The social elevator is not working
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2011
1
13
Trip End
Jan 25, 2011
Marseille, Provence, France
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Le Proviseur Becherand; the headmaster is a round little tweedledum man who greets us at the door with a handshake and who has an immediate air of knowledgable authority. He quickly rids himself of his jumper in the overheated room and scrolls up his sleeves ready to begin his overview of the French Education system. And he was surprisingly frank and at times scathing about a system that spends the highest proportion of it's budget on education yet ranks only 18th in the world ranking of results whilst Australia comes in at sixth. This surprised us all. Maybe his willingness to reveal the deficiencies in the system comes from his years spent in England as the headmaster of a the French Lycee in London. He believes that like the English the French should spend more time on the arts, sport and technology. I think that at some schools sport can be overemphasised, especially when the students can now choose elective PE as well as their core PE, which has a negative impact on the pick-up of languages as an elective. The hands are second class in France, the head is where it is at. As a student you do not really have an opportunity to discover whether you are any good at working with your hands in a French highschool, you may only know that you are weak academically. If you have learning difficulties or are dyslexic or are disabled in any way, mainstream French schools will cater poorly for you. In Australia we seem to have a much broader willingness to accept difference and differentiate for it.
He says bluntly that no-one wants to be a teacher in France, it is often a job for those who do not know what else to do. French teachers work less than us, sometimes as little as 18 hours a day but are consequently paid much smaller wages than ours, they can do 'heures supp' which are supplementary lessons but only a certain number. Mr Becherand touches upon the insularity of French teachers who lack the 'esprit de corps' of Australian and English teachers. They work individually, do not have departmental staffrooms, and may work in the noisy and crowded commonroom at the communal table or in their own classrooms at their desks. Once they have finished their lessons they will usually leave the school grounds and may work at two or three other schools. This hardly builds a collegial mentality amongst the staff who work as individual 'fonctionnaires' or civil servants rather than a teaching body. What we found the hardest to believe was that if a teacher is unexpectedly absent, there is no 'professeur pompier' or casual teacher to replace them so the kids simply have no class and wander the playground or go back home. If the absence is for an extended block a replacement will be assigned, but it may happen that students miss weeks of a subject and then still have to sit the exams. The result of this are a lot of 'étudiants fantomes'; 'ghost students' or dropouts.
The Headmaster pronounced both in French and his excellent English that the 'ascenseur sociale ne marche plus en France', that the social elevator of educator no longer functions in France and that the system as it is if a 'Reproduction naturelle des elites', notably in the Grands Ecoles. To access almost any job in France you need to 'prepare pour un concours'- or prepare for a competition, which means that if there are 100 applicants and 20 jobs, the 20 with the highest marks get the jobs. It's that simple. The French pedagogical methods used train the mind; French students very much 'learn how to learn' and so these skills are transferred to whichever field they will eventually work in. He says that his country is falsely democratic and very monarchist. Whereas our schools might do a lamington drive or a raffle to raise some money for a piece of equipment or an excursion, French schools and staff largely sit back and wait for the Etat to step up and foot the bill.
Because Education is such an important portfolio in France, each minister wishes to make his mark by introducing a reform. In 1968 it was that all French schools became co-ed. More recently Sarkozy has allowed the 4 day week for middle school children. They no longer go to school on Wednesday morning or on Saturday morning, which has resulted in a much more packed curriculum and more homework to make up for the lost lesson time.
The Lycee Mignet in Aix, which we eventually get to visit was built in 1603 and is distinguished by an International Section and a deputy headmaster who looks uncannily like an ex boyfriend of mine. out of 960 students, 120 of them speak English fluently and receive instruction in both languages. Their parents may work in the nearby Nuclear fission plant, or the helicopter factory or their parents may be academics who work in the Humanities departments at some of the local unis. Aix trains graduates in the Arts and Humanities; Marseille is where the campuses are for engineering and other technical subjects.
My personal experience in my host family is of a lot of homework, and the boys bringing back their marks over 20 to the communal dining room table like rugby tries, there is friendly rivalry between them, and when one is dissapointed with a 4/20, there is a parental pow-wow with him to boost his spirits and work out what went wrong and where he could improve next time. Definitely a lovingly academic environment where learning was very much valued and 't'as bosse?' (have you worked?) is the question that comes up whenever the boys have some down time.
Overall the concensus amongst us is that we would prefer our kids to be educated in the Australian system, we may not be producing 'the elites' but most kids will get a fairer go.
