Sorbonne Confidential

Anxious French parents spend 2.2 billion euros in private tutoring for children

Egalitarian? 

Where schools fail to educate children, parents reach deep into their pockets. English language training is just the tip of the iceberg.  (see L'enseignement de l'anglais et l'inégalité en France) 

Each year in France, parents spend 2.2 bilion euros on special tutoring (or "soutien scolaire") for their children, two to three times as much as in Germany or Spain. Why such anxiety? Is it justified? What can parents do?

In this article, Le Monde lists website that may help. 

Le Figaro - France : Évaluation des enseignants : Luc Chatel tient bon

Aujourd'hui, les professeurs ne sont inspectés en moyenne qu'une fois tous les sept ans et leur avancement dépend pour l'essentiel de leur ancienneté et d'un système de notes.

via www.lefigaro.fr

Le Figaro - France : Enseignants : la répartition des suppressions de postes

Les suppressions porteront sur des postes d'assistants de langues, d'assistants pédagogiques et d'enseignants en surnombre.

via www.lefigaro.fr

Education nationale : le détail des suppressions de postes académie par académie - Libération

Les 5700 suppressions de postes prévues pour la rentrée 2012 en classes primaire affecteront d'abord, en nombre absolu, les académies de Lille (399 suppressions) et Nancy-Metz (367), selon un document transmis aujourd'hui par le ministère de l'Education nationale aux syndicats. Toutes les académies doivent perdre des postes, sauf la Guyane où sont prévues 20 créations nettes de postes.

Les autres académies touchées sont Versailles (260), Amiens (235), Créteil (233), Toulouse (227), Aix-Marseille (219), Strasbourg (216), Bordeaux (203), Orléans-Tours (196), Dijon (181), Caen et Rennes (179), Montpellier (172), Rouen (166), Besançon (154), Grenoble et Reims (153), Nice (143), Clermont-Ferrand (141), Nantes (137), Guadeloupe (134), Limoges (131), Lyon et Poitiers (129), Paris (98), Martinique (97), La Réunion (69) et Corse (20).

Soit en tout 5100 suppressions de postes, les 600 autres devant concerner "les moyens alloués au recrutement des étudiants en master 2", a précisé Christian Chevalier, du syndicat SE-Unsa.

via www.liberation.fr

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