Page 26 - Looking_after_school

Looking after school: a critical analysis of personalisation in education

The figure of the student that is envisaged here has freed themself
from educational institutions and needs more flexible and open sys-
tems which will acknowledge and qualify their learning outcomes.
Through this perspective, the student actually becomes a learner.
The European Union, and subsequently its member states, wants to
adjust its policy to capitalise on the learning outcomes of all learners;
not merely in the best interest of the learners themselves, but also
(and perhaps most importantly) to have an optimal supply of human
resources for a competitive labour market.
In sum, this institutional perspective problematises the exclusiveness of
educational institutions: on the one hand, the restraint of learning in
time and place, and on the other, the monopoly on guidance, evalua-
tion, and qualification. The focus has now shifted from the institution
to the student or (better) the learner. The point of departure is the
learner’s need for flexible and customised learning paths and person-
alised guidance, for open systems that recognise and validate learning
outcomes. This is based on the following reasoning: if competencies or
learning outcomes are the raw material for the knowledge economy,
and educational institutions are no longer the sole producers thereof,
then it is of strategic importance to maximise the recognition of this
human capital.

The student as customer - a service perspective

The problematisation of institutions is part of a more general trend to
reform the public sector, one which started at the end of the twenti-
eth century. Two points are under debate here: first, the bureaucratic
model of organisation on the basis of which the public sector func-
tions, and second, the power of professionals in that public sector.
Obviously, education, which is often seen as a professional bureau-
cracy and thus a combination of both, will not evade this reform move-
ment. Explicitly stated or not, the ideal of this reform movement is the
implementation of (free) market coordination: competition, choice,
and free enterprise are supposed to guarantee an optimal (read: effi-
cient and effective) production and allocation of public goods.
In the second half of the 20th century, many Western European coun-
tries built a welfare state in which the private and public sector, includ-

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