Educational Planning in an Industrial Society: The French Experience

Abstract

THE CONCEPT OF 'EDUCATIONAL PLANNING', although made internationally respectable by the work of UNESCO and other supra-national agencies in the developing countries, excites much opposition in more advanced societies. It runs counter to both the English tradition of empiricism and the American one of laisser faire. In 1944, English fears of authoritarianism militated against full acceptance of Mannheim's views on the democratic planning of education as a pre-condition of a new socio-economic order, and the changes that were made in the educational system were less radical than they might have been. Today, the American philosophy of Social Reconstructionism, which would imply the planned development of education, is rejected for similar reasons by American educationists. Nor is it only the English-speaking countries who are wary of the concept: Federal Germany, mindful of the Nazi past and reacting against its East German neighbour, will not agree to the planning of education at the national level. In fact, in 1962, when asked by the International Bureau of Education, only ten states-with the exception of Turkey, all Communist regimes-asserted categorically that their educational development was integrally planned. Yet, to some degree, every state engages in educational planning. Its motives in so doing are dual: the desire to promote the well being of its citizens is linked to the use of education as an instrument of social and economic progress. Thus education competes with other social services for a share of the national budget. Again, educational planning may emerge as piecemeal reforms, such as those in train in secondary education almost everywhere in Western Europe. But it is France that since the war has been the leading Western exponent of all-out economic and educational planning, in the sense that all development is consciously related to economic growth and to the whole structure of school and higher education. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the procedures of educational planning in an industrial society, in the light of socio-economic considerations, and, by using France as a case-study and drawing comparisons where possible, demonstrate how an educational system could be planned accordingly. French educational planning grew out of an economic context as well as a social one. The stagnation of the economy between the wars, and the realization that economic growth and productivity can be stimulated by state intervention led to an acceptance of planning. The prime mover was Jean Monnet, who had spent the war years in Washington engaged in economic planning. Within Occupied France the harnessing of the economy to German military needs had accustomed the French to 'le dirigisme'. In the immediate post-war circumstances it was obvious that economic priorities could only be resolved by government