French Plan to Add to Already Lengthy
School Days Angers Parents and Teachers
Tuesday, in Paris, the schooldays of
French students have been punctuated by a midweek day off on Wednesdays. The long
hours and weekly schedule has been criticized as being counterproductive and
responsible for keeping women out of the full time work force, thus widening the
inequality gap by placing more pressure on working parents. The government of
President François Hollande has issued a decree proposing a half day on Wednesday
for children 3-11 years old and reducing the rest of the week by 45 min. There
has been a broad consensus in shortening the school day which usually runs from
8:30am to at least 4 pm. While the president didn’t expect his plan to be
controversial, it hasn’t worked out that way.
This plan has sparked protest from
France’s teachers, parents and city governments that argue it is short on
details, and was produced without their consultation. There have been thousands
of people that have taken to the streets in the recent weeks of protest. The
general secretary of France’s national union of primary school teachers,
Sebastien Sihr, states “We have to put an end to this magical thinking that
just stretching the school week over four and a half days will improve
students’ performance.” Despite their 4 day week and 4 months of vacation,
French children spend more hours in class than other European unions. Critics
of the proposed plan express that its emphasis on shorter school days fails to
address fundamental concerns like how and what they are taught, how to recruit
and retain better teachers, and how to allocate limited education resources.
Experts say that most of the problem is that the curriculum in primary schools
is overly focused on rote learning and that discourages creativity and critical
thinking. Teachers are given little flexibility to adapt their lesson plans to
the student’s needs.
Under this new plan, the hours of
school are to be reduced by 45 minutes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
and left up to municipalities to decide whether to extend the lunch break or
tack on 45 minutes of recess or other activities at the end of the day. Those
affected say they heard about the plan through interviews with France’s
education minister and weren’t asked their opinion beforehand. Town hall
meetings have been set up in order to try and smooth the tension about the
issue and there are both supporters and opponents for this new plan, but more
opponents than the other. Many are trying to postpone the changes until 2014.
This article brings up some good
points about the education system in France. The fact that none of the teachers
or parents were informed or asked for their input about the new plan, shows
that the president didn’t care what they thought, he thought the plan would be
a good thing. The teachers and parents have a right to be angry and upset because
they will be the ones that are affected by this new plan along with the
students. It also said in the article that in the children in France are in
school longer than those in the European Union. This makes me question what the
adequate length of time is for a student to be in school without it being
counterproductive. Why are students here expected to be more in school than in
other places? Lastly, how is the decision about the proposed plan going to
affect France’s future? While reading the article, it explained how France
needs to move forward so what’s the next step? It’s important to weigh both
sides of the issue, the pros and the cons. With the way the plan was presented
without educators knowing, children already expected to go to school more than
the parents work in an average week, and over thousands of people going on
strike, this plan doesn’t look like one that many people will come to a
consensus on to put the plan in effect.
Leslie Belk
2/15/13
10:30 am
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