Málfríður - 15.11.1993, Blaðsíða 11

Ingrid Wijgh:
LANGUAGE POLICY AND
LANGUAGE TESTING
1. Educational policy
The first stage of secondary
education has been subject to
continuous concern for over fif-
teen years in Dutch educational
policy. Main concern has been
and still is, to postpone the defi-
nite choice pupils have to make
and, in doing so, to avoid pre-
mature selection. All this in view
of the late sixties slogan of equal
opportunities for everyone. Aft-
er finishing primary education at
the age of 12, Dutch children
have to make their choice be-
tween four types of secondary
education to continue their stud-
ies: Lbo, Mavo, Havo or Vwo.
Lbo stands for Junior Sec-
ondary Vocational Education.
This is a four year vocational
training with a great deal of gen-
eral subject matters among
which one foreign language and
rarely a second one. Mavo,
Junior General Secondary Edu-
cation, offers courses in three
foreign languages. Students are
entitled to drop one or two lan-
guages, but one foreign language
is compulsory till the end of the
four year school period. Havo,
Senior General Secondary
Education takes five years, stu-
dents follow courses in three for-
eign languages. Vwo, Pre
University Education also offers
three foreign languages, this type
of education takes six years.
This early choice and prese-
lection is for a long time resent-
ed as undesirable by policy
makers. Ever since 1975 each
selfrespecting government has
proposed a new plan to reform
and harmonise the first stage.
That makes four plans, the last
one appeared in 1987. The times
were changing and so were the
plans: the first one, which had
the status of a working paper,
stressed the general educational
goals and proposed a compre-
hensive school where all pupils
should stay together in hetero-
geneous groups for four years.
The last plan is the least ideo-
logically inspired and the most
practical and concrete of them
all. However, the most recent
proposals are based on a thor-
ough analysis of Dutch society,
it's demographic and economic
characteristics and its present
and future needs. In the previ-
ous plans attempts were made
to reduce the number of hours
spent on foreign languages; the
last one pays more attention to
foreign language learning. This
phenomenon has been undoubt-
edly a foreshadowing effect of
Europe 1992, when formal fron-
tiers are abolished in the
European community. That pro-
spect stimulates the commercial
greediness; the Dutch, as so
many others, expect to conquer
enormous new markets and
mastery of foreign languages is
believed to constitute a pre-
cious instrument in the realisa-
tion of that intention. Every-
where in the common market
one can see a growing interest
in foreign language learning.
The last plan for educational
reform, which proposes a 'basic
education' has come further
than its predecessors. The bill
proposing this reform has been
discussed in Parliament in June
1991 and it has been accepted
by a large majority. Not without
problems, as a matter of fact.
The old battle between support-
ers and opponents of the com-
prehensive school was revived
for a while. Arguments pro and
contra the heterogeneous class
were heard again. Now that the
bill has been passed, for some a
dream will come true, even if in
a form very different from the
original plan which goes back to
the mid seventies. For others
educational reality will turn into
a nightmare. They pretend that
the idea of a same program for
everyone is a fallacy. It is
spilling of talents, because the
program will be trivial for the
bright ones.
2. Basic Education
In 1993 all pupils leaving pri-
mary school (at the age of
twelve) will get 'basic education',
a common core curriculum, dur-
ing a period of approximately
three years. In that period they
will have to study fifteen sub-
jects: mathematics, biology,
physics, chemistry, economics,
health and care, technology, his-
tory, geography, informatics,
arts, physical education, Dutch,
English and French or German.
This basic education does not
affect the structure of the exist-
ing educational system; it means
only a change in the curriculum.
In point of fact basic education
means the introduction of a com-
mon curriculum because before
the aims of the first stage of sec-
ondary education were never
clearly described. They could
only be drived from the methods
used during that period and from
the final examinations at the end
of the second stage.
The general aims of basic
education are:
- postponement of definite
choice;
- raising the general level of
achievement;
- reinforcement of the com-
mon cultural basis;
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