Traditionally, the most important way of promoting equal opportunities in education has been (the extension of ) compulsory education: public authorities try to impose minimum participation on every individual as a way of ensuring the socialisation of young people and avoiding dependency in adulthood. While this tendency still persists today (there are obvious signs of ongoing pressure on jobless school leavers) the emphasis appears to be shifting in recent debates from learning duties (compulsory education) to ‘learning rights’. In this chapter, we describe and discuss the issues on this subject.

Trends in compulsory education

The duration of compulsory education in the European Union varies from 8 years (Italy), 9 years (Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and Norway), 10 years (Spain, France), 11 years (Luxembourg, England, Wales and Scotland) to more than 11 years if years of part-time schooling is taken into account (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland). Compulsory education most frequently begins at the age of six but it has recently been lowered to the age of four in Luxembourg, where attendance in the last year of pre-school education is compulsory, and in Northern Ireland. In Denmark, on the other hand, it begins at age seven.

Over the decade 1984-94, almost half of the countries extended compulsory schooling by one, two or three years. They did this either by raising the school leaving age – which for full-time education is now usually 15 or 16 years – or by lowering the starting age, generally set at 5 or 6 years. In general, such extensions took place within a comprehensive curriculum.

A political debate is still going on in some countries concerning the school starting and leaving age.

In Belgium, for example, some policy makers have recently advocated lowering the compulsory school leaving age from 18 to 16. They have even questioned the effectiveness of part-time compulsory education (16-18 years); many young people opting for part-time education are said to be demotivated and tired of school. Opponents of lowering the school leaving age draw strength from the fact that there is no alternative for those youngsters on the labour market, that they need an adequate qualification, and that policy has to provide better education for these young people, rather than turning them out on to the street.