A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #361 - Trade Unionism - Véronique Decker: "Schools are a mirror of society's crises" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Education, has made numerous announcements, 
including the highly anticipated return to vocational training and an 
agreement on school schedules. We asked for the reactions of Véronique 
Decker, a teacher and then school principal for 27 years in Bobigny 
(93). A union activist at the École Émancipée, then at SUD éducation, an 
educational activist at the Institut Coopératif de l'École Moderne 
(ICEM) Freinet pedagogy and at the OCCE[1], and an advocate for 
children's rights at DEI[2], she has published four books with Libertalia.
Is the reform of initial teacher training a return to the normal school 
model? Faced with numerous teacher resignations and students' hesitation 
to take demanding competitive exams for a difficult and poorly paid job, 
the government is forced to act. For now, Borne has announced the 
restoration of professional training for teachers without providing much 
detail. To make the profession attractive, salaries would need to be 
increased, social rights restored, particularly the obligation for 
municipalities to provide housing for teachers, and per-student funding 
increases, which vary enormously between municipalities.

To be effective, the time spent on professional, didactic, and 
pedagogical training in both initial and continuing education must be 
significantly increased. The creation of a university degree repositions 
the beginning of training at the Baccalaureate level. The two paid years 
of civil servant traineeships at the Master's level could be a step 
forward. But with half-time "in front of students" in a responsible role 
rather than a supervised internship, there is deception. And secondary 
school teachers fear a loss of expertise in their subject.

Véronique Decker is a retired school principal, educational activist at 
the ICEM Freinet Pedagogy, union member, and author of books published 
by Libertalia.
How can we ensure quality training? There is the National Higher 
Institute of Teaching and Education (Institut National Supérieur du 
Professorat et de l'Éducation) (National Institute for Teaching and 
Education), which is staffed by teachers and educational advisors. But 
in some severely understaffed academies, such as Versailles and Créteil, 
there is a lack of advisors to support the large number of contract 
teachers in post without any training. Transfers based on seniority have 
a perverse effect: the least trained teachers are placed ahead of 
children from the neighborhoods experiencing the most difficulties. This 
causes a great deal of suffering for both students and staff. And 
nothing is seriously planned for them.

To turn the tide, universities would need to hire tenured and 
experienced professors in disciplinary and pedagogical fields, as well 
as in child and adolescent psychology. But that's not what's on the 
horizon. On the contrary, we see artificial intelligence lobbies 
promising ever more digital content. The race for standardized 
performance replaces education that builds children's personalities.

What content should be prioritized in training? Borne mentions 450 hours 
of training in the first Master's program and 300 hours in the second 
Master's program, with a half-time class load, or 432 hours of teaching. 
Students will have to prepare their classes, mark homework, meet with 
parents, learn their lessons, and finalize a master's thesis... Mission 
impossible!

For the return of disciplinary and pedagogical training with quality 
content, we will have to set the requirements collectively with students 
and their unions. They must develop their own educational projects in 
collaboration with teachers' unions and educational networks.

And what do you think of the citizens' convention on school schedules? 
Children's time is primarily their parents' social time and the need for 
childcare that allows women to go to work, since it is generally the 
mother who provides it. Municipalities no longer provide enough summer 
camps or leisure centers with stable and qualified staff. We have seen 
in the poorest communities the harmful effects of "children's time" 
programs with pseudo-cultural workshops led by underqualified temporary 
workers. Borne opens a debate on "rhythms" to pit parents against 
teachers, students against the institution, and ultimately increase the 
working hours of educational staff.

The real reform would be to ensure that all parents have working hours 
compatible with this "children's time." Who questions the time of the 
children of cashiers who work Sundays or that of children whose parents 
work three-shift jobs? Who demands that all students be relocated to the 
seaside or the mountains? For "childhood time up to the age of three," a 
child who needs to build strong social interactions with available 
relatives, we need more than just parental leave at birth, but also the 
ability to work part-time without loss of pay.

Audrey Chenu and Véronique Decker, Entrer en pédagogie féministe, 
Libertalia, June 2023, 188 pages, 10 euros.
I often hear that overly long vacations penalize children from 
disadvantaged neighborhoods, and it's true. Except that it's not the 
vacations that penalize them, but the lack of content. Where are the 
summer camps? The buildings, costly to maintain, have been sold. Where 
are the youth and cultural centers? The teams, too precarious, have 
disintegrated. Even the military and police forces that used to come and 
provide activities on the paving stones and lawns of the housing 
projects have disappeared! There remains the crazy expense of the 
Universal National Service... But extending school hours with exhausted 
staff won't improve the situation. First, we're looking for a review of 
the "learning vacation" program. Did the children really learn with a 
teacher they didn't know during half a week of classes? We're also 
looking for a review of the "boarding school of excellence" program, 
which was supposed to send the best students from working-class 
neighborhoods to boarding school.

Education requires a long time frame, stable programs discussed 
democratically with the population and teachers. We also need buildings, 
spaces, hygiene, food, games, and sports facilities. We also need school 
doctors, social workers, mediation with parents, and specialized staff 
to help students with difficulties. We also need trained staff and 
numbers adapted to the inclusion of children with disabilities, and a 
simple pathway for the schooling of unaccompanied minors or those who 
don't speak French.

But no. We end up with Kleenex ministers, thrown away every six months, 
who all have a grand plan, a fundamental reform, a citizens' convention, 
and other gadgets whose results are never evaluated, while teachers are 
forced to submit stupid evaluations. The liberal objective regarding 
education is simple: destroy trust in the public sector to promote the 
growth of the private sector and open up lucrative returns for shareholders.

Interview by Jean-Yves (UCL Limousin)

Confirm

[1]The Central Office for School Cooperation is an association that 
brings together the actions of student cooperatives with the help of 
their teachers.

[2]Defense for Children International is an association that ensures the 
implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Veronique-Decker-L-ecole-est-un-miroir-des-crises-de-la-societe
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