Why do we go to school?

The new school year has begun, but one question should guide everything that follows: why do we go to school? The answer, this article argues, should be education’s central purpose: forming autonomous people who can think critically and become responsible citizens in a democratic society.

That purpose should shape the entire school system, from the ministry to the classroom. Yet the article questions whether it does. A professional allowance intended to give teachers freedom to buy what they need for their work is increasingly directed toward training courses, some of which resemble tourist packages. Teachers therefore have less control over how they use their own professional benefit.

A new requirement for a teacher portfolio has also brought dozens or hundreds of pages for every educator at the start of the school year. The files repeat documents already held by school secretariats, including inspectorate appointments, qualification records and CVs. They also include courses and other materials for which there are no clear criteria. With roughly 200,000 teachers in pre-university education, even a few dozen pages each means millions of sheets collected for a process the article says has no pedagogical value.

The article also criticizes the disappearance of the methodological day, once a professional space for reflection, discussion and exchange among teachers. Its removal was communicated through informal inspectorate decisions passed to school principals, without a clear explanation from the ministry.

School leadership interims offer another example of administrative failure, according to the article. The ministry did not organize competitions for permanent principals and deputy principals on time. Instead, schools asked teachers to return during their holidays to vote on extending interim appointments, while the competitions are expected to take place during the school year. Inspectorates, meanwhile, are accused of acting as superior control structures rather than support services for schools. The article ends by raising another unresolved issue: new ninth-grade textbooks that have long been under discussion.