School: from “promises” to “uncertainties”

Abstract

The period after World War II (“Thirty Glorious Years”, 1945-1975) is characterized by an exponential growth in school supply as a joint effect of a simultaneous increase in supply (public policy) and in demand. The “school boom” phenomenon indicates a process of democratisation of the access to school, which marks a shift from an elitist school to a mass school and the beginning of a “time of certainties”. In the early seventies, if it is true that the first fuel crisis sets the end of a cycle characterized by the “illusion of progress” and attempts to build “societies of abundance”, it is also true that the diagnosis of a “world crisis in education” evidences the failure of the school promises. Sociological research has proved that there is no linear relationship between educational opportunities and social opportunities, on the one hand, and between the democratisation of education and ascending social mobility, on the other hand. The joint effect of the expansion of school systems and of changes in the labour world tends to deepen the discrepancy between an increase in the school production of diplomas and a decrease in the jobs they certify for. This is the evolution that explains the depreciation of school diplomas and at the same time enables us to speak of a shift from a “time of promises” to a “time of uncertainties”.

Keywords: school and change, school and labour, meaning of school work.