In some Middle East countries combat fighters blend into the population to fight the enemy. These people sometimes push children in front to shield protect themselves as they are well conscious it is not possible to fire at kids particularly if television is involved. This is widely condemned by the international community and seen as being a coward attitude.
However, today in France, the very same method seems to apply with some student parents and teachers (it looks like a minority) who are dead against the elected government and are pushing their children (demonstrations today are led by under-18 students) on the streets to demonstrate against latest the secondary school reform. Could their parents not to tell them to go back to their classroom and schools?
The government is currently trying to change a failing approach consisting in always spending more money to improve performance. A study shows French students aged 10 have one of the poorest ratings in basic skills such as reading & writing compare to similar countries. Instead the government tries to look at improving efficiency and quality of teaching adapting the organization to local needs and individual.
I think that the reform may have to be amended providing stronger guarantees in achieving quality goals or other key objectives but I think that questioning the set up, the number of teachers when the overall student population is reducing or the way education is performed, is reasonable enough.
I have the impression that some adults are using their children for political matters hoping for the reform to fail and reach political aims (i.e. resisting government refroms). The opposition party is not audible at the moment but I am sure it is a matter of days before they wake up. I find that particularly loosen and not very responsible. Education is rightly one of the most important topics in France as it is the future of the country. The world is changing with its constraints and needs. The mammoth (as used to name it a Socialist minister in the 90s) is still alive…
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2 comments:
I think the comparison you are making at the beginning of your post is a good way to introduce your article although it is dangerous to establish such direct link.
The psychology behind the two behaviour are completly different, Palestinians struggle to be recognised as a country and their basic rights are denied everyday by a merciless Israeli administration for example expropriating people on the basis that their house are unsafe to build new house for jews. I am calling this Ethnic Cleansing.
The reality of the french demonstration as we see them today is very different. Youth are not controlled by their parents, they have never been.
With the reform introduced the gouvernment failed to walk the talk. For previous reforms they managed to involve all concerned parties, for this one it is very much a top-down approach, made by some technocrats without involving any sort of public consultation. We see the results.
To address the failing results of the education system is a priority and that was partially addressed only a few years ago with an largely agreed "new program". The result of that previous reform is not seen yet as it was only recently put in place. The government is undoing a previous reform without taking the opportunity to look at the results.
To me it is a waste of money and time. In my views the government should have looked at the situation in more details, review the agreed previous reform results in a couple of years time (for example) and then act.
My comparison of some parents and teachers with Middle East countries combat fighters using wives and kids to protect themselves is provocative however I believe the use of under-18 people to demonstrate in the street is very wrong. Parents should control their children this is a legal duty.
Now the education reform itself is going top down it is true and it could have been processed a different way. The problem is that in the past all reforms have come to increasing the number of staff which is the exact logic to revert. I believe looking at gaining efficiency while reducing cost is reasonable enough to be considered by all parties. I do not understand why some people because they look after of children would be more right than others. I therefore thing that the bottom line is to get results and so far the very same demonstrating in the street are the one failing to deliver.
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