Like many
teachers of further education, I am strike.
This
strike is to put pressure on a government, and particularly on a
Minister
(Valérie Peceresse) who are proposing a series of laws which
will profoundly
change the democratic nature of the French education system.
One of
these concerns the combination of the Masters degree with the
preparation of
the competitive teaching exams. (masterisation des concours).
This will
drastically reduce the teaching of research subjects, as well as
reducing the
training of future teachers. A years’ FULLY PAID teacher training will
be
replaced short unpaid placements (“stages perlés”).
Another
concern (la loi sur les stauts) is the alteration of the equal
conditions
of university teaching. Roughly speaking, at present all permanent
university
teachers with the same qualification receive the same pay for the same
hours of
teaching and research. The present balance of teaching and research is
vital to
the well-being of a university. The government proposes to assess
research in
such a way as to require those who do less research to do more
teaching. This
will have the double effect of influencing what should be
freely-organized
research and of giving more hours to less well-qualified teachers.
Une loi peut en cacher une autre… The real purpose of these proposed laws is to
save money by reducing the number of teachers. They are part of a much
larger
plan towards the autonomy of the French education system at every
level. Like the
Anglo-Saxon system, French schools and universities will soon be free
to
recruit teachers. Well-funded institutions will recruit
better-qualified
teachers, and institutions in smaller and poorer areas will recruit
cheaper
teachers. In a very short time, this will destroy the relative equality
of
opportunity which we have in France. Soon we will have the English
situation of
very good and very bad schools, and bankrupt universities closing
entire
Faculties in order to save money. High university fees will soon follow.
So it is in
order to defend (and to improve) the equality and independence of
French
education that I, personally, am on strike. There will be plenty of AGs
this
week. I urge you to attend them in order to make up your own minds
about these
questions which affect us all. You can also check out the national
debates and
read the proposed laws at this address:
http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/spip.php?page=sommaire-actu
Latest news: The English Department has
voted to continue the strike (March 27). The university AG will vote on
March 29.