the essential
Retired from National Education, aged 65, having held several positions in his career, from school as a teacher to an academic executive at the rectorate of Toulouse, Patrick Coste notes a system which is deteriorating in his first book “Education in the face of the impossible”. He will be at the Ombres Blanches bookstore in Toulouse for a signing, Friday January 10, at 6 p.m. Interview.
You publish “Education in the face of the impossible, rethinking the foundations of school” (Delga editions), a book of more than 300 pages which makes the observation that nothing is going well within National Education?
In this book, at first, I am like a real estate agent who visits all the rooms of the house. From the role of head of establishment to the autonomy of establishments, through national evaluations, to the higher program council, to ministers, to the various reforms which have been put in place in recent years. I wanted to do a very complete analysis of the system. My parents were teachers, I spent forty years in teaching, my daughter is a teacher in Sarcelles, so it is a story in national education that I wanted to tell. And the deterioration of the situation. Writing this book is ethical behavior, in my opinion. A sort of political responsibility in relation to what I have experienced over several generations.
What is the nature of this degradation that you mention in several chapters?
We know the results of this degradation. I wanted to do an analysis of the functioning and the powers. There is a malfunction. It is a dialectic between forms of organization, the responses given by statuses, behaviors, representations, it is a dysfunction between these dimensions. And it is also the evolution of reality. These powers are exercised at all levels but do not respond to the problems as they arise. The idea is not to designate someone responsible, it’s a whole network, but the problem is systemic.
How do you reverse the trend?
First, we need to do an interim analysis before answering this question. Today, kids aren’t what they used to be. This is a fundamental problem. We find ourselves in a learning situation with adults, who are authoritative and mediators between children and society. But society has precisely reversed this relationship, what I call an asymmetry. Today it is about satisfying the child’s emotions as closely as possible through an entire economic system that provides products, satisfaction, entertainment and pleasures. The child has become self-centered.
Have social networks amplified the phenomenon?
Not only that. This is obviously one of the dimensions. We are in an economic system which tries to promote the enjoyment of all. Parents are concerned and so are children. Education must therefore respond to these realities as they arise.
Do you give suggestions for work in the third part of your book “Education in the face of the impossible”?
In the current state of things, to regain the lost asymmetry, it is necessary to work in relationships with small numbers of people. This obviously leads to the creation of positions, although this remains a subject in its own right. Because creating positions means being reasonable and taking into account the National Education budget. I make management suggestions in the book. Fifteen students per class, from kindergarten to high school, this allows for sufficient proximity between the teacher and the students, so as to compensate for what is lost in the asymmetry.
Are you quite critical of the Parcoursup platform, a necessary step for high school graduates who want to pursue higher education?
This is one chapter among forty-five. There is a desire to match places and demands. The problem with Parcoursup is the algorithm which takes into account the profiles of students, which can vary from one establishment to another, and the ways of assessment without strict equality in the results. If you come from Henri IV high school [5e arrondissement de Paris] or if you come from a provincial high school and you apply to Sciences Po or to prestigious preparatory classes, the result will not be the same. We are also faced with a situation where the number of students has increased enormously, and we have not provided budgets to support this increase. Obviously, there is a pressure phenomenon. So many young people are moving towards private higher education which has a cost. What we observe is that it is students from the middle and upper classes who choose this path. One in four at present. We are entering a system that resembles that of the United States with the loan system. Finally, these private establishments do not always issue a diploma that has received national accreditation.
