Monitor

All the News of the World French assessment of Allegre's education reforms

IT WASN'T the politicians, or union leaders or intellectuals, who defined the problems, but those who were principally involved and directly affected: the students themselves. It is now up to the politicians, the union leaders and the intellectuals to resolve the problem. A protest this massive cannot be fobbed off with a few easy administrative tweaks; these will make sense only if they organise, or at least enable the change of, an education system whose principal aim must not be to pass down the law, but should rather be to help the pupils to acquire, in particular through knowledge and learning, a capacity to act with autonomy in a world where disorder will menace them.

Le Monde

THE STUDENTS haven't lost: their demands were listened to, their movement was legitimised and the most shocking situations are going to be looked into. The consequence of all of this, as we can well see, is that the proposed reforms will in fact be put in place. On one point, at least, those who are anti-Allegre are in the right - if the reduction in teaching time leads to the pretence of support and a lacklustre lesson structure, everyone will have lost. It is important that we pay attention to this factor. It is vital that we make sure that the time freed up by the changes is spent effectively on pastoral care in favour of the children who are most disadvantaged by their family situation.

Liberation

FRANcOIS BAYROU, former minister for education, has accused his successor, Allegre, of destroying the national education system. Destroying, no less. At the root of the entire affair lies Allegre's one motivation - the credo because of which the most fantastic of budgets, the most justified of protest marches and the most suitable of reforms will always be useless. Education will never again find its mobility of reaction and ease of intervention. The stubborn minister's idea is the decentralisation of teacher assignments. He is an eruptive minister who is making his left- wing supporters - those who usually support teaching unions - swallow his structural reform.

Le Figaro