France will not be the first country to soon abolish its school sectorization system (the famous “ school card »). Instead of speculating on the possible effects of such a reform, it is better to go and see elsewhere what the “ freedom of choice »A produced …
At a time when the deletion of the school card is scheduled, we are no longer in conjectures as to the effects that the “ liberalization »The choice of the establishment could very quickly produce. Because, as long as we move the gaze outside France, the effects of the choice are clear and perfectly known. A recent text of a Belgian researcher brings a new demonstration of it: this is the study of Nico Hirtt, “ Impact of freedom of choice on the equity of western-European education systems “, Published online on the call site for a democratic school (Aped, Brussels).
The author immediately recalls that the debate launched during the presidential elections campaign around the relaxation or the abolition of the school card is not specific to France. The European Commission, by the voice of its best known experts in education (L. Wössman and G. Schütz in particular, within the framework of the very influential “ European Expert Network on Economics of Education “), recommended “ policies introducing competition, free choice and market forces in the school system ». In our country, the argument of greater efficiency thanks to the competition established by free choice was relatively discreet compared to that of the law or freedom of families, accompanied by an allusion likely to reach the concern for social justice, stressing that thanks to this freedom, children “ gifted The most disadvantaged neighborhoods could escape it for better establishments.
However, European comparisons we show ? In this study, N. Hirtt focuses on the question of equity and compares, for fifteen West European countries, the level of social inequalities observed in young people aged 15, in mathematics (on the basis of the last major international survey Pisa 2003) Depending on the degree of freedom offered to parents in the choice of a school. The countries selected are the members of the former Europe of the Fifteen, the more Norway (taking into account the new member states of the Union would have led to countries whose education systems have undergone drastic changes over the past decade).
This analysis first confirms updated trends in previous studies conducted on previous surveys Pisa. Thus, social inequalities of performance, far from being conditioned by the universal force of any “ habitus Cultivated, vary in fact between countries: they are much stronger in Belgium or Germany than in the countries of northern Europe or southern Europe, France being in an average/mediocre position. More original, the author operationalizes the greater or smaller freedom which parents enjoy in the choice of an (secondary) establishment taking into account 3 factors: the density of establishments within a nearby department, the mode of recruitment in public establishments (School card type or not) and the importance of private education. The synthetic indicator thus obtained is very strong in countries like Belgium or the Netherlands, and very weak in countries such as Portugal or Finland. It only remains for him to relate the degree of choice and the extent of social inequalities, on the countries studied.
The result is clear: the degree of inequality in European education systems is strongly correlated with the degree of freedom of choice ; In other words, the higher the freedom of choice index, the stronger the social inequalities of performance. But this factor is not the only characteristic of the school organization to have an influence. Here again, some previous works, the author introduces into his analysis the more or less early character of the first selection, by opposing the countries which, like Germany or Belgium, guide children from 11-12 years old towards distinct and hierarchical sectors, to those who, like the Scandinavian countries or the countries of the South, educate all the students in a single route up to 15-16 years. Again, the conclusion is final, with more social inequalities of performance where the selection is the earliest.
This study therefore highlights a very strong positive correlation between the importance of social inequalities in teaching systems and their organization on the basis of a “ quasi-market ». It also shows how much the combination of free choice and early selection/orientation procedures harms equity. And the author to conclude that in France, the abolition of the school map and the lowering of 14 to 12 years of the first orientation level would lead French education to join Belgium and Germany in the leading peloton of the most “ segregators »On the social level.
These results are not new: in 2001, we had conducted a comparative study which showed it clearly). Recently, Eric Maurin’s work, The new school question (Seuil, 2007), took over this question at the level of the college. But it is also true that in countries where she prevails, the possibility of choice is popular, as is touching the image of the poor “ gifted Who thanks to his merit access to the best establishments. Less visible is the accentuation of training inequalities between establishments which, from the choice, become more and more segregated. As we know, teachers are actually adapting to their audience. And faced with contrasting audiences, they tend to accentuate or on the contrary reducing their requirements. Finally, it would remain to know if the demands of families for more choices is so strong in our country as in certain countries (such as the United States) where it is often associated with a demand for cultural recognition (to access schools where your culture will be recognized) ; In this regard, it should be remembered that at the national level, only about three out of ten college students are educated either in the private sector or in a public establishment chosen and obtained thanks to a derogation. It will be necessary to follow the evolution of figures in the coming years.
The fact remains that the ideology of choice and “ save that can »Individual jeopardizes the very notion of education system. But recurring reminders of the strongest research finally weigh little in the face of the force of conviction and the interests of some which underlie it.