Access to Education: New Possibilities

162 Pages·1973·8.483 MB·English

by  Alfred Sauvy (auth.)

ACCESS TO EDUCATION
PLAN EUROPE 2000
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
EUROPEAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION
PROJECT 1
EDUCATING MAN FOR THE
21sT CENTURY
Volume III
ACCESS TO EDUCATION
Scientific Committee
Chairman: Henri] anne (Brussels)
Members:]. L. Aranguren (Madrid), Raymond Aron (Paris),
Friedrich Edding (Berlin), Alexander King (Paris), Max Kohnstamm (Brussels),
M.]. Langeveld (Utrecht),]. A. Lauwerys (Halifax),]. Stuart Maclure (London),
Raymond Poignant (Paris), W. Schultze (Frankfurt), T. Segerstedt (Uppsala),
Aldo Visalberghi (Rome).
Director: Ladislav Cerych (Paris).
ACCESS TO EDUCATION
NEW POSSIBILITIES
by
ALFRED SA UVY
with the co-operation of
ALAIN GIRARD
ALBERT JACQUARD
JANINA LAGNEAU-MARKIEWICZ
MARTINUS NIJHOFF I THE HAGUE I 1973
This study has been realized owing to the support of
Shell Group of Companies and the European Cultural Foundation
C 1972 Euro/Uan Cullural FtJUndalum, Amsterdam, Nethn-lands
C 1973 English ~dilion by Mar/inus Nijl"'jJ, T~ Hague, N etherlands
Soflco>'er reprint oflhe hardcover lsI edilion 1973
All rights restrwd, includi')g the righllo IrtmJlale or 10 reproduce this hook or parts thereof in (J'!Y!orm.
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-1523-7 c-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-2426-6
DOl: 10.10071978-94-010-2426-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I INTRODUCTION
II EDUCATIONAL IDEAS IN THE PAST 6
III THE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES (1945-1970) 16
VI WESTERN EUROPE FROM 1945 TO 1970 52
A. The growth of school and university populations 52
B. Consequences of expansion 60
C. Continuing social inequality 66
D. Educational reforms and suggested reforms 77
V BASIC DATA CONCERNING THE YEAR 2000 92
VI PROSPECTS FOR THE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES UP TO THE YEAR
2000 108
VII PROSPECTS FOR WESTERN EUROPE UP TO 2000 121
VIII NATURAL INEQ,UALITY OF CHILDREN AT BIRTH 143
IX CONCLUSION 153
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 156
I. INTRODUCTION
It is difficult for us today to imagine that equal educational opportunity,
with which we are so deeply preoccupied, was at one time considered to
be if not an evil at least a futile objective, and that those who held such
an opinion were completely insincere and even disinterested. For a
vertically stratified society equality of education had to be opposed be
cause it would disturb an equilibrium as vital as that of a building. In the
Middle Ages only the Church was able to look for new members at the
bottom of the social ladder, since ecclesiastical office was not inherited by
birth. But efforts in this direction were necessarily very limited, even if
only because of the material obstacles to such an aim.
Equality of education, as well as any other type of equality could not
even be imagined by the aristocracy whose very existence would have
been threatened. Its initial indifference was followed by active opposition.
When it became possible to formulate the question of the diffusion of
education, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the principle itself met with a
fundamental objection. The ruling class, idle by its very nature, feared
that the workers and especially those on the land would abandon their
productive labours, now felt to be degrading, and swell the ranks of the
parasites in the cities. 30 years before the French Revolution, Turmeau
de la Morandiere was cynical or naive enough to express the general
wish in simple words: "They shall work and we shall enjoy our pleasures."
(Ils travailleront et nous jouirons). Faced with such an attitude, we are
tempted to become indignant and at the same time exonerate ourselves
from all blame, since man never likes to feel guilty.
The education of women aroused the same fears, well expressed by
Chrysale.
But as soon as political equality was recognized the problem of social
equality had to be considered, arousing in the ruling classes mixed feelings
of resentment or guilt.
2 Introduction
The middle-classes in their turn opposed social equality for a long time,
their own fears being hardly any different at all from those of the landed
aristocracy whom they had supplanted. The middle classes also had the
curious characteristic of denying their existence as a social class, as a
"bourgeoisie." They rejected such a term and considered that inequalities
were due to chance, or even maintained that they constituted just punish
ment for lack of effort, once the idea of equality before the law was pro
claimed. To confuse, or at least to lessen the impact of uncomfortably
sharp criticism, examples of individuals who had climbed the social ladder
were widely publicized.
However, two very different but related causes have given impetus to
the idea that there should be equal educational opportunities irrespective
of class and sex. The idea of social justice, permanent driving force behind
the repeatedly reaffirmed trends of the past two centuries, has been
backed up by the argument that men with valuable talents should not
remain submerged and lost in the anonymity of the mass. Each war, each
revolution, each social upheaval, has had the effect of thrusting up men
of great merit who would have remained trapped in obscurity under
conditions of normal social stratification.
Gradually and not without hesitation objections on principle to social
equality have been overcome but socio-economic obstacles, and of course
individual prejudices, still maintain a state of inequality. Education now
conferring those benefits once conferred by title, upper-class parents did
not want their children to have anything to do with "uneducated"
children.
Lower-class children can be handicapped in two main ways: either
they are unable to enter the race, or they carry a different "weight" at the
start.
Up to and even after the Second World War, those who denounced
this inequality and associated handicaps concentrated their attack above
all on inherited wealth, and in this they were themselves behind the times.
As in other fields, inherited wealth has in fact gradually given way to
income and even to culture, in social importance. But, as happens in
many other fields, avant-garde opinion crystallized around a situation
which no longer existed, and such an attitude resulted for a long time in
free education for all being regarded as a sovereign remedy. This was a
curious lapse into the illusion, characteristic of the middle-class itself, that
there is a legal remedy for everything. As a result, for some time free
secondary and higher education benefited above all the already privileged
classes.
Introduction 3
Analyses in depth and probing research were necessary to show how
equality established by law, far from counteracting an initial social ine
quality, will preserve and accentuate this inequality.
Today, with secondary education becoming generalized, almost all the
competitors are carefully lined up at the start, but have different handi
caps. The importance of the influence of home environment and inherited
culture, which to a very great extent cannot be regulated by law, has
gradually been recognized.
Social classes do not result from unequal individual conditions; it is
possible to imagine a classless society, even one which is totally collectivist,
even in the rearing of children, but which admits inequalities due to the
different functions performed by various individuals. Cultural level is
often linked to income, without however being identical to the latter, and
in so far as they are separate factors, it is the former which has the most
influence in many fields, for example on mortality and particularly on
infant mortality.
This realization, in fact, has taken some time to spread, conflicting so
much with traditional collective oversimplifications. It does not of course
deny the influence of specifically economic factors, although it considers
these in terms of family income and not inherited wealth. These economic
factors take effect above all at a later stage when the needy family, be
cause of its low income or the large number of children, wants to supple
ment its resources with an extra wage packet, or at least to be relieved
from the financial burden of children and school expenses which further
more constitute only a small part of this burden.
Equality between the sexes has developed in a slightly different way.
The initial inequality in this case was due to prejudices and laws rather
than to a difference in cultural inheritance. The legal barriers have fallen
one after another, but once again there has been no such radical abolition
of prejudices.
In tracing developments so far, and in studying prospects for the next
generation, we have had to distinguish between the socialist countries of
what is termed the "Eastern Block," and those countries, democratic or
not, which have remained capitalist, either because they are traditionally
so, or as a chance result of war.
Mr. Alain Girard and Madame Janina Lagneau are each in their own
field particularly qualified to undertake such a task. Both have devoted
a large part of their time and their researches, over recent years, to the
study of this delicate problem with its multiplicity of elements which no
one has yet completely pieced together.
Introduction
4
Mr. A. Girard deserves the credit for having undertaken the first system
atic analysis of the subject, to unravel the interwoven factors. He belongs
to the school of sociology which uses resolutely experimental and scientific
methods and thoroughly analyses a given subject before making any
judgements. In 1952, sensing the growing importance of the problem and
fearing that superficial attitudes or prejudices might influence the so
lutions, he started a series of studies at the French National Institute for
Demographic Studies. Some of the general results of these studies have
been expressed above, and their richness, together with a profound knowl
edge of studies made in other countries, has enabled him to provide a
masterly treatment of the question for the capitalist area of Europe.
When his work was finished and its results made generally known,
which by no means happened immediately as we have seen, enlightened
opinion was surprised that in such a field ignorance could reign so long
in the minds of so many people who were precisely those who loudly
proclaimed the necessity to expand knowledge.
More perhaps than any other example, of which there are many, this
has shown the extent to which ideology and good intentions may well
find themselves in contradiction due to a disconcerting dichotomy be
tween the desired ends and the means used.
The aim, so worthy in itself, of fighting against unequal social con
ditions led for some time to the neglect of two important factors: number
of children and distance. Traditionally the family, guarantee of the future,
has been defended above all by conservative groups, whilst the socialists
gave up fighting for their own principle of wages adapted to needs.
Similarly they concentrated above all on workers in towns, whose misery
was much more obvious than that of agricultural workers. The two factors
of number of children and distance from home are now however given
the attention they merit.
J.
Madame Lagneau has successfully undertaken the extremely diffi
cult task of studying a world which is politically fairly homogenous but
linguistically diversified. She has also had to overcome a series of obstacles.
Not only do the passionate debates about socialist regimes and their
virtues make great soundness of judgement essential, but also national
statistics are far from being sufficiently clear and coherent, although not
actually secret. Exemplary patience and a rare tenacity, with of course a
profound knowledge of the subject, have enabled her to bring together
elements which are often disparate and not entirely free from contra
dictions.
54 years ago the Soviet Union, and the other socialist countries 27 years
Introduction 5
ago, directly attacked educational problems by radically destroying exist
ing systems and the governments of these countries have opened up new
paths and carried out new experiments which capitalist countries should
take note of and learn from. I t would be unforgivable if due to their own
inertia they failed to do this.
This present study started under the most favourable auspices once
the collaboration of these two experts of such merit was assured. Several
difficulties have however been met with and there have been delays for
which we apologise.
Some readers, filled with that impatience to discover the future which
is characteristic of our age of innovation, may be surprised that more
attention is devoted to the past quarter of a century than to possible
developments between now and the end of the century, since the latter
is the fundamental aim. It is however by examining the roots and seeds
that we can get some idea of what the tree may become and any specu
lation beyond this is may be contradicted by possible upheavals and the
great disproportion between causes and effects which we call chance. It
would be presumptuous to think that whilst sailing on a calm sea a sailor
can foresee his course and port of destination simply by looking at his
compass, the currents, and by trusting to his engines. He cannot leave
possible tempests out of account, although of course we need this kind of
pure vision. It sustains us in our efforts to reach a better world, threatened
as we are on all sides. It is the best possible response to the problems posed,
and to those even more dangerous problems which have not yet been
recognized.