It is not in financial matters alone that this presidency of France is characterized by great unrest, followed by a long period of inaction, continually justified by the supposed complexity of the situation, perfected at the end of mandate by the rediscovery of the initial problems and an avalanche of speeches on the urgency of doing something. This method, which has the advantage for the politician to increase opportunities to get oneself talked about, bring together experts, convene summits, visit foreign experiences, has not been applied in the management of the financial crisis.
We find the same frenetic conservatism regarding safety, health, energy policy, and, more recently, primary education.
Yet everyone knows, long before the beginning of this five-year term, that primary school is the main weak point of our country. Several reports, French and foreign, prepared with great care, have repeatedly confirmed this diagnosis, and described the required solutions: empower school principals in the recruitment of teachers, adapt programs to the specific public of each school with a personalized supervision, better paid teachers and working longer hours in class, giving private lessons to underachieving students. And nevertheless, we are still carrying out the reforms agreed upon following the 2005 riots and just beginning to sign contracts for school projects, which have a more statistical than educational impact.
Several international institutions (including the OECD, in its five-year-average rating called PISA), however, have denounced the decline in our primary education, and showed that with an equal budget per student, 17 countries are now better than ours, and they explained that for many years, Finland was a model of educational and social efficiency. Yet despite these facts, long-established and beyond any doubt, the French Minister of Education saw fit to visit this country on this beautiful month of August, to announce on his return that France will draw its inspiration from this model of teaching right from the start of the new school year… 2012!
Has he forgotten that his camp has been in charge for over ten years? Has he read any report, has he been informed of any results of experimental programs? Does he not know that before the 2012 new school year, there will be the presidential elections and that his role will be reduced from now on, essentially, to that of assistant of the electoral program of his candidate?
Nothing is more tragic than this sort of behavior. It makes you wonder what value can be found, humanly, in fulfilling this beautiful mission of Minister, and in particular of the ministry of education, if it is to spend time delaying the implementation of key reforms, on which the future of the country depends, on which everyone agrees for a long time? Is it just to be able to use these ideas to build a program for a presidential campaign?
This would be absurd and useless: voters will remember indeed (I hope anyway) that the frenzy of inaction cannot take the place of an assessment, let alone of a program.
May the start of this new school year, really be, for this way of doing politics, the last time.