School evaluation or the managerialization of education

Schools have always had to show their credentials to those who fund them in whole or in part. School inspectors have played an essential role in limiting potential abuses or major problems. An insurance policy that seems necessary, particularly in primary and secondary schools. An evaluation that was intended to be objective and far removed from politics. But things are changing in France, and some people are worried.

Xavier Pons, a sociologist of educational policy, gave a talk in September 2023 to the Syndicat National Unitaire des Instituteurs, Professeurs des Écoles et PEGC (SNUipp) to address what he calls "the politics of the puzzle". Indeed, it seems that since 2017, the French government has tended to play the card of small transformations that accumulate in order to transform the primary education system. The idea is to create a system that allows for innovation and school autonomy... while at the same time controlling more of what goes on within it.

This paradox is not unique in the world, and can be likened, in part, to the British system. The problem is that, according to the sociologist, it leads to the liberalization of schools, which are placed in a competitive context.

Thus, in the same district, a school will receive more money from the state because it corresponds better, according to "its" criteria, to what is expected. Teachers and principals alike find themselves playing a game of educational Tetris, responding to the various government orders dictated without thinking about the bigger picture.

Running time: 40min15