The provision of learning support, targeted at marginalised groups or individual students at risk, can be seen as a form of positive discrimination. Learning support aims to enhance literacy in order to improve a child’s chances of selection for specific types of secondary or tertiary education, or to improve attainment in external examinations.

We can assume that the most common form of learning support is that provided by teachers in their day-to-day practices. An example of their learning support activities in the Netherlands is provided by a study into the pedagogical-didactical measures that teachers in primary schools take when dealing with students at risk (Derriks et al, 1997). Teachers were asked to choose from a list of measures. These were:

• • remedial activities: extra explication of material, individual practice with pupils, repeating material, giving special remedial material, giving extra exercises, controlling work more often;

• • motivating activities: strengthening emotional ties, giving positive feedback, avoiding criticism, asking questions that pupils can answer, loosening criteria;

• • disciplinary activities: discussing behaviour, punishment, setting individual goals, giving extra homework, putting a pupil in front of the class.

Classroom teachers in mainstream primary schools were found to use remedial measures more often than motivating activities and disciplinary activities.

However, teachers often call in the assistance of specialists; educational, psychological and other professionals contribute to various forms of ‘learning support’, which is more specific than the ‘integrated services’ discussed in Chapter 5.

We assume that every teacher will face a class in which pupils differ in their capabilities. To what extent do these differences translate into extra support targeted at those performing poorly? The answer to this question can show cross-national variation. For example, it is not impossible that the provision of learning support is an ad-hoc phenomenon in some countries or schools. It is also possible that the provision of support is structured. Using a term from the Belgian and Dutch Extended Care policies (see previous chapter), a school’s care structure consists of the procedures and activities used to aid those who are in need of learning support. Policies with regard to care structures can be formulated by (national) governments, regional and local authorities, or schools themselves. Some of the six EU-countries in this study have articulated policies at the macro level (see below), yet often the provision of learning support is structured by schools operating in a regional context.