The “clash of knowledge”, act II. Tuesday, November 12, the Minister of National Education Anne Genetet unfolded her roadmap in an interview with AFP and listed the new measures to come aimed at “relaunching the educational elevator”. Reforms which, for the most part, had been initiated by Gabriel Attal in 2023. Among the announcements: the gradual extension of needs groups in college; from June 2026, a new mathematics test in first grade based on the French baccalaureate model; from June 2027, obtaining the certificate will become compulsory to enter directly into second grade.
“We are also going to label textbooks for CP and CE1 in French and mathematics to support teachers, particularly the youngest, while giving them freedom of choice,” Anne Genetet also announced, while specifying that the ministry would take responsible for their financing for priority education networks and small rural communities. In an open letter sent to Nicole Belloubet, the former minister, last April, an inter-union (FSU, Unsa Education, Sgen CFDT, CGT Educ-action, SUD Education) warned: “Laboring textbooks: no! “, denouncing “a political desire to take control of teaching content and practices.”
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For Franck Ramus, research director at the CNRS, the labeling of textbooks represents, on the contrary, a measure of support and support for teachers. The one who is also a member of the scientific council of National Education explains why this body worked to ensure that this measure was applied.
L'Express: What is the point of labeling school textbooks, a measure initiated by the scientific council of National Education?
Franck Ramus : Within the CSEN, we started from an observation: the school textbooks found on the market are extremely numerous and of very variable quality. When it comes to early learning of reading and mathematics in particular, many works are not in line with basic scientific knowledge. However, numerous studies – including one carried out in 2021, on a large scale, by Jérôme Deauvieau, professor of sociology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and member of the CSEN – have demonstrated that the best textbooks were used much less often than others. yet considered much less effective. Our idea is to put a little order into all this, not by establishing a classification of these books, but by developing a series of very precise criteria defining a manual consistent with scientific knowledge on learning and the effectiveness of 'education. This measure should encourage publishers to align their content with these criteria. Likewise, local authorities, who are responsible for purchasing textbooks, will have every interest in using public money wisely by favoring those who have received this label.
Teachers' unions are very critical of this measure, under the pretext that it would infringe on their educational freedom. What do you answer them?
But what would be the point for teachers to continue to apply methods that scientific studies show are not optimal? I admit I don't really understand this argument. And I insist on the fact that teachers will always be free to turn to the textbooks they want, including those which are not labeled. There may be fewer of them on the new textbook market, but there will still be plenty in school cupboards and on the Internet. This is the advantage of this initiative: being able, without resorting to coercion or legislating, to ensure that habits change.
Why did you specifically target CP and CE1 classes and disciplines such as reading and mathematics?
As far as learning to read is concerned, it is in the CP class that it all begins. However, today, less than 70% of students know how to read a simple text correctly at the start of CE1. The others will fall behind which, over time, will accumulate. Hence the crucial importance of not missing this first step! The other good reason why we can afford to be a little prescriptive and make precise recommendations is that in CP-CE1 our scientific knowledge on the learning and teaching of reading is very solid.
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Jérôme Deauvieau has, for example, shown that the most effective textbooks are those which have a high “decipherability” rate: in short, it is better to avoid asking students to read too many words that they are not able to understand. decipher, because they have not yet been taught the necessary grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Otherwise this encourages students to memorize the overall form of words, which is a strategy which does not allow them to read new words and which causes many errors. Mathematics textbooks also have room for improvement. Within the scientific council, Monica Neagoy, international mathematics consultant, often cites the Singapore method as an example, not to promote it as such, but because it brings together a set of ingredients that have proven themselves in research and in the classroom. Unfortunately, these elements are often absent from certain French works.
In France, the school textbook market is particularly prolific. A global exception?
Yes, there are not many other countries in which we find such a profusion of textbooks, in every subject and at every level. And the fact that the programs evolve very regularly requires local authorities to constantly repurchase them. Which, from an economic point of view, seems quite absurd! The only obligation of publishers is to comply with the programs, true tables of the law. Depending on the year, the programs are written in a more or less prescriptive manner: sometimes they only mention what must be acquired by the students; at certain times they were more precise on the methods to be used, particularly for the teaching of reading.
The labeling of textbooks, as well as the new programs which will come into force at the start of the 2025 school year, mark the return to much more precise recommendations on content, methods, and learning objectives year by year. This seems legitimate given the insufficient performance of French students and the great diversity of teacher practices observed during these key years from CP to CE2.
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