WE have already discussed in this column last month a split within the French Socialist party. The nationwide teachers’ strike that shook up France on Tuesday May 19 was another example of how the country is reeling under the leftist majority that seems determined to change the course of history, or put an end to it altogether, before its growingly unpopular rule is over.

It will be boring to go into the details of the bill of education reforms that the Socialists intend to turn into law by early next year, but the general idea appears to be, to have it done with all the consciousness of ancient roots of civilisation that most French people are proud of.

“Taking pride in one’s culture, civilisation and history”, observes Prof Francois Mallet, a historian, “is not a negative principle. However, it is interpreted by Socialists as the rejection of the underprivileged classes. If you are proud of being French, they mean to say, then what about those who are settled in this country but were born abroad?”

“This hardly proves”, adds Prof Mallet, “that Najat Belkacem, the Moroccan-born education minister and the most fervent protagonist of the proposed reforms, intends to push French art and literature off board; but hints are undeniably noticeable in the proposed legislation of a certain amount of ‘global village’ fanaticism.”

The French, as a rule, have always been happy and have expressed satisfaction with the opportunities of equal access to education offered to children from all social classes; now the ruling party’s attempt to revamp the whole system is opposed not only by the conservatives but by a number of prominent members of the party as well.

Socialists Jean-Marc Ayrault (who returned to teaching German in a school following his resignation two years ago as prime minister) and Jack Lang, education minister under President Mitterrand in the early 1990s, both strongly oppose the reforms proposals which, among others, aim at abolishing the teaching of European languages, a prominent feature of the current French school education system.

While a number of other Socialist politicians say the reforms, if passed, could be “a shipwreck for France’s cultural uniqueness”, former president Nicolas Sarkozy has qualified the education minister as an icon of President Francois Hollande’s “unrelenting quest for mediocrity”.

Another immensely controversial recommendation made in the proposals is the dropping of Latin, Greek and German languages as well as general mathematics from high school curricula. “Yes, why learn about Pythagoras, the Roman and Greek civilisations and read Julius Caesar, Goethe and Plato while there’s so much more wisdom in rap songs!” points out Prof Mallet with amused irony.

“More seriously speaking”, continues the historian, “if you accept the government’s argument, teaching classical languages and higher mathematics to teenagers results in only a few of them excelling in the class.

“But then, to carry this argument to its ultimate hilt, the reforms are tantamount to sacrificing a few intelligent, hard-working and talented teenagers in the interest of a greater mass that is less intelligent, less hard-working and less talented. Could we hope to raise future scientists, inventors, writers and professors with this strategy?”

Apparently unperturbed by the growing criticism, the minister of education says the opponents of the reforms are “no more than a group of pseudo-intellectuals”.

Nevertheless, the schoolteachers of France, who normally support the Socialists, enthusiastically participated in the countrywide strikes and street demonstrations. In a rare show of unity they took out protest marches last Tuesday in more than fifty cities of France.

A number of opinion polls showed sixty-five per cent of the French people are opposed to these reforms.

—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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