Managerization of educational process : “Why the ESL problem cannot be addressed in terms of standardization, efficiency and specialist enclosure ?”

Today we can track the phenomenon of managerization of human affairs in all fields of human activity, which should not be surprising at all. In its foundation (Taylor, 1911) scientific management was not limited to processes of production in industry, but rather as a universal method applicable on every conceivable human activity, now seen and understood in the narrow perspective of managing processes, people or oneself effectively. Generally speaking, scientific management became the grounding paradigm from where today’s specializations in society are derived. One of its main inventions is the specialization division between those who plan and those who execute the plan. This kind of division, intended to become universal, is eliminating the possibility for an integral person, where thinking and doing would be capacities that both belong to a single person. In the final consequence, the notion of a person that could possess and practice its own most human capacities (thinking, judging, acting) by their own initiative is replaced by the notion of available human resources that can be lead, developed, instructed and trained to their optimum performance level and efficiency. This systematic strive for efficiency assumes that every type of human activity in all their specific aspects can be dismantled into individual parts, quantified, put into laws and ultimately improved. Educational institutions tend to become managerized in the moment when they accept the conviction that pre-planned method, standardized procedure, calculation models, quantitative measurability (quantitative standards of academic achievement) can replace the human capacity of assessments and judgement and offer a more adequate picture of "what and how to do ". This can cause severe problems, because when dealing with the ESL question and drop out cases, which require an individual and specific approach in every single case, we face an imminent conflict with managerial paradigm in the bare organizational structure (school).