By: Dr Matevž Tomšič
As expected, the left-wing opposition, which still cannot come to terms with the fact that it is no longer in power, has reacted aggressively to every change introduced by the current government and has mobilised its support network in the process. This resistance is strongest in the field of education. The announcement by Education Minister Borut Rončević that a far-reaching school reform will be implemented, including the abolition of the nine-year primary school system and the return to an eight-year system, has mobilised the entire political left. Not only politicians, but also representatives of civil society, academia, trade unions, and the media have joined the criticism. All of these groups are arguing in unison that the proposed changes are poorly conceived, are being introduced too quickly, are proceeding without sufficient public debate, and above all, that the professional community has not been adequately involved in their design. The “right” professional community, of course.
Such a fierce reaction is understandable and predictable if we recognise that the political left views education as its exclusive domain. It considers itself uniquely qualified to direct this field, regulate it, and implement reforms. Supposedly, the only truly competent experts come from its own ranks, while everyone else is regarded as unqualified and therefore should not interfere in educational matters.
The direction of the education system and education policy represents one of the strongest monopolies in the country. This monopoly was established during the rule of the once-powerful Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), which led the country for more than a decade through coalition governments. At the time, virtually any ministry could become the subject of coalition negotiations, with one exception: the ministry responsible for education. When, after the 1996 elections, the possibility was raised that this portfolio might be assigned to the newly admitted coalition partner, the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS), such a strong backlash emerged within left-wing circles associated with LDS that then-party leader and Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek was allegedly forced to retreat immediately. As a result, the ministry remained in the “right” hands.
Slovenia’s political left has always understood the importance of education in shaping and maintaining the intellectual and cultural profile of society, including its prevailing values and ways of thinking. This is ideological hegemony as understood by the Italian neo-Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci: a condition in which certain ideas and values acquire the status of something normal, natural, universal, and therefore self-evident, something that should not be questioned. Of course, such hegemony does not exist on its own. It is maintained within the institutional structures of the system, through what another neo-Marxist philosopher, the French thinker Louis Althusser, called the “ideological state apparatus.” In this context, education plays a particularly important role.
Our leftists are evidently good students of Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and similar thinkers. They have therefore done everything possible to keep the education system firmly under their control. The key mechanism that served this purpose was the school reform introduced by the long-serving Minister of Education Slavko Gaber, which established the nine-year primary school system. This reform created a network of closely interconnected institutions, all allegedly dominated by people of a left-wing ideological orientation. Key figures within the responsible ministry (despite its changing names over the years), faculties of education, research organisations, numerous schools, and particularly education-sector trade unionists have operated largely hand in hand. The result is an education system that is far from ideologically neutral. On the contrary, many educational institutions are described as centres of contemporary left-wing ideological trends.
Even previous centre-right governments (which, admittedly, all included some more left-leaning coalition partners) largely refrained from interfering with this state of affairs in the interest of maintaining “social peace.” But that period now appears to be over. Pupils’ and students’ educational outcomes are poor. It has become evident that the educational system established by Slavko Gaber’s reforms is not producing satisfactory results. The proposed reforms promise to dismantle this monopoly and, consequently, the political and ideological control over education and the school system.
