Sorbonne Confidential

Those jobs are history: Hollande reverses himself on rehiring 60,000 education workers

ooops!

After bashing Sarkozy's gov for cutting education functionaries (no firing, but non-replacement of one half of retiring education employees) and promising to rehire all 60,000 of them the second he's elected president, Socialist candidate François Hollande is at a loss for words. 

Why?

Because France's AAA rating is about to expire under a massive pile of public debt, and such silly promises, even if he never had the slightest intention of honoring them, make financial markets even more nervous, which is to say hysterical.

So what to tell teachers?

Hollande's problem: tell the truth (which is pretty obvious) and disappoint the troups, or lie (which is also pretty obvious) and risk accidentally being believed by the moneymen who keep France afloat.

Not unexpectedly the right-leaning Le Figaro rejoices at Hollande's dilemna, in "Future Teachers Demand Explanations from Holland" (in French).

 

 

French teachers strike again, this time to protest teacher evaluation

How long since the last teacher strike in France?* Why are French teachers unions calling for teachers to abandon children in classrooms this time?

Three guesses:

1) Because they refuse to allow bad teachers to ruin children's chances at a better future for one moment longer?

(Nope).

2) Because they insist that hard working teachers get more training and support?

(Wrong again!)

3) Because they want outstanding teachers to be recognized and rewarded?

(Ah, ha ha hahahahahhahaha!)

No, of course not. Teachers unions in France, like teachers unions in the good 'ole USA, oppose evaluation. 

Those of us who have worked in private companies know perfectly well that it's hard to evaluate employees, the worst thing, in fact, after NOT evaluating them.

So finally teachers in France and teachers in, say, Washington DC have something in common. They don't want anyone looking over their shoulder.

Read French education union Sud Education's explanation here. 

8.5% to 21.5% of teachers are expected to strike. Not many, perhaps. But teacher strikes, even if only supported by a minority, mean less adults in the schools, lost time for students and, for the most fragile children, increased likelihood of failure. 

How do teachers, especially the best ones, feel about this? 

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* September 27 : against the non-replacement of retiring teachers

No French Institutions in 50 Top Universities for Arts & Humanities 2010-2011

Times Higher Education with data supplied by Thomson Reuters (via www.timeshighereducation.co.uk) No French institution ranked in top 50 for Arts and Humanities. 

TOP 50 ARTS AND HUMANITIES UNIVERSITIES 2010-2011

SUBJECT RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION
1	Harvard University	United States	85.9
2	Stanford University	United States	84.3
3	Princeton University	United States	84
4	University of Chicago	United States	83.4
5	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	81.9
6	Columbia University	United States	81.7
6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	81.7
8	University of California Berkeley	United States	80.3
9	Yale University	United States	80
10	University College London	United Kingdom	79.8

via www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

France is EU country where the highest numbers of primary school pupils redo a year – The Connexion

FRANCE is the country which makes most use of redoublement (children retaking a school year) a European Union study has shown.

During primary school, 19 per cent of children redo a year, far more than some of the other countries which use the system, like Greece (two per cent) or Austria (five per cent).

France also has a high level at collège, the first stage of secondary school: 24 per cent compared to only 0.5 per cent in Finland; however Spain has an even higher one, 32 per cent.

The EU study gave a largely negative assessment of the practice, saying it does not appear to have many benefits and high levels in France mainly come down to “belief” in its efficacy.

via www.connexionfrance.com

Update on the situation for foreign students in France - Newsletter HEC

The “May 31 circular” – co-signed by Claude Guéant, French Minister of the Interior and Xavier Bertrand, French Minister of Labour, Employment and Health –on the one hand called on the regional and departmental Prefects to “ensure that requests for work permits are examined rigorously”, and on the other hand “rigorously” restricts temporary residence permits for students looking for work. It specifies that “this rigour must be even more marked when the job in question does not require a particularly high level of qualifications”.
In practice, this means that there are many university graduates who have already been offered a permanent position but now find themselves unable to sign their contract of employment, and who risk breaking the law if they remain in France. Currently, several HEC graduates from the class of 2011 who secured a job over the summer find themselves in an uncertain position.

via www.associationhec.com

Wauquiez to "correct" Claude Guéant 's text against educated FOREIGN talent

While other countries struggle to attract the world's best intellectual talent Claude Guéant devised new obstacles to keep foreign MA and PhD students from working in France.

The result: the "Circulaire Guéant", a surprisingly stupid, short sighted anti-immigrant concoction designed to protect France from the danger of employing smart, well-educated foreigners.

Under pressure from presidents of universities (who like smart people), grandes écoles (who fear for their own stagiaires abroad) and just about everyone else involved, Laurent Wauquiez, Minister of Higher Education is now intervening to "correct" the Circulaire.  

Immigrant bashing sounds great in speeches. But does France really think that throwing out great talent out is the solution?  see www.lefigaro.fr

Can the Swiss Save the Romansh Language?

Villagers Debate Whether to Stick to Dialects of Ancient Roman Tongue or a Cobbled-Together 'Esperanto via online.wsj.com

"The tiff originated in 1996, when Romansh became Switzerland's fourth official language even though only roughly 60,000 people speak it. But its official status came at a price: There is not one distinct Romansh language, but rather five main dialects scattered across the isolated mountain valleys around Val Müstair. To give Romansh the critical mass to survive—and to cut down on translation costs—Bern quickly adopted as the official language a standardized version cobbled together from various dialects. The result is Romansh Grischun, or RG, as it was immediately dubbed"

"Since 2003, the government has paid village schools 2,000 Swiss francs (around $2,450) per child to stop teaching dialects and convert to RG, with dialects to be phased out entirely by 2020. It even published cartoons in RG in an effort to entice young people to speak it. About half of Romansh villages have converted to RG". for more see WSJ

***

Romansh is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French. It is one of the Rhaeto-Romance languages, believed to have descended from the Vulgar Latin variety spoken by Roman eraoccupiers of the region, and, as such, is closely related to French, Occitan and Lombard, as well as other Romance languages to a lesser extent. As of the 2000 Swiss Census, it is spoken by 35,095^[1] residents of the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) as the language of "best command", and 61,815 in the "best command" plus "most spoken" categories.^[2] Spoken now by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, it is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers. - Wikipedia

GOP presidential candidate and former D student Rick Perry bashes higher education

Presidential candidate Rick Perry wants to transform higher education. Professors should be ranked according to profitability. Students are customers. Bonus should depend on favorable ratings from "clients". A thoughtful critique? Or the vengeance of a D student with a taste for power? The Huffpost publishes Perry's disastrous university transcripts. D in Shakespeare. D in economics. Just how ignorant do we want our next president to be?

WASHINGTON -- As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a controversial agenda that would gut Texas' vaunted public university system in favor of something that more closely resembles a business.

As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, professors have been ranked according to how profitable they were to the university. Previous reports suggested Perry wanted to treat students as "customers" and tie teacher bonuses to anonymous student evaluations.

One reason that might explain his hostility toward the system: He didn't do very well in it. A source in Texas passed The Huffington Post Perry's transcripts from his years at Texas A&M University. The future politician did not distinguish himself much in the classroom. While he later became a student leader, he had to get out of academic probation to do so. He rarely earned anything above a C in his courses -- earning a C in U.S. History, a D in Shakespeare, and a D in the principles of economics. Perry got a C in gym.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Fake inspectors gobble up resources at Education Nationale, in Quango boondoggle

The French, The Economist observes, have an unusually large number of pointless committees. 697 to be exact. 

France has commissions for noise, for the air, for water, for cold, for the polar regions, for rubbish and more. There are at least 13 commissions for inventing new French words or phrases. Charged with translating “breaking news” last year, one came up with the snappy "information de dernière minute."

Luc Ferry's salary-for-nothing commission is by far not the worst. 

His council has a smallish budget, most of its members are unpaid and it produces reports. It is not to be confused with the nine-member Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion, nor the 51-member Employment Policy Council, and certainly not the 36-strong Council for Economic Analysis, which in turn has nothing to do with the 36-strong High Council for the Social Economy.

 This said, it still might make more sense to pay the monthly salary to someone who actually does the work.

As Le Figaro points out,  fake inspectors in France's Education Nationale "don't come to fill a post. Their activity, when they perform it, corresponds to no defined need and their recruitement is not subject to any selection or competition."

"Ils ne viennent pas combler un poste vacant, leur activité - quand ils l'exercent - ne correspond à aucun besoin défini et leur recrutement ne fait l'objet d'aucun concours ni critère de sélection… Dans le jargon de l'Éducation nationale, on les appelle les «IAP», les inspecteurs de l'académie de Paris. Vendredi, leur condition a été passée au crible devant les hauts magistrats de la Cour des comptes. Fait exceptionnel, cinq hauts fonctionnaires, parmi lesquels deux anciens directeurs de cabinet du ministère de l'Éducation nationale et un recteur, comparaissaient vendredi en toute discrétion devant la cour de discipline budgétaire et financière de la Cour des comptes, juridiction administrative chargée de punir les infractions en matière de finances publiques. En cause : la douzaine de nominations intervenues au sein de cette inspection si particulière, entre 2006 et 2008. Le procureur général estime en effet qu'existaient «de sérieuses raisons de mettre en doute la régularité» de ces nominations."

via www.lefigaro.fr

Trouble in French competitive exam : 15th century text for historians really from 1964

 

Education Minister Luc Chatel (whose background is in Marketing, PR and HR) decided to continue with the exams, even though a key text was actually exactly the kind of modern compilation real historians are supposed to be able to detect.

If they know their ancient languages, of course. And are trained historians. -- Two qualities that apparently have little to do with the agrégation d'histoire.

(Even the examiners can't distinguish a 15th from a 20th century historical text?)

It doesn't really matter, one participant explained. The agrégation d'histoire is for selecting teachers. 

Seriously? But everyone who's approached within ten meters of the agrég knows at least one thing: it has nothing to do with the ability to teach either.

So what, then, is the point of the agrégation d'histoire?

Whatever it is, pas question!  of getting rid of it.

20h century, 15th century. Ah, who cares... It's still the best!

 

 Don't believe me? See:

1) "Le concours de l'agrégation sous le coup d'une erreur historique" Le Point.fr - Publié le 24/05/2011 à 17:27 "Au cours d'une épreuve d'histoire médiévale, un texte contemporain a été présenté aux candidats comme un document du XVe siècle."

2) "L'agrégation d'histoire se poursuit malgré une bourde" Le Figaro "Le texte proposé à l'épreuve d'histoire médiévale était présenté comme un journal authentique datant de 1415. C'était un texte de 1964. Le ministère estime qu'il n'y a pas matière à refaire le concours."

 

3) "Le concours d'agrégation d'histoire risque d'être annulé"  LEMONDE.FR | 24.05.11 | 08h04 "Le blog sciences de Libération s'interroge : "Comment les deux historiennes chargées de choisir le texte du concours – Catherine Vincent (du CHSCO) etDenyse Riche (université Lyon-II) – ont-elles pu commettre cette énorme bourde ? Comment imaginer que les historiennes n'aient pas vérifié qu'il existe un'original', en latin le plus probablement "