| Press Release November 27, 2005 | Last news |
Press Release
November
27, 2005
A Purge at the French High Committee for
Education (HCE)
November 27 pdf version: http://michel.delord.free.fr/llaff-eng.pdf
French version at: http://michel.delord.free.fr/llaff.html
On
Monday November 21,
2005, Mr. Laurent Lafforgue, French mathematician, permanent professor
at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques
(
The
missions of the High
Committee for Education
are many: it will replace the National School Program Council (Conseil National des
Programmes), as well as the High Council for School Evaluation (Haut Conseil de l'Evaluation de l'Ecole).
It will be responsible for defining the contents of the knowledge and
skills
that all children will need to have acquired by the age of 16. And it
will also
be in charge of defining the specifications for the University
Institutes for
Teachers (IUFM, Institut Universitaire de
Formation des Maîtres).The High Committee for Education is
therefore highly
important for the future of education in
Only
15 days after its
creation on November 8 and its first meeting a clash occurred: Laurent
Lafforgue was requested to resign. The opinions of Laurent Lafforgue
about
education and teaching have been known to all for a long time: it is
public
knowledge that he is a blazing defender of public education and that he
does
not belong to any powerful lobbies of the pedagogical movement which
have been
effectively controlling the Ministry of National Education for over
thirty
years.
In a private
letter
sent to Mr. Bruno Racine, President of the High Committee for
Education, and to
all its members, Mr. Laurent Lafforgue expressed his doubts about the
need to
take advice from the so-called "experts
of the Ministry of National Education", because he refutes their
ability to change the policies which they have all promoted since the
late sixties:
Mr. Lafforgue is - rightly so - astonished that, once more, the mission
to
rebuild the French Public School System should be put in the hands of
those who
have never stopped undermining its foundations through inconsistent
policies
and foolish pedagogical measures.
He
closed his letter
with a forceful questioning of the nature itself of the task of the
HCE: Does
it wish to "entrust the same experts
whose policies have led to the present disaster of our schools with the
task of
elaborating the future policies", or will it have the salutary will
to
"radically break the ties with all
the present educrats" and "work
[...] on developing policy advice that the government may use to save
our
educational system from a complete and definite destruction?"
Against
all custom this
private letter was divulged outside the High Committee for Education,
and sent
out to various departments of the Ministry of National Education. The
aim of
such a manoeuvre was clear: to destabilize Laurent Lafforgue and force
his resignation,
solely because his continued presence would have allowed him to oppose
and
denounce the continuation of policies which are leading our schools to
ruin. If
his resignation is confirmed, a shadow will weigh on the authority of
the High
Committee for Education, as well as on the autonomy of its work. Can
the HCE
afford to dispense with the advice and counsel of a personality as
competent
and eminent as Laurent Lafforgue, without jeopardizing its credibility?
This
is why we urge Mr.
Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic who nominated Laurent
Lafforgue to
the HCE, to refuse his resignation.
Text written by members of GRIP,
Sauver les Lettres, Reconstruire l'Ecole
Signed
by GRIP - GRIP - Lire-Ecrire - Reconstruire l'Ecole - SAGES - Sauver
les maths
* *
*
For your information: a
petition against the eviction of Laurent Lafforgue from the HCE can be
found
at:
write to michel.delordATATfree.fr , Subject : DNLL