The education strike taking place today offers an astonishing paradox: French-speaking education is one of the best funded in the world, with very good staff ratios, but, in terms of results, we are in below average. An old problem that has plagued French-speaking schools for nearly 35 years.
Old problems
I spoke to you yesterday about the big strikes of the 90s, about this specter of an important social movement. There is another specter, a real corpse in the closet, which resurfaces at the same time: this French-speaking paradox. One of the best funded education in the world, particularly secondary with its many options, but also one of the least effective, whether in terms of average level or equality between students.
The problem is not new… It was highlighted in the 1990s by a Namur economist, Robert Deschamps. He has since died, but the problem remains. In 2019, another professor, Jean-Paul Lambert, former rector of Saint-Louis, made the same observation. We are still among the countries that spend the most, with Norway or Denmark, but we are far from having their efficiency. We are the OECD champions in terms of repetition, we have one of the most unequal systems alongside France, and the average level of students is below average. Jean-Paul Lambert concluded: “The French-speaking Belgian education system is both very inefficient… while being very expensive.”
Résistance
It is therefore not a problem of means, but a problem of organization and practices. The discontent of the teachers of the 90s left the politician speechless, as if the school had become irreformable. Change of method therefore with the Pact of Excellence launched by Joëlle Milquet more than 10 years ago, which calls for broad consultation. Somehow, this little world comes to an agreement and takes a series of measures inspired by Nordic models: limitation of repetition, extension of the common core, free schooling, differentiated supervision, better adapted school rhythm. But there is a problem: the Pact of Excellence is the result of a major compromise that is not always coherent. It further increased the resources allocated to the school and took time to produce its effects.
New government
This is precisely where the discomfort lies. At the same time, the government says it wants to continue the pact, but after evaluation and consultation (which was what the sector, particularly the management, was asking for). But he also puts forward new priorities: for example staff flexibility via the move to permanent contracts. What is quite striking in the sequence is not so much the rather expected strike of the teachers but the anger of the other actors: the networks, both official and free, and the school managements. For example, the directors of Catholic schools speak in a press release of their dismay at the announced set of reforms, from which they say they are systematically rejected.
This is the issue of the moment: is the relative period of concerted and more or less peaceful reforms that we experienced with the Pact of Excellence over? Another way of asking the question is to ask whether French-speaking schools have reached the end of the Pact’s logic of consultation and whether the reforms now require a more vertical approach. In other words, a showdown between the school and the MR-Engagés government. Answers in the coming months.
