Good news from the French University, VALERIE PECRESSE on changing selection by failure

 

Sources of optimism are all too rare these days in higher education.

This makes the New York Times interview with Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research in France, all the more remarkable.

In it, she discusses what France is trying to achieve in its universities, why these changes are important, and how they are to be achieved.

And, most importantly, she diagnoses the problems.

(One of which, France's terrible tradition of selection by failure, I had personally found so shocking I wrote a book about it.)

Here are some excerpts from the interview. For the complete article, please see the NYT article "France Reinvesting in Universities, Education Minister Says" by D.D. GUTTENPLAN,  May 22, 2011.

Valérie Pécresse. What is striking in France is that we hate failure.

Q. Yet you have selection by failure.

Valérie Pécresse But we have selection by failure. We have pupils who have been scarred for life because they failed. And they would not have failed if we had taken proper care of them. In medicine, we take 20 percent after the first year.

Q. The other 80 percent fail?

Valérie Pécresse   They fail. In law, we take 50 percent. Even in human sciences we take 50 percent. So we had to work on the first year. What we had was selection by failure. And we want selection by success. This has led to a whole range of initiatives in the universities to put weaker students into remedial classes and stronger students into faster-moving courses. It’s a huge change.

For the complete interview, please see NYT here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Rocket French]

I couldn't agree with you more. France's tradition of selection by failure is so shocking... but France is still a very elitist country.
Cathy