Interview | Philippe Nemo

Ignorance is spreading in schools

 Philippe Nemo is a French philosopher who has written a series of works on Western philosophy and about how French education has come to decline in quality. He is now writing a book in which he compares the education systems in different countries and has recently visited Sweden and Lund to meet principals and teachers at several schools. His views are interesting in Sweden because he points to organization, pedagogy and teacher training as the problems in the school - not the profits of independent schools.

 He also underlines that there is no guarantee of quality with schools run under public auspices. In other words, he gives different perspectives than those we hear in Swedish debate, when he answers my questions.

 Nemo first wants to say that France has a very old and very rich intellectual, scientific and cultural tradition, which is not easily destroyed. Now, however, for three or four decades, the french educational system has been down graded.

 The young are the first victims. There are a couple of famous schools that can be seen as islands of resistance, but they can be overwhelmed by the spreading ignorance.

 It is not the wishes of parents and employers that the politicians followed when they introduced the French primary school, but a desire to have control, says Nemo. Primary school in France means, as in Sweden, that all students read according to the same curriculum at the same pace until the age of 16, and despite criticism similar to that heard in Sweden, no change takes place.

 In France, the Ministry of Education manages 1.3 million employees, most of whom are teachers. These have a strong position as state employees and they are represented by strong trade unions. The huge education bureaucracy is almost impossible to control.

 Ministers have no real authority over the school. If he or she takes the slightest initiative that the unions don't like, the minister will be short-lived. The state's monopoly is also combined with the "school map", which means that students are referred to the nearest school. Parents thus have very little say.

 You can say that the teachers are stuck in the state's net. The state trains them, recruits them, pays them and insists on its type of pedagogy. Teachers cannot get a better job by doing a good job. It is a situation similar to the one that led to stagnation in the Soviet Union. There are idealistic teachers who are passionately interested in their subject and who do their utmost for the students, but they have no influence on the education policy of the country. Is there an equivalent to Swedish independent schools?

 Yes, says Nemo, and the equivalent is called “contract schools”, and these are mainly Catholic. They are called that because they have a contract with the state. In France as in Sweden, schools are paid for with public funds. Contract schools have been a safety valve, and without them there would have been an explosion. They are now superior to the public schools in everything. They have more effective pedagogy, more order and order and offer physical and psychological security for the students. Even most socialist ministers and MPs want to send their children to contract schools, and yet it is they who have created today's state school. The French left, if it were honest, should immediately include in its program that there should be more contract schools.

 According to a survey, 40 percent of all French families want to send their children to such schools, but the unions do not allow the number of contract schools to exceed 18 percent. Thus long waiting lists arise to get a place in such a school. The big difference between contract schools and independent schools is that in France it is the school that receives support, while in Sweden the support follows the student.

 In France, there is no predetermined amount either. The fact that contract schools are popular does not mean that money is taken from state schools. However, each contract school is an additional cost, so there is an economic argument for keeping the number low. The French unions would call a giant strike if France adopted Sweden's rule that funding follows the student, a rule based on common sense, says Nemo.

 Why is pedagogy so political? According to Nemo, the official pedagogy, the one supported by the Ministry of Education, is not a science. It consists of a number of procedures invented to make elementary school work. When you put all young people of a certain age in the same class, intellectually "heterogeneous" groups arise. In such groups you cannot give regular lessons. One therefore needs to come up with different methods such as group work, discussions, video viewing and study visits so that everyone can participate and no one feels excluded.

 This is a hope that is ideological in the sense that the intention is to enable the equal school and has been given the name pedagogy. The idea of ​​using the school to transform society is a left-wing project and has become a kind of religion.

 In France, there is no other official pedagogy. Nemo is worried about the future of Europe. He sees that the quality of public education systems has declined in several countries in Europe. In today's world, non-European countries are becoming increasingly important, especially the Asian ones. He has had the opportunity to visit schools in Japan and South Korea and has been able to observe that education there is treated much more serious. It is clear that Europe needs to become more ambitious in its school and university policy. Nemo warns: If we do not accept that challenge, China and other superpowers will sooner or later gain power over us.

Philippe Nemo Professor who teaches philosophy and history of ideas at the ESCP-EAP European School of Management in Paris

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