Page 22 - Looking_after_school

Looking after school: a critical analysis of personalisation in education

Following the European programs, the agenda of the Flemish admin-
istration of Frank Vandenbroucke (2005 - 2009) was all about compe-
tencies: mobilise all the available talents the best we can, meaning we
must turn all talents into competencies that can be employed. Expres-
sions such as “every talent matters” and “no talent may remain unused”
showcase the double problematisation of education: everybody must
have equal opportunities to develop their talent or potential, and, from
an economic stance, we cannot allow talents to not be developed into
productive competencies. This perspective on education is also clearly
at work for instance in the Netherlands. The investment plan 2011-2015
Space for Everybody’s Talent (Ruimte voor ieders talent 2010) from the Dutch
association of secondary schools formulates the matter as follows:

“We strive to achieve a better use of the talents of every student by cus-
tomising education, and in order to realise this, we ask a liberalisation
of school regulations to be able to deliver more flexibility in processes
and organisation.” (2010, p. 8, trans.)

The report Towards a learning economy (2014) from the Dutch Scientific
Council for Government Policy (WRR) states:

“The relative scarcity of human resources and the associated challenge of
improving productivity mean that the Netherlands will have to do more
with less. But it can only do so if it makes the most of everyone’s talent
and skills.” (WRR, 2014, p. 25)

One of the strategies that is suggested here is the “management of
talents”:

“To do more with less implies that education is first of all a matter of tal-
ent management: to make sure that the possibilities of people are devel-
oped maximally.” (WRR, 2013, p. 264, trans.)

Thus, the ultimate goal is to construct an effective educational system
that gets the most out of its students in both a cost and time efficient
way. This then also creates an educational system that delivers relevant
input to the knowledge economy. In light of this, the optimal guid-

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