The Norwegian unified school - a paradise lost?

Norway has a legacy of educational policies for equal opportunity in a comprehensive learning environment - envisaged in the model of the Unified School. A peak of success was reached in the third quarter of the 20 th Century. Everybody got the opportunity of secondary and tertiary education free of charge. Education had a distinct equalizing effect. In the last quarter of the last century, indications of serious problems started to appear. Research indicated that the Unified School was producing inequality in learning conditions, achievements and opportunities. Problem solving has been attempted along two opposing policy lines: Educational Populism for restoring the Unified School, and New Public Management for creating a Quality School. Justifications for the present policy changes reside in claims about goal conflicts and the alleged dysfunctional effects of welfare state education policies, ideological changes and economic globalization. The Unified School reflects an equality-driven education policy, while the Quality School reform is competitiveness-driven. Because of particularities of Norwegian culture and economy, a residue of concerns with equality can be traced in the present Quality Reform.