu pils on de nom i na tional grounds;

» should be de cided upon at the lo cal level.

In May 2005 the Coun cil will fur ther ad vise on this is sue.

4.5 Edu ca ti on free dom ver sus ci ti zens hip edu ca ti on?

Apart from the ques tion of an ad e quate mix of the school pop u la tion, there is also the

ques tion of the con tent of ed u ca tion. To what ex tent could and should the state pre -

scribe pos i tive ed u ca tional stan dards in terms of so cial co he sion, cit i zen ship ed u ca tion,

and the like, and where are the lim its to do so, flow ing from the free dom of ed u ca tion?

For in stance, to what ex tent does re spect ing the right of par ents to en sure the ed u ca tion

and teach ing of their chil dren in con for mity with their own re li gious and philo soph i cal

con vic tions (as the sec ond sen tence of Ar ti cle 2 Pro to col 1 ECHR re quires) set lim its to

these reg u la tions?

As the Eu ro pean Court of Hu man Rights ob served in Kjeldsen, Busk Madsen and

Pedersen, the set ting and plan ning of the cur ric u lum falls in prin ci ple within the com pe -

tence of the State. In par tic u lar, the sec ond sen tence of Ar ti cle 2 of the Pro to col does not

pre vent States from im part ing through teach ing or ed u ca tion in for ma tion or knowl edge

of a di rectly or in di rectly re li gious or philo soph i cal kind; it does not even per mit par ents

to ob ject to the in te gra tion of such teach ing or ed u ca tion in the school cur ric u lum, for

oth er wise all in sti tu tion al ized teach ing would run the risk of prov ing im prac ti ca ble. On

the other hand the State, in ful fill ing the func tions as sumed by it in re gard to ed u ca tion

and teach ing, must take care that in for ma tion or knowl edge in cluded in the cur ric u lum

is con veyed in an ob jec tive, crit i cal and plu ral is tic man ner. The State is for bid den to pur -

sue an aim of in doc tri na tion that might be con sid ered as not re spect ing par ents’ re li gious


non-na ti ve spe a king pu pils is 10 % hig her than in ot her schools in the same dis trict. Cf. A. Over bee ke,

‘Non-dis cri mi na tie en ge lij ke kan sen in za ke school keu ze in het Vlaam se on der wijs – re qui em voor het

toe la tings be leid van iden ti teits ge bon den in stel ling en?’, in J. Ve laers/J. Vrie link (red.), Vrij heid en ge lijk -

heid. De ho ri zon ta le wer king van het ge lijk heids be gin sel en de nieu we an ti dis cri mi na tie wet, Antwer -

pen-Apel doorn 2003, pp. 707-753.

and philo soph i cal con vic tions.15

This im plies that the State has a ba sic com pe tence to reg u late the cur ric u lum, at least

by means of min i mum qual ity stan dards and ed u ca tional aims, as long as they are not in -

doc tri nat ing and leave enough room for plu ral ism. In con for mity with the Kjeldsen-de -

ci sion, the Com mis sion found that Ar ti cle 2 Pro to col 1 ECHR ‘im plies a right for the

State to es tab lish com pul sory school ing [...] and that ver i fi ca tion and en force ment of ed -

u ca tional stan dards is an in te gral part of that right.’16 And that a Dutch court found,

that so-called ‘kerndoelen’ – min i mum at tain ment tar gets set by the State – did not vi o -

late this pro vi sion was also to be ex pected.17

Un til now there has been a great re luc tance on be half of the Dutch state to pre scribe

moral stan dards. There is a gen eral dis like in Dutch pol i tics and so ci ety of the state as

teacher or inculcator of vir tue. Surely this dis like has its le gal fundament in the con sti tu -

tional safe guards of ed u ca tional free dom, but it also re flects the feel ing that gov ern ment

should not mor al ize. It is true that the Ed u ca tion Acts and the ed u ca tion de crees con tain

gen eral aims with a moral con tent. For in stance, Ar ti cle 8 Sec tion 3 of the Pri mary Ed u -

ca tion Act and Ar ti cle 17 of the Sec ond ary Ed u ca tion Act de mand that schools should

take into ac count that pu pils ‘grow up in a multi cul tural so ci ety.’ These pro vi sions seem

to im ply that schools should in still in their stu dents a pos i tive at ti tude to wards this

multi cul tural so ci ety. The at tain ment tar gets like wise con tain pro vi sions that call upon

schools to stim u late their pu pils to be come re spon si ble, tol er ant cit i zens. But these pro -

vi sions are vague and im pre cise. They ad dress the pu pil as an ideal fu ture cit i zen and

par tic i pant in so ci ety, but do not spe cif i cally ad dress the con crete civic vir tues and so cial

ca pac i ties they will need to be good cit i zens and par tic i pants in civil so ci ety.

It is also true that gen eral laws such as the Crim i nal Code and the Civil Code, as well

as pub lic or der re quire ments, al though not spe cif i cally ad dress ing the ed u ca tional sys -

tem, are ap pli ca ble to schools. This im plies that de nom i na tional schools are not free to

ex press rac ist or anti-dem o cratic opin ions, even if such opin ions would form part of

their re li gion or phi los o phy. But these pro hi bi tions only are neg a tive min i mum-norms

that de scribe what should not be done or said; they do not spe cif i cally iden tify the pos i -

tive val ues that should ac tively be pro moted.

This re jec tion of the state as a moral ed u ca tor is also re flected in the ab sence of a sep -

a rate sub ject like cit i zen ship ed u ca tion. Cit i zen ship is a sub ject in the his tory courses,

but it is treated from a the o ret i cal-con cep tual point of view, not with an eye to cul ti vat -

ing civic at ti tudes. There is noth ing in the Dutch cur ric u lum like ‘ed u ca tion civique’

(France) or ‘cit i zen ship ed u ca tion’ (Eng land and Wales, Flan ders).


15 Eu ro pe an Court of Hu man Rights 7 De cem ber 1976, A.23, p. 25-26.

16 Eu ro pe an Com mis si on of Hu man Rights 6 March 1984 (Fa mi ly H. v. Uni ted King dom), De ci si ons &

Re ports 37 (1984), p. 106.

17 Recht bank Den Haag 18 ja nu a ri 1995, Ne der lands Tijd schrift voor Onder wijs recht en on der wijs be -

leid (NTOR) 1995, p. 44.

How ever, the Ed u ca tion Coun cil re cently has ad vised the gov ern ment to take steps to

strengthen the in te gra tive func tions of schools; the Ed u ca tion Acts and at tain ment tar -

gets should ex plic itly men tion the ac tive pro mo tion of cit i zen ship as one of the key goals

of ed u ca tion.18 In a pol icy doc u ment of April 2004, the cab i net has en dorsed this rec om -

men da tion. Re cently a bill has been in tro duced to the ef fect that ed u ca tion for cit i zen -

ship will be made an ex plicit tar get.19

This will re strict the free dom of non-state schools to set their own moral and so cial

stan dards. I be lieve that such a re stric tion is ac cept able – within lim its. The ques tion is,

of course, where these lim its must be drawn. Of course it may be de manded that schools

re spect the fun da men tal free doms of their pu pils and teach ing staff. But to what ex tent

may it be re quired that they also ac tively pro mote these free doms, and stress the im por -

tance of re li gious free dom, in clud ing the fun da men tal right to fall away from the re li -

gion that is the foun da tion of the school? To what ex tent should the sep a ra tion of

church and state be taught as a nec es sary pre con di tion of the fun da men tal free doms?

What ver sion of the equal ity of men and women should be taught?

These are dif fi cult ques tions that have not yet been an swered.


18 Onder wijs raad, Onder wijs en bur ger schap, Den Haag 2003.

19 Ka mer stuk ken II 2004-2005, 29959.

The importance of citizens’ initiatives in education

Ma ria van der Hoe ven*

La dies and gen tle men,

What a spe cial in vi ta tion! An in vi ta tion to the ini tial con fer ence of a pro ject called ‘The

Pro mo tion of Ed u ca tion Free dom in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope’. A pro ject with an ob -

jec tive that I per son ally hold very dear.

I was there fore de lighted to ac cept your in vi ta tion. And dur ing these six months, I

can put the theme in the wider con text of the Dutch EU pres i dency.

I am in the com pany of an ex cep tional group of peo ple. You have as sem bled here as

rep re sen ta tives of ‘free’ ed u ca tion – that is, non-gov ern men tal ed u ca tion – be cause you

want to launch it in those Eu ro pean coun tries where it does n’t yet ex ist. Your coun tries

of or i gin are an in ter est ing mix ture of old and new EU mem ber states, can di date states

and coun tries that do not yet have a for mal re la tion to the EU. This mot ley gath er ing re -

flects our min is try’s slo gan for the pres i dency: ‘Learn ing from each other’. As Min is ter of

Ed u ca tion, Cul ture and Sci ence in the Neth er lands, I would like to con trib ute.

I shall start by stress ing the im por tance of civil so ci ety in a broader sense. Af ter all, a

strong civil so ci ety is not just im por tant for ed u ca tion. I will then give you an over view

of the ed u ca tion sys tem in the Neth er lands, with the em pha sis on free dom of ed u ca tion.

Fi nally, I will re turn to the aim of your pro ject, and point out how the Neth er lands and

other EU coun tries can help sup port free dom of ed u ca tion. Af ter that, I would be happy

to an swer your ques tions, since there is room in the programme for me to do so.

The im por tan ce of ci vil so cie ty

A few years ago, the So cial and Cul tural Plan ning Of fice in the Neth er lands pub lished a

study com par ing the non-profit sec tor in the Neth er lands to that in other coun tries. It

was based on a ma jor sur vey car ried out by Johns Hopkins Uni ver sity in 22 coun tries.

The study starts with a rather cu ri ous find ing. This ‘third sec tor’ of so ci ety is of ten de -

fined by what it is not: non-profit, nei ther mar ket, nor state. As though this sec tor is a


* Mi nis ter of Edu ca ti on, Cul tu re and Scien ce, on be half of the Pre si den cy of the Eu ro pe an Uni on.

late ar rival, tag ging along be hind its big broth ers, mar ket and state. But noth ing could

be fur ther from the truth. Long be fore there was any real talk of a mar ket econ omy or a

wel fare state, the third sec tor was taken for granted in so ci ety. Hos pi tals and schools, for

ex am ple, were set up by pri vate civil or church or gani sa tions. In time, the wel fare state –

and to some ex tent the mar ket – took on the re spon si bil ity for pub lic ser vices like health

care and ed u ca tion. So we should keep this his tor i cal back ground in mind when we talk

about any kind of re shuf fling be tween state, mar ket and so ci ety.

The study I men tioned iden ti fies the char ac ter is tics of non-gov ern men tal or non-

profit or gani sa tions. They are in sti tu tion al ised to some ex tent, pri vate, non-profit-dis -

trib ut ing, self-gov ern ing and vol un tary. So not all cit i zens’ ini tia tives can be re garded as

non-gov ern men tal or gani sa tions. Ex am ples of cit i zens’ ini tia tives in var i ous ar eas of

pub lic life in the Neth er lands and other EU coun tries in clude hous ing as so ci a tions, thea -

tres and con cert halls, homes for the el derly, non-com mer cial childcare, and, of course,

schools and uni ver si ties.

Or gani sa tions of this kind are es sen tial. The gov ern ment sim ply could n’t pro vide ev -

ery sin gle pub lic ser vice, even if it wanted to. Peo ple want ser vices that meet their many

dif fer ent needs; a gov ern ment can not be that flex i ble and di ver si fied. But it is also im -

por tant that peo ple them selves take the ini tia tive. Be ing re spon si ble for pro vid ing pub lic

ser vices is ex tremely sat is fy ing. It gives peo ple a sense of own er ship, and of en gage ment

with other us ers. It is a chal lenge to shape your own com mu nity. Peo ple sus tain so ci ety.

They can’t com pete with the gov ern ment, but they and their or gani sa tions can act as the

part ners that gov ern ments des per ately need to make their pol i cies suc ceed.

The kind of ac tive at ti tude I am urg ing has to be fos tered. And it is up to the gov ern -

ment to do so – through ed u ca tion, for ex am ple. This year I made it com pul sory for all

pri mary and sec ond ary schools to con trib ute to wards ac tive cit i zen ship and so cial in te -

gra tion. I also made ac tive cit i zen ship one of the themes of the EU pres i dency, and re -

ceived a sur pris ing amount of sup port from my coun ter parts. Pro mot ing ac tive cit i zen -

ship through ed u ca tion is, as many of you know, the Coun cil of Eu rope’s theme for

2005.

In short, strong peo ple-to-peo ple links are the ce ment of so ci ety. Es pe cially when it

co mes to ac tiv i ties like learn ing and teach ing, which have to re flect the di ver sity of so ci -

ety.

The edu ca ti on sy stem in the Ne ther lands

Ear lier to day, Pro fes sor Jan de Groof spoke to you about the – ex tremely valu able –

com par a tive study of 28 ed u ca tion sys tems that he car ried out to gether with Pro fes sor

Charles Glenn.

To quote De Groof: ‘Each of the ed u ca tion sys tems in cluded in our study pro vides a


pro cess for ap proval of schools that are not op er ated by gov ern ment, or at least for the

rec og ni tion of the di plo mas and cer tif i cates that they of fer as equiv a lent to those ob -

tained through study in a state school.’ But, he adds, that is a the o ret i cal con clu sion. In

prac tice, things might of ten be dif fer ent, es pe cially in the event of equal fund ing.

Against this back ground, the Dutch ed u ca tion sys tem is quite unique. In the Neth er -

lands it is pos si ble to set up a school as a cit i zens’ ini tia tive, and these schools can re ceive

the same fund ing as pub licly-run schools, pro vided they meet the cri te ria. Par ents, pu pils

and stu dents are free to en rol at an in sti tu tion of their choice. In prin ci ple, this ap plies in

all ed u ca tion sec tors, from pri mary to ter tiary ed u ca tion.

Pub licly-run schools are gov erned by the mu nic i pal coun cil, and al low for var i ous

forms of man age ment. Pri vately-run schools are gov erned by the board of a pri vate-law

body, a foun da tion or as so ci a tion. The school board is re spon si ble for the ed u ca tional,

staff ing and ma te rial as pects of the school’s or gani sa tion. Its main tasks are to adopt the

school plan, ad mit pu pils, ap point and dis miss teach ers, main tain stan dards of com pe -

tence among staff and al lo cate funds re ceived from cen tral gov ern ment and other

sources. School boards may del e gate many of these tasks to the school heads. And they

are do ing so more and more of ten. For larger boards some times have doz ens of schools

to gov ern.

Par ents play an im por tant role in the ed u ca tion sys tem. To be gin with, they are free

to send their chil dren to the school of their choice. They also have a big say in the way

things are run – for ex am ple, through the par ents’ coun cil and the par tic i pa tion coun cil,

which in cludes staff rep re sen ta tives. Both are re quired by law in all schools. The school

plan, in which the school sets out its pol i cies, has to be ap proved by the par tic i pa tion

coun cil. Many par ents also do vol un teer work at the school. And ev ery school has its

own com plaints com mit tee with an in de pend ent chair.

The gov ern ment is strongly in fa vour of par ents main tain ing this po si tion. As Min is -

ter, I hold reg u lar con sul ta tions with the na tional or gani sa tions of school boards and

head teach ers. But I also think it is im por tant to hear what pu pils and their par ents have

to say. So I have fre quent talks with their rep re sen ta tives.

The Dutch ed u ca tion sys tem is al most a cen tury old. Eighty-seven years to be pre cise.

The prin ci ples on which it is based are en shrined in the Con sti tu tion. Most peo ple in the

Neth er lands take the sys tem for granted. But it is some time good to cast a crit i cal glance

at it, and to ask your self whether it is not stand ing in the way of fu ture de vel op ments.

When I was first ap pointed Min is ter of Ed u ca tion in 2002, I de cided to con tinue a

study my pre de ces sor had asked the Dutch Ed u ca tion Coun cil to con duct, since I was in -

ter ested in the out come. It was quite sur pris ing. The Coun cil con cluded that if we were

to de sign an ed u ca tion sys tem for the fu ture to day, we would still base it on the free dom

to found and run schools.

This is be cause:

» the prin ci ple of free dom of ed u ca tion can eas ily be adapted to con tem po -


rary so ci ety: to day, peo ple want to choose from a va ri ety of schools;

» in a ma jor ity cul ture, how ever plu ral, re li gious and cul tural mi nor i ties

should be free to run their own in sti tu tions ac cord ing to their own con vic -

tions;

» the pub lic should share re spon si bil ity for main tain ing es sen tial so cial ser -

vices, since this en hances their in volve ment and strength ens so ci ety as a

whole.

Ear lier to day, Pro fes sor Ben Vermeulen, mem ber of this Dutch Ed u ca tion Coun cil, dis -

cussed the find ings of this study with you more in de tail. So I leave it with that.

It may seem that free dom of ed u ca tion in the Neth er lands is noth ing more than a cel -

e bra tion of in di vid ual free dom. That is ab so lutely not the case. What we are do ing is

strik ing a bal ance: be tween in di vid ual free doms and in cen tives that ap ply to ev ery one

and fos ter a sense of com mu nity. That is why the gov ern ment has set at tain ment tar gets

and ex am i na tion re quire ments, pro vides for in spec tions and pub lishes re ports on them,

and re quires schools to ac count for their per for mance to the gov ern ment, and to pu pils

and their par ents.

But this is only part of the story. If you want cit i zens and the pro fes sion als work ing in

schools to make an ac tive con tri bu tion, you will have to in volve them from the start in

the policymaking pro cess. And that is what I have been work ing hard to do in pre par ing

my me dium-term plans for pri mary and sec ond ary ed u ca tion.

In the first stage of the pro cess, I asked par ents, head teach ers, teach ers, pu pils and

mem bers of lo cal gov ern ment what is sues they con sid ered im por tant for the fu ture de -

vel op ment of ed u ca tion. Their in put was taken into ac count when we drew up an

agenda for the plans. We then asked them to sug gest al ter na tive ways of ad dress ing these

is sues. In other words, what do schools need to pro duce the de sired re sults? To gether, we

for mu lated a me dium-term pol icy.

I am not sug gest ing that I, as a rep re sen ta tive of gov ern ment, should pan der to ev ery -

one’s wishes. Not at all. But I will take ac count of both the ed u ca tional needs of so ci ety

as a whole and the wishes of in di vid ual par ties. Na tional gov ern ment has the fi nal say.

This is how I see the pro cess. The gov ern ment spec i fies the tar gets schools are ex -

pected to achieve. The par ties con cerned – head teach ers, teach ers, par ents and pu pils –

de cide in con sul ta tion with the lo cal com mu nity how they will go about achiev ing them.

So schools are ac count able, not only to the Ed u ca tion In spec tor ate and the Min is try but

also to par ents, pu pils and the com mu nity as a whole. A gov ern ment that wants these

par ties to play a more ac tive role will have to en sure that they have enough in for ma tion

to do so.


Con clu si on

Af ter this lit tle tour of the Neth er lands, I will turn my at ten tion to those coun tries for

which the pro ject to pro mote ed u ca tion free dom is in tended.

Of course, in de scrib ing the Dutch ed u ca tion sys tem for you, I was not giv ing you a

blue print for use in your own coun tries. You each have your own his tory, which pro -

duced the schools that are op er at ing in your coun tries to day. You have set your sights on

cre at ing op por tu ni ties, or us ing the op por tu ni ties your ed u ca tion sys tem pres ents, to

found and run schools on the ba sis of cit i zens’ ini tia tives.

I be lieve that in do ing so you are set ting out on the road to suc cess. Ed u ca tion will

ben e fit. And so will so ci ety as a whole. Ac tive cit i zens are also en ter pris ing cit i zens, who

con trib ute to so cial co he sion and eco nomic de vel op ment. But change like this does n’t

hap pen over night. We are talk ing here about tran si tion pro cesses. They take a gen er a -

tion at least be fore they can have any last ing ef fect. And you will have to choose a de sign

for your sys tem that com ple ments your cul ture and con ven tions.

I am please to see var i ous par ties from the Neth er lands and else where work ing to

sup port peo ple in other coun tries who are try ing to set up and run their own schools.

Free dom of ed u ca tion as a Dutch ex port prod uct. That ap peals to me.

I can imag ine that you are look ing for sup port from gov ern ments in coun tries like the

Neth er lands. And I can give some sup port in my meet ings with my coun ter parts from

Cen tral and East ern Eu rope. But I have to re spect their views on the or gani sa tion of their

na tional ed u ca tion sys tems, and ex pect them to re spect my views in re turn. I think, given

my views on the strength of cit i zens’ ini tia tives, that it is more log i cal for changes like

this to be brought about through con tacts be tween the civil so ci et ies of our coun tries. So

I ap plaud in ter na tional net works like those rep re sented here to day.

May I con clude by thank ing a num ber of prom i nent mem bers of the ed u ca tion sec tor

in the Neth er lands for the work they have done. I should also like to thank SOCIRES for

tak ing the ini tia tive to or gan ise this con fer ence.


Free dom in Edu ca ti on

Ju dit Szemkeö, Hung ary

The postcommunist coun tries have ex pe ri enced a fun da men tal his toric shift, lib er at ing

the cre ative en er gies which were re pressed dur ing the years of oc cu pa tion. Ideo log i cal

plu ral iza tion, dy namic eco nomic and so cial re la tions, the in creas ing im por tance of in -

for ma tion tech nol ogy and sci en tific pro duc tion, strength en ing of in di vid ual in de pend -

ence and ini tia tive have been char ac ter is tic of this tran si tional phase. The so cial re forms

re sulted in changes in the ed u ca tional sys tems of these coun tries.

We would like to speak about free dom and pos si bil i ties in ed u ca tion in Cen tral and

East ern Eu rope.

First of all, we must dis cuss some ques tions and def i ni tions of ed u ca tion and some of

the po lit i cal, eco nomic, so cial and cul tural back ground of the ed u ca tional sys tems of

these coun tries.

We are talk ing about free dom, free dom in ed u ca tion, but what does this free dom

mean? Free dom for the par ents, chil dren and stu dents to have the right for ed u ca tion,

free dom for them to have been ed u cated ac cord ing to the cul ture and re li gion of their

fam i lies. Free dom for the churches, NGO-s (civil so ci ety) to have the right of run ning

schools, to take part in higher ed u ca tion, to or gan ise courses. Free dom for the teach ers

to teach ac cord ing to new par a digms, new meth ods. Free dom, for all the groups, per -

sons, – tak ing part in the ed u ca tional sys tem as maintainers – to have the same fi nan cial

help from the state to main tain schools, in sti tutes or to or gan ise courses in adult ed u ca -

tion.

We are go ing to speak about ed u ca tion, about free dom of ed u ca tion. We are go ing to

talk about the ed u ca tion based on the Eu ro pean lit er acy. We are go ing to dis cuss the pro -

cess by which a per son’s mind and char ac ter are de vel oped through teach ing, or through

for mal in struc tions at school or col lage or at an in sti tute of adult ed u ca tion. Gov ern -

ments spend a lot on ed u ca tion. Why? Why is ed u ca tion im por tant not only for the peo -

ple who would like to learn? Is ed u ca tion part of the com mon goods? Why even the

coun tries of dic ta to rial power have spent a lot of money on ed u ca tion? What type of ed -

u ca tion has been very strong in the for mer so cial ist coun tries? We must know, that when

some one wants to have com plete power in a coun try, they must have a very strong in flu -

ence on the young peo ple through the ed u ca tion sys tem. It is all the same if we are talk -


ing of po lit i cal power or eco nomic-fi nan cial power. This is why we must speak very

much on free dom in ed u ca tion!

To have a pic ture of our ed u ca tional sys tem, first we must talk about the in sti tu tions,

about the ed u ca tion sys tem of these coun tries: about the struc ture and the or ga ni za tion.

The Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child has been ac cepted in Hun gary in 1991 al -

ready, and it has been ac cepted about the same time in the for mer socialis coun tries. I’d

like to use these aims of the Con ven tion as a guide line for my lec ture.

“States Par ties rec og nize the right of the child to ed u ca tion, and with a view to achiev ing

this right pro gres sively and on the ba sis of equal op por tu nity, they shall, in par tic u lar:

Make pri mary ed u ca tion com pul sory and avail able free to all”

Pri mary ed u ca tion has been cumpolsory al ready from the be gin ning of the 20th cen -

tury in Cen tral Eu rope, in Hun gary from the year 1868. There were schools built even in

the very lit tle vil lages al ready in the 1920s. These schools were main tained mostly by

churches. Af ter the Sec ond World War all the schools be came state owned ones. There

was only one pos si ble of fi cial ed u ca tional aim in the school sys tem: to ed u cate good

com mu nist peo ple from the chil dren. But to tell the truth, the teach ing level of the sub -

jects was high enough that time be cause there were a lot of very good teach ers in our

coun tries who had been trained in the for mer re gime (be fore WW2) by teach ers of

church schools. From the 1990s, it has be come of fi cially pos si ble to de clare dif fer ent ed -

u ca tional aims in the schools, but the teach ers, on whom these new ideas would be

based, were trained mostly by the com mu nist re gime. New acts on ed u ca tion were

prerared and ac cepted in the Par lia ment, but the real pro cesses were and are slow ones.

The rights and pos si bil i ties de clared by the act have partly real ised in prac tice.

The main prin ci ples gov ern ing the work of ed u ca tion sys tem re flect the con sti tu -

tional right to ed u ca tion and state’s duty to pro mote de moc racy in ed u ca tion, as a guar -

an tor of equal ity in terms of ac cess in ed u ca tion and ac a demic suc cess and of the con di -

tions re quired to en sure that ed u ca tion con trib utes to in di vid ual per sonal de vel op ment,

to so cial prog ress and to dem o cratic par tic i pa tion in pub lic life.

Usu ally in the ory, re spect to the free dom to learn and teach is guar an teed, and the

state may not take it on it self to in sti tute ed u ca tional or cul tural programmes which con -

form to any aes thetic or re li gious sys tem of be lief.

Pre-school ed u ca tion has more co op er a tion with the fam i lies, they have the right to

use dif fer ent ped a gog i cal meth ods. Pre-school ed u ca tion is free of charge in these coun -

tries. In Hun gary, pre-school ed u ca tion in kin der gar tens is com pul sory from the age of

five.

Ac cord ing to the act on chil dren’s right, pri mary ed u ca tion is cumpolsary and free of

charge in these coun tries. The pri mary school sys tems in all of these coun tries have

changed in con tent. In stead of the one cumpolsary cur ric u lum and school book sys tem,

they are multi col oured, plu ral ones. (Some times too plu ral!) Usu ally, schools can work


on lo cal cur ric u lums based on a cen tral core cur ric u lum. It’s the same sit u a tion with sec -

ond ary school ing, too. There is a big prob lem with the changes: we have lost the sta bil ity

of ed u ca tion. The whole ed u ca tional sys tem would need sta bil ity, and in stead of sta bil -

ity, the changes of the po lit i cal power would have changes in the ed u ca tional sys tem,

too. This way, the changes have an ef fect only on the sur face.

The struc ture and or ga ni za tion of the ed u ca tion sys tem is a bit dif fer ent in each of

the for mer so cial ist coun tries, but these spe ci al ities are based on the na tional tra di tions.

“En cour age the de vel op ment of dif fer ent forms of sec ond ary ed u ca tion, in clud ing gen -

eral and vo ca tional ed u ca tion, make them avail able and ac ces si ble to ev ery child, and

take ap pro pri ate mea sures such as the in tro duc tion of free ed u ca tion and of fer ing fi nan -

cial as sis tance in case of need;”

The dif fer ent forms of the sec ond ary ed u ca tion had al ready de vel oped in the 20th

cen tury. The level of the the o retic sec ond ary schools (about 40% of the young ones be -

tween 14 and 18 at tended these schools be fore 1990) was re ally high. This sec ond ary ed -

u ca tion has got a lot of wounds refering to the right of equal op por tu nity, fight ing

against the segregations.

The sec ond ary schools are mostly state-schools, but there are some schools be long -

ing to churches or to pri vate foun da tions. This means the con trol and the mis sion of

these schools are dif fer ent. In Hun gary about 5% of the schools are church-schools, 4%

are pri vate schools.

“Make higher ed u ca tion ac ces si ble to all on the ba sis of ca pac ity by ev ery ap pro pri ate

means;”

About 50% of the 18-year-old gen er a tion be come stu dents of a higher ed u ca tion in -

sti tute al ready.

Bologne pro cess is one of the most im por tant and most dif fi cult tasks of the uni ver si -

ties of these coun tries. I’d like to men tion that it is a very dif fi cult pro cess to change a

good, his tor i cally-based, proud, elite and au to nomic sys tem for a new struc ture hav ing

new aims. I’m sure, the other lec tures will cover these prob lems from dif fer ent points of

view.

“Make ed u ca tional and vo ca tional in for ma tion and guid ance avail able and ac ces si ble to

all chil dren;

Take mea sures to en cour age reg u lar at ten dance at schools and the re duc tion of drop-out

rates.”

One of the most im por tant changes of the last 10 years is the re duc tion of re spon si -

bil ity of vo ca tional train ing. Mostly the so cially or phisically dis ad van taged young peo -

ple at tend these schools. These pu pils have a lot of dif fi cul ties with learn ing. These pu -

pils make their choice not ac cord ing to their abil i ties, but ac cord ing to the loss of their


knowl edge or abil i ties. This way these com mu ni ties have big prob lems. In these schools

are the high est risks of drugs. The vo ca tional train ing sys tem has more con nec tion with

the econ omy, so it has changed. Vo ca tional train ing is open to stu dents who have com -

pleted their cumpulsory school ing. Through pro to col agree ments with com pa nies and

lo cal au thor i ties, with fi nan cial aid avail able for pub lic and pri vate in sti tu tions and

schemes.

The de vel op ment of re spect for the child’s par ents, his or her own cul tural indentity,

lan guage and val ues, for the na tional val ues of the coun try in which the child is liv ing,

the coun try from which he or she may orig i nate, and for civ i li za tions dif fer ent from his

or her own;

The prep a ra tion of the child for re spon si ble life in a free so ci ety, in the spirit of un -

der stand ing, peace, tol er ance, equal ity of sexes, and friend ship among all peo ples, eth -

nic, na tional and re li gious groups and per sons of in dig e nous or i gin”

In the for mer so cial ist coun tries the re newed pos si bil ity to at tend schools, main -

tained by churches, has been very im por tant.

“In those States in which eth nic, re li gious or lin guis tic mi nor i ties or per sons of in dig e -

nous or i gin ex ist, a child be long ing to such a mi nor ity or who is in dig e nous shall not be

de nied the right, in com mu nity with other mem bers of his or her group, to en joy his or

her own cul ture, to pro fess and prac tise his or her own re li gion, or to use his or her own

lan guage.”

In Hun gary be fore the Sec ond World War, about 60% of the schools wered main -

tained by Churches. Al most all of these schools were taken away, and these schools be -

came state owned ones, 8 sec ond ary re li gious schools could work on. The num ber of pu -

pils at tend ing these schools was lim ited. There were coun tries, where all of these schools

were taken away. In 4 years – be tween 1990 and 1994, more than 300 new schools be -

came again church schools. It seems a good re sult in deed.

Let me speak about a cel e bra tion I have taken part in this morn ing. We have cel e -

brated the 10th an ni ver sary of a Kolping School in Esztergom. It is a vo ca tional train ing

school, which was started as a pri vate school, main tained by the re newed Kolping

Move ment. That time, at the be gin ning, by the help of the Ger man Kolping Move ment,

we had fi nan cial help to be gin from Ger many. The Kolping move ment as a Cath o lic

Civil Move ment later got the right to be come a re li gious maintainer. So this school (to -

gether with seven other ones) is a re li gious vo ca tional train ing school for chil dren hav ing

so cial or other hand i caps. The school started 10 years ago in the re newed buiding of the

for mer Kolping Or ga ni za tion, which was taken away by the state. The for mer thea -

tre-room has stayed in ru ins un til to day. For this an ni ver sary the teach ers and stu dents

have made the neccessary ren o va tion, and have given us a nice cel e bra tion by their own

work. I think, it is, could be, a sym bol for us to speak about free dom in ed u ca tion.


Adult edu ca ti on

Hav ing looked at the pro gram of this con fer ence, I’d like to speak more about this field

of ed u ca tion.

Adult ed u ca tion is more and more im por tant.

Life long learn ing is needed in most of the pro fes sions ac cord ing to the changes of

tech nol o gies.

Life long learn ing is needed be cause a lot of peo ple have to change pro fes sion some

time dur ing their work ing pe riod.

Life long learn ing must of fer pos si bil ity for school ing for those peo ple, who have not

fin ished their stud ies at the nor mal age, who missed the op por tu nity to en ter the nor mal

ed u ca tion sys tem.

In these coun tries there are very few courses on ev ery-day life skills.

The prime aim is to elim i nate il lit er acy. Inspite of the fact that it is compusory to at -

tend school at least un til the age of 16 (14 be fore), func tional lit er acy in most coun tries

ex ceeds 25% among the adult pop u la tion. It is very high!

I would like to share some ideas on lit er acy, which is the ba sis of Eu ro pean ed u ca -

tion. No doubt, lit er acy is the way of re mem ber ing, re cord ing and rep re sent ing re al ity,

and of com mu ni ca tion across time and space. If life re mained un changed and there was

not pros pect of change in the life of the successing gen er a tions, when the life of the per -

son was boundered in a large fam ily, in a vil lage, there might be lit tle use of teach ing lit -

er acy. But com mu ni ties have changed and are chang ing in a very rush way. But it is very

im por tant to emphesise, that lit er acy is sim ply a skill – an other type of pat tern to help

peo ple to re mem ber, re cord and com mu ni cate. It is nei ther the only way, nor al ways the

best way but in the chang ing world it is be com ing more and more of a nec es sary way.

There are some cul tural and mi nor ity groups even in Eu rope which wanted to keep their

au ton omy and for long they did not want to join the cul ture based on Eu ro pean lit er acy.

These days it has re sulted in var i ous con flicts, so cial ten sions and dis crim i na tion in these

coun tries, and it is more and more char ac ter ised by in creas ing eco nomic and so cial in -

equal i ties. Eu ro pean pro grams have been a re ally great help in this field of ed u ca tion.

There were very suc cess ful pro jects fi nanced by the Un ion and orgainsed by the for mer

so cial ist coun tries to gether.

States Par ties shall pro mote and en cour age in ter na tional co-op er a tion in mat ters re lat -

ing to ed u ca tion, in par tic u lar with a view to con trib ut ing to the elim i na tion of ig no -

rance and il lit er acy through out the world and fa cil i tat ing ac cess to sci en tific and tech ni -

cal knowl edge and mod ern teach ing meth ods. In this re gard, par tic u lar ac count shall be

taken of the needs of de vel op ing coun tries.


Draft Char ter of the Bu da pest Con fer ence

Free dom of Ed u ca tion

I. Is sue of con sti tu tional stan dards

1.Fol low ing the col lapse of Com mu nism new leg is la tion al low ing for ed u ca tional free -

dom was wel comed. Once non-gov ern men tal (NG) schools had opened and were func -

tion ing there was a con ser va tive re ac tion to the new sit u a tion. The state ex erted more

con trol to reg u late the func tion ing and con tent of these in sti tu tions. Toda there is a need

for con ti nu ity and bal ance, and new leg is la tion should re af firm ed u ca tional free dom.

2. The is sue of re spon si bil ity is of cru cial im por tance. The char ter of each NG school

should reach a proper bal ance in or der to guar an tee ac count abil ity.

3. It is agreed that NG schools ful fil a so cial pur pose. A high level of per for mance must

be main tained. NG school are el i gi ble for state fund ing so that plu ral ism can be en sured.

4. The ques tion of bu reau cratic ri gid ity must be ad dressed. For ex am ple, why does it

take so long for di plo mas earned abroad to be rec og nized by the state? RSI, Socires and

EFF will ask Tilburg Uni ver sity and ELA to elab o rate a meth od ol ogy for de-eval u a tion

and screen ing of the leg is la tive frame work in each coun try rep re sented here.

5. The is sue of dis crim i na tion should be in ves ti gated. It ap pears un con sti tu tional for

some stu dents to pay tu i tion while oth ers study free of charge. Ac cess to ed u ca tion

should be equal for all. The Min is ters of ed u ca tion should sub mit a re port within one

year on the is sue of equal ac cess in line with in ter na tional le gal stan dards.

6. A for mal plat form as an um brella or gani sa tion for NG schools should be es tab lished

to mon i tor the ac tual con di tion of the schools. This na tional body has the mis sion to

pro mote the ac tiv ity and in ter ests of cit i zens in the area of ed u ca tion. The youn ger gen -

er a tion should take the ini tia tive for a com mon plat form. This fo rum re quests to be con -

sulted on new leg is la tion and should par tic i pate in the pol icy dis cus sion, as well as re -

search and train ing pro grams for school man ag ers and teach ers

II. Plu ral ism

7. State schools should fos ter plu ral ity in the spirit of Eu ro pean tol er ance. Stu dents

Draft Char ter of the Bu da pest Con fer ence

should not be ex posed any to pres sure in terms of their re li gious iden tity. State schools,

in par tic u lar, should be places of open ness and com mu ni ca tion as a pre con di tion for a

multi-eth nic so ci ety.

8. The group wel comes ini tia tives from de nom i na tional groups aimed at stim u lat ing a

di a logue with other group and the state sec tor. A pre con di tion for plu ral ism is that cit i -

zens must first de velop their own iden tity. State schools should com bine gen u ine val ues

with tol er ance.

9. The group en cour ages a plu ral is tic ethos in schools which al low free dom of ex pres -

sion. This in cludes re li gious sym bols. Schools should be able to pro mote a va ri ety of re li -

gious tra di tions. There can be no co er cion in the class room.

10. A gov ern ing board for de nom i na tional schools should de fine the school's mis sion.

Par ents should be con sulted in this pro cess.

III. Civil So ci ety par tic i pa tion

11. Struc tural in volve ment of par ents is a pre con di tion for schools to be a re flec tion of

the com mu nity ("communio"). Schools should de first per ceived as a ser vice pro vider.

12. Par ents must take into ac count the dis tinc tive char ac ter of each school and not in ter -

fere in the daily man age ment of the in sti tu tion. Joint re spon si bil ity should be en cour -

aged.

13. A mech a nism for di a logue and par tic i pa tion should have the role of keep ing the

school man age ment ac count able. The idea of "moral own er ship" must be fos tered.

IV. Role of so cial in te gra tion

14. Na tional Pub lic au thor i ties should dem on strate a bal ance be tween the of fi cial lan -

guage and mi nor ity lan guages.

15. Mul ti lin gual ap proach should be en cour aged as a con crete con tri bu tion to the Eu ro -

pean di men sion of ed u ca tion

16. So cial prac tices must be rooted and de ter mined at the lo cal level


Eval u a tion and fol low up

At the end of the con fer ence, the par tic i pants were asked to dis cuss, in na tional work ing

groups, and an swer the fol low ing five ques tions:

1. What was miss ing in this con fer ence?

2. What was the most valu able prod uct of this con fer ence?

3. Where do we go from here?

4. What do you want Socires to do in the com ing pe riod?

5. What is the next step/your first ac tion in your coun try?

1. What was miss ing in this con fer ence?

a. Es to nia The back ground of the par ti ci pants was too di ver se. The Esto ni an de le ga ti -

on ex pec ted more pro found dis cus si ons on edu ca ti o nal po li cy. The lar ge num ber

of re pre sen ta ti ves of free edu ca ti o nal in sti tu ti ons with a re li gi ous back ground af -

fec ted talks, es pe ci al ly in the wor king groups.

b. Lith u a nia To our opi ni on the con fe ren ce was well or ga ni zed, in a very pro fes si o nal

way. It would have been bet ter if par ti ci pants could have cho sen in which wor -

king group they pre fer to par ti ci pa te.

c. Croatia We think that the re were lac king re ports / re search es made by Eas tern Eu ro -

pe an coun tries.

d. Ukraine - Not enough time for dis cus si on in the wor king groups;

- it would have been help ful if all the hand outs were made in suf fi cient quan ti ties

and dis trib uted some time be fore the ses sions, not at the very be gin ning;

- com mon work ing ter mi nol ogy could have been help ful, in or der to fa cil i tate dis -

cus sion.

e. Po land - Vi sits to free schools and a dee per look into the Hung ari an edu ca ti o nal sy -

stem;


- sep a rate time for con tact mak ing in or der to start co op er a tion among par tic i -

pants in the frame of ed u ca tion free dom.

f. Ro ma nia - Time; not enough time;

- a de ci sion mak ing per son at the gov ern men tal level rep re sent ing each coun try.

g. Hun gary - Time for more con cre te exam ples and for de ci si on ma king;

- pres ence of the me dia;

- more Hun gar ian par tic i pants.

h. Czechia and Slovakia Not hing was mis sing; ex cel lent or ga ni za ti on.

i. Greece Appro ach was rat her the o re ti cal; more prac ti cal re sults.

j. Spain Not hing was mis sing.

k. The Ne ther lands Not hing was mis sing. Good con fe ren ce; right ba lan ce be tween in -

te res ting lec tu res and in di vi du al ac ti vi ty in the wor king groups, and enough time

for per so nal con tacts in be tween.

2. What was the most valu able prod uct of this con fer ence?

a. Es to nia - Eve ryt hing that hap pe ned be tween pe ople: per so nal con tacts and dis cus si -

ons;

- some ideas and co-op er a tion (pro jects) pos si bil i ties for fu tu re;

- ex chang ing ex pe ri ences with the rep re sen ta tives from for mer so cial ist coun tries

gave an un der stand ing and con fi dence that free ed u ca tion is well de vel oped in Es -

to nia and that we are mov ing to the 21st cen tury.

b. Lith u a nia Va lu a ble ide as, ar gu ments, con cep ti ons which will be help ful in for mu la -

ting chang es in Lit hu a ni an po li tics.

c. Croatia Main goal is achie ved: to make a net work of pe ople and in for ma ti on and

also their ex pe rien ces. We also had a pos si bi li ty to pe ne tra te in ot her countries’ si -

tu a ti on and pro blems.

d. Ukraine - Use ful pro fes si o nal con tacts;

- fi nal re ports from the work ing groups;

- the pos si bil ity to dis cuss burn ing is sues;


- ed u ca tion free dom in in ter na tional con text.

e. Po land - Pos si bi li ty to know about edu ca ti o nal si tu a ti on in ot her coun tries es pe ci al ly

from Eas tern Eu ro pe;

- make in ter est ing con tacts with new part ners ex chang ing ex pe ri ence and va lu es;

- pro found re flec tions about ed u ca tion free dom, group work.

f. Ro ma nia Insight in re a li ties like:

-ed u ca tional plu ra lism;

-equal fi nanc ing of pri vate and non-pri vate ed u ca tion in sti tutes (schools, uni ver -

si ties);

-the im por tance of sta bil ity in the cur ric u lar area;

-the im por tance of an ac tive civil so ci ety in the ed u ca tional sys tem.

g. Hun gary -

h. Czechia and Slovakia Infor ma ti on about ot her coun tries, es ta blis hing new and va lu -

a ble con tacts.

i. Greece Inte res ting to know the re a sons why each coun try has adop ted its own edu ca -

ti o nal sy stem.

j. Spain - In for ma ti on and know led ge of ot her re a li ties;

- per sonal con tacts with peo ple from East ern coun tries;

- to ex pe ri ence that free dom of ed u ca tion is a spread ing value and con sol i dates in

other re al i ties.

k. The Neth er lands New con tacts. It was in spi ring to meet the new ge ne ra ti on es pe ci al -

ly from the Eas tern Eu ro pe an coun tries; mu tu al un der stan ding was the real out -

co me of the con fe ren ce, and the wish to com bi ne for ces in the in te rest of

edu ca ti on.

3. Where do we go from here?

a. Es to nia Spe ci al se mi nars, con fe ren ces, in for ma ti on sha ring for dif fe rent tar get

groups (edu ca ti o nal of fi ci als, po li ti ci ans, church schools, pri va te pri ma ry

schools, edu ca ti o nal in sti tu ti ons de a ling with adults’ edu ca ti on), en ter more

deeply in more pre ci se to pics: fun ding, sta te con trol of re pre sen ta ti ves ….


b. Lith u a nia - Cre a ting a net work of la wy ers and le gal ex perts with the help of CEEC,

which would pro pa ga te rights of NGO’s and pri va te ca tho lic and ot her schools;

- or ga niz ing in ter na tional con fer ences about non gov ern men tal higher ed u ca tion

in sti tu ti ons;

- cre at ing um brella or ga ni za tion for all non gov ern men tal schools.

c. Croatia - To con ti nue de ve lo ping a net work in Cro a tia in or der to mo ti va te ot her

groups in vol ved in non pu blic edu ca ti on;

- to be gin lob by ing the gov ern ment for more sup port in fi nanc ing this ed u ca -

tional field;

- to cre ate the net work with neigh bor ing coun tries.

d. Ukraine - Or ga ni zing na ti o nal con fe ren ces / se mi nars on edu ca ti o nal free dom;

- ini ti at ing the Ukrai nian As so ci a tion of In de pend ent Schools;

- es tab lish ing con tacts with sim i lar as so ci a tions in other coun tries.

e. Po land - Pro mo ti on of ide as about cre a ting the en vi ron ment for edu ca ti on la wy ers

re pre sen ting in de pen dent schools;

- fur ther pro mo tion of the idea of ed u ca tion free dom

f. Ro ma nia We would try to in vol ve the in sti tu ti ons that we re pre sent into pro mo ting

the free dom of edu ca ti on in our sy stem.

g. Hun gary - The cre a ti on of an in ter na ti o nal net work on free dom of edu ca ti on;

- more pub li ca tions about ed u ca tion free dom;

- put on the agenda of the EU.

h. Czechia and Slovakia - Dis se mi na ti on of con fe ren ce pro cee dings in res pec ti ve coun -

tries;

- an eval u a tion con fer ence next year in a coun try with low lev els of ed u ca tion

free dom

i. Greece More pres su re on the com pe tent aut ho ri ties of the EU to har mo ni ze the field

of edu ca ti on in mem ber sta tes.

j. Spain In our case, to de fend our schools and what we have achie ved, be cau se a sec tor

of our so cie ty does not sha re “our” ide as. We have to make ci vil so cie ty more

con sci ous.

k. The Neth er lands Empo we red – back to work, with the pos si bi li ty of ma king con tact


with the per sons we have met du ring the con fe ren ce. It is im por tant to spre ad the

do cu ments of the con fe ren ce and the mail and web si te ad dres ses.

4. What do you want Socires to do in the com ing pe riod?

a. Es to nia Look at ans wer to nr 3.

b. Lith u a nia Help to cre a te a net work of la wy ers in Eu ro pe which would pro pa ga te

the rights of non go vern men tal ca tho lic and ot her schools.

c. Croatia From So ci res and ot her part ners we ex pect a voi ce of sup port with the ob jec -

ti ve to in flu en ce our res pec ti ve coun tries to pro mo te non pu blic edu ca ti o nal in sti -

tu ti ons.

d. Ukraine Help Ukrai ni an ini ti a ti ve group or ga ni ze a se ries of trai ning se mi nars /

works hops tar ge ted at re cei ving, ac com mo da ting and ap ply ing the Eu ro pe an ex -

pe rien ce of edu ca ti o nal free dom.

e. Po land - To or ga ni ze works hops and fo rums ai ming at the cre a ti on of free edu ca ti o -

nal net works;

- to or ga nize train ing courses to pre pare ed u ca tional lead ers to cre ate free schools

- ideas, laws, co op er a tion, fund rais ing.

f. Ro ma nia To be im plied into the Ro ma ni an si tu a ti on and give a hel ping hand in com -

mu ni ca ting re le vant in for ma ti on on pro gress made in Eas tern Eu ro pe an coun -

tries.

g. Hun gary Look at ans wer to nr 3.

h. Czechia and Slovakia Look at ans wer to nr 3.

i. Greece Look at ans wer to nr 3.

j. Spain To of fer stu dies whe re the ba sic prin ci ples that con form free dom of edu ca ti on

are pre sen ted in a clear and or ga nic way.

k. The Neth er lands To give sup port to the dif fe rent na ti o nal mo ve ments wit hout buil -

ding new in sti tu ti ons or struc tu res. Make use of exis ting in ter na ti o nal net works

for in stan ce Ecnais.


5. What is the next step/your first ac tion in your coun try?

a. Es to nia Inform my col le a gu es about the out co me of the con fe ren ce, send in for ma ti -

on and con tact ad dres ses to pe ople whom I met…

b. Lith u a nia To or ga ni ze a con fe ren ce at the na ti o nal le vel con cer ning the pre sent si tu -

a ti on and chal leng es of nong overn men tal schools and hig her edu ca ti on in sti tu ti -

ons. Pre pa ra ti ons for the in ter na ti o nal con fe ren ce.

c. Croatia Our first con cre te ac ti on will be to in form ot her re le vant in sti tu ti ons about

the fin dings of this con fe ren ce.

d. Ukraine - In form the go ver ning bo dies of our res pec ti ve in sti tu ti ons about the work

done and the re sults of this con fe ren ce;

- pub lish a Ukrai nian ver sion of con fer ence re ports and fi nal doc u ments in Ukrai -

nian pe ri od i cals and on line.

e. Po land - Re port the out co me of this con fe ren ce in our lo cal en vi ron ment – by email

re ports, ar ti cles, mee tings; we are re pre sen ting the 5 re gi ons of Po land;

- pres ent the so lu tions of the con fer ence to par tic i pants of the 4th fo rum of in de -

pend ent schools, 19-20 No vem ber 2004.

f. Ro ma nia Wri ting a re port on the con fe ren ce; keep con tacts be tween us and try ing to

build up a net work that will im ple ment the va lu a ble pro ducts of this con fe ren ce.

g. Hun gary Steps in our own coun try:

- streng then par ents as so ci a ti ons;

- ma king the me dia and the par ents more con scious on this is sue;

- streng then par ents own er ship (boards!);

- get ting 100 cop ies of the book from Glen and De Groof and dis trib ute them

among the larg est Hun gar ian free schools.

h. Czechia and Slovakia - Cir cu la te in for ma ti on about con fe ren ce con clu si ons;

- co ali tion build ing for ed u ca tion free dom re forms.

i. Greece Inform the com pe tent bi shop and the as so ci a ti on of Greek pri va te ca tho lic

schools about the re sults of the con fe ren ce.

j. Spain - To cla ri fy the con se quen ces and pos si ble po si ti ve ef fects of ar ti cle 14 of the

Char ter of Fun da men tal Rights and of the Con sti tu ti on; a se mi nar about this the -


me;

- to re vi ta li ze a Plat form (board mem bers and di rec tors of schools, parents’,

teachers’ and pu pils as so ci a ti ons) in de fen se of free dom of edu ca ti on that is ac tu -

al ly being me na ced.

k. The Neth er lands Fight for kee ping up the role of pa rents in the school and school

boards.


Participants

Be at rijs Ple tinck, VSKO, Belgium

Mgr. Michal Se min, Program Coord., Civic Insti tu te, Czech Rep.

Stje pan Ku san SJ, Regional Di rec tor, Jesuit Re fu gee Ser vi ce Sout he ast Eu ro pe, Croatia

Niko Tun jic, Headmaster, Salesian High School, Croatia

Alenka Sul jic, Teacher, Croatia

Step hen Bar tu li ca, Speachwriter, Ministry of for eign Affairs, Croatia

Ka dri Kopli, Member, Training Cen ter Pro Pat ria, Estonia

Ai mar Altos aar, General Secr., Training Cen ter Pro Pat ria, Estonia

Tar mo Lood us, Headmaster, Viljandi Joint Vo ca ti o nal Se con da ry School, Estonia

Kaja Vil len, Executive Dir., Training Cen ter Pro Pat ria, Estonia

Mart Nutt, Reserach Dir, Jaan To nis son Insti tu te, Estonia

Ge or ges Fos co los, Lawyer, Greek Asso ci a ti on of Pri va te Cat ho lic Schools, Greece

Tamás For rai SJ, Headmaster, Jesuit High School, Miskolc, Hungary

Ida Ge lencsér, Student , KPSZTI (Cat ho lic Pe dag ogic Orga ni sa ti on and Trai ning Insti tu te),

Hungary

Le ti cia Ju ras kie ne, Director, Kolping Col le ge, Lithuania

Vy gan tas Ma li naus kas, Lawyer, Lithuanian Bis hops Con fe ren ce, Lithuania

Vida Sink evi cie ne, teacher, Vilnius “Sau le” Pri va te School, Lithuania

Au gus te Ju ras kai te, Secretary, Kolping Col le ge, Lithuania

Agne Lit vi na vi cie ne, Englist Te acher, Vilnius “Sau le” Pri va te School, Lithuania

Te re sa Ai du kie ne, Chief Spe ci a list, Ministry of Edu ca ti on and Scien ce, Lithuania

Si mon J. Steen, General Ma na ger, The Na ti o nal Asso ci a ti on of Non-De no mi na ti o nal

Inde pen dent Schools, Netherlands

Wim Bos, Manager, Besturenraad, Netherlands

Lies beth Ver ha gen, Assistant, Tilburg Uni ver si ty, Netherlands

Anna Ja si ak, Assistant, Tilburg Uni ver si ty, Netherlands

Tom Schjel de rup Ska re, Lawyer, European Com mit tee for Cat ho lic Edu ca ti on, Norvege

Wojciech Zmud zin ski SJ, Director, Padro Arru pe For ma ti on Cen ter for Edu ca ti o nal Le a ders,

Poland

Mar ze na Kie del, Headmistress, Private Schools “Slon eczne”, Poland

Alic ja Ga we da, Teacher, Private Schools “Slon eczne”, Poland

Mat gor za ta Kur piew ska, President, Private Schools “Slon eczne”, Poland

Zo fia Anna Raczkie wicz, Owner Di rec tor, Absolwent School, Poland

Pi otr Cze kier da, Pr.Coor di na tor, Angelus Si le si us Hou se, Poland

Iza be la Go rol-Wilk, Edu.re pre sent., Jak Dom School, Poland

Gy u la Zsugán-Ge de on, Member, Posticum Mo vi men tum Iu ven tu tis Chris ti ae, Romania

Cris ti na Bu dau, Jurist, Cathedral Cat ho lic Church of Iasi, Romania

Ele o no ra-Ro di ca Ior dache, Researcher, UNESCO Chair De part ment, Bucharest, Romania,

Romania

Mi hai Ior dache, Doctoral Can di da te, UNESCO Chair De part ment, Bucharest, Romania,

Romania

Participants 91

Thlic.PaedDr.Ing Ma ria Pa rak ova, Head of Offi ce, Office for Church and Pri va te

Schools – Mi nis try of Edu ca ti on, Slovakia

Ka ta ri na Kad le cik ova, Konrad Ade nau er Foun da ti on, Slovakia

Olga He der ova, Viceprincipal, Lutheran High School, Bratislava, Slovakia

PaedDr. Edi ta Zacha ro va, Main Advi sor, Ministry of Edu ca ti on of the Slo vak Re pu blic, Slovakia

Car los Diaz-Mu niz, Chairman, Confederacion Edu ca ci on y Ges ti on, Spain

Jose Anto nio Po ve da Gon za lez, Lawyer, FERE, Spain

Ivan na Vo lochiy, Project Ma na ger, Christian-Democratic Youth of Ukrai ne, Ukraine

Dr Olha Luchuk, Chairwoman, English De part ment, Ukrainian Cat ho lic Uni ver si ty, Ukraine

Dr Ra tas Luchuk, Chair , Classis De part ment, Ukrainian Cat ho lic Uni ver si ty, Ukraine

Mgr. Ro man Ne bozhuk, Head of Educ., Ukrainian Greek-Cat ho lic Church, Ukraine

Olga Der gal, Chairwoman, Student Scien ti fic Orga ni sa ti on, Ukraine

Ros ty slav Pa ranko, Professor, Classis De part ment, Ukrainian Cat ho lic Uni ver si ty, Ukraine

Na di ya Gos hovska, Co-ordinator, DCU Youth Orga ni sa ti on, Ukraine


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