A Purge at the French High Committee for Education (HCE)
Monday, November 28, 2005
EducationNews.org
November 27 pdf version: http://michel.delord.free.fr/llaff-eng.pdf
French version at: http://michel.delord.free.fr/llaff.html
On Monday November 21, 2005, Mr. Laurent Lafforgue, French mathematician,
permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques
(Institute of Higher Scientific Studies, IHES), member of the
Academy of Science, winner of the Fields Medal in 2002, resigned
after having been requested to do so from the High Committee
for Education.
The missions of the High Committee for Education are many: it
will replace the National School Program Council (Conseil National
des Programmes), as well as the High Council for School Evaluation
(Haut Conseil de l'Evaluation de l'Ecole). It will be responsible
for defining the contents of the knowledge and skills that all
children will need to have acquired by the age of 16. And it
will also be in charge of defining the specifications for the
University Institutes for Teachers (IUFM, Institut Universitaire
de Formation des Maîtres).The High Committee for Education is
therefore highly important for the future of education in France.
Only 15 days after its creation on November 8 and its first meeting
a clash occurred: Laurent Lafforgue was requested to resign.
The opinions of Laurent Lafforgue about education and teaching
have been known to all for a long time: it is public knowledge
that he is a blazing defender of public education and that he
does not belong to any powerful lobbies of the pedagogical movement
which have been effectively controlling the Ministry of National
Education for over thirty years.
In a private letter sent to Mr. Bruno Racine, President of the
High Committee for Education, and to all its members, Mr. Laurent
Lafforgue expressed his doubts about the need to take advice
from the so-called "experts of the Ministry of National Education",
because he refutes their ability to change the policies which
they have all promoted since the late sixties: Mr. Lafforgue
is - rightly so - astonished that, once more, the mission to
rebuild the French Public School System should be put in the
hands of those who have never stopped undermining its foundations
through inconsistent policies and foolish pedagogical measures.
He closed his letter with a forceful questioning of the nature
itself of the task of the HCE: Does it wish to "entrust the same
experts whose policies have led to the present disaster of our
schools with the task of elaborating the future policies", or
will it have the salutary will to "radically break the ties with
all the present educrats" and "work [...] on developing policy
advice that the government may use to save our educational system
from a complete and definite destruction?"
Against all custom this private letter was divulged outside the
High Committee for Education, and sent out to various departments
of the Ministry of National Education. The aim of such a manoeuvre
was clear: to destabilize Laurent Lafforgue and force his resignation,
solely because his continued presence would have allowed him
to oppose and denounce the continuation of policies which are
leading our schools to ruin. If his resignation is confirmed,
a shadow will weigh on the authority of the High Committee for
Education, as well as on the autonomy of its work. Can the HCE
afford to dispense with the advice and counsel of a personality
as competent and eminent as Laurent Lafforgue, without jeopardizing
its credibility?
This is why we urge Mr. Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic
who nominated Laurent Lafforgue to the HCE, to refuse his resignation.
Text written by members of GRIP, Sauver les Lettres, Reconstruire
l'Ecole
Signed by GRIP - Reconstruire l'Ecole - SAGES -
* * *
For your information: a petition against the eviction of Laurent
Lafforgue from the HCE can be found at: http://www.re2.freesurf.fr/Actions/demll.html
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