United in Diversity: A Complexity Perspective on the Role of Attainment Targets in Quality Assurance in Flanders

Dilemmas of central governance and distributed autonomy in education

“…Children go as early to school as the age of four (98%), even though this is only mandatory from five years onwards. Comparatively, children only start school at the ages of seven in Finland -even though a pre-primary education year for six year-olds is offered, six in Flanders (optional pre-primary education starts at age five) and five in Ontario (see: FME, FNBE & CIMO, 2012;Rouw et al, 2016;OECD, 2011). In addition, choices for continuation into secondary education tracks are made quite early in the Netherlands as well.…”

“…In both countries, this has resulted in high levels of autonomy for school boards. A difference with regard to the role of government however, is that federal government plays a minor role in education in both Flanders and Ontario, where most responsibilities for education are transformed to regional (Belgium) or provincial (Canada) governments (Rouw et al, 2016), whereas central (though not federal) government does in the Netherlands. The distance between the highest level of authority and the level of schools or school boards may make a difference when it comes to decentralised systems.…”

“…However, it has to be noted that the national curricula in the countries at hand vary greatly. Flanders has a core curriculum set by government with specified minimum attainment targets and developmental objectives (Nusche et al, 2015), which has to be approved by the Flemish parliament as they form part of an official decree (Rouw et al, 2016). It leaves room for schools to develop their own learning plans, similarly to the Netherlands (even though the latter has 58 core learning objectives, whereas Flanders has about 1.000).…”

“…It leaves room for schools to develop their own learning plans, similarly to the Netherlands (even though the latter has 58 core learning objectives, whereas Flanders has about 1.000). Apart from that, influential umbrella organisations of school boards -that handle representation towards government -play a major role in translating learning objectives into these learning plans rather than schools themselves (see Shewbridge et al, 2011;Rouw et al, 2016). The Finnish national curriculum is set by government and is, on the contrary, very elaborate.…”