Volksonderwijs en Leerplicht: een historisch sociologisch onderzoek naar het ontstaan van de Nederlandse leerplicht 1860-1900

Our generation regards compulsary full-time education as an accomplishment of progressive forces in the 19th century. At the same time there is uncertainty about further raising the school reaving age and handling the growing number of school drop-outs. These various opinions raise questions about the origin, content and value of compulsary education. This study into the historical development of compulsary education in The Netherlands offers material for an evaluation of the concept. A characteristic of all modem nations is a system of universal, free and compulsary primary education. In North-America and Europe national or general education developed from commnal and class-based schools in the course of the 19th century. In most cases compulsary education was accepted somewhere between 1860 and 1920. However German and Scandinavian states had national regulations on compulsary school attendance dating back to the 18th century. When, in the 19th century, the concept of compulsary education was introduced by educationalists, it aroused initially much ideological controversy, as it was closely related to wider conflicts between modemising and traditional social forces over a system of state schooling. However, by the end of the century as campromises had been reached between these social farces and school attendance was at a high level, sophisticated laws on compulsary education found wide political support. This study on the development of compulsary education in The Netherlands between 1860-1900 deals primarily with the public debate on this subject, the wider ideological and political relations in which it was embedded, the influence of educationalists and the resulting Jegislation. The issues in the book are dealt with chronological, interspersed with thematic chapters: on the ideology of the important politica! movements ( chapters 4,5 en 6) and the normalisation of school-attendance (chapter 8).

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