Emmanuel Macron in the school arena
[ad_1]
Dhe speeches intended to “refound” the school, “national consultations”, “great debates”, national education has known more than any other administration. The ministers who launched them are often forgotten, their results lost in the sands. It is to be hoped that the call for “Copernican Revolution” launched by Emmanuel Macron, Thursday August 25, in the great amphitheater of the Sorbonne, does not suffer the same fate for a reason that is both dramatic and simple: the school system, the cornerstone of our Republic, a crucial institution both for democracy and for the good health of the economy, is in crisis.
The urgency is double: the teachers, however respected in the opinion, are mistreated financially by the State since a beginner perceives 1,2 times the smic against 2,3 times in the years 1980; the effectiveness of the system, both in terms of student performance and in tackling social inequalities, lags behind developed countries.
The recruitment crisis that “this beautiful job”, in the words of Mr. Macron, raises doubts, one week before the start of the school year, of the presence of a teacher in each class. It is coupled with a state of exasperation and mistrust of the teachers, aggravated by the Covid-19 and the authoritarianism of the previous minister.
Mr. Macron seems to have understood that the return of confidence requires both a more attentive minister and a substantial increase in salaries. The decision, confirmed on Thursday, to increase the salary at the start of the career to 2,000 euros net appears to be a minimum basis for initiating fundamental reforms likely to improve the performance of the system. The promised effort on vocational education and guidance, two poor relatives, is also going in the right direction.
By speaking himself to the rectors of the academy, an exceptional fact, the President of the Republic solemnized his desire to make education a priority for his second five-year term. Lucid, the acknowledgment of failure he drew up was necessary. But if the diagnosis seems correct, it remains to find remedies that do not aggravate the patient’s condition.
Clarify perspectives
To get out of the discomfort of teachers exasperated by the incessant rain of rules and reforms from above, the call for local initiatives, volunteering, responsibility seems a logical track. Teachers cannot say they are despised and reject a priori a discourse of trust giving them new margins of initiative, guarantee of an educational adaptation to the realities of the different fields.
Uniformity and centralism have shown their powerlessness in the face of inequalities. The right balance remains to be found between the need for flexibility and local autonomy, and the maintenance of national guarantees, particularly in terms of curricula, examinations and the fair distribution of teaching posts. The sustainability of the resources to be granted to local projects is also a determining factor.
The trap would be that the new roadmap presented by Emmanuel Macron does not serve to hide an unacceptable project of competition between establishments, which would only exacerbate territorial and social inequalities. If he wants, as he says, to win back the trust of partners in the school system, the president must clarify his outlook. Otherwise, his project risks ending up, like many others, in the graveyard of missed opportunities.
[ad_2]
Source link
