Sunday, 21 October 2018

Day 200: "Concours"

Dinner Menu:
  • Carré de porc aux prunes au Romertopf
  • Salade verte
I went to the cinema tonight to see Première Année.  It's French film about the 1st year of medical school.  A lot of the French higher education system is based on Concours which are competitive exams.  These exams produce rankings of the students and you need to achieve a certain rank to pass, irrespective of your actual grades.  This is supposed to result in a meritocratic system where everyone is equal and getting into a specific elite school or profession is based solely on ability. I'm not sure that transforming education into a competition is a productive outcome.  Recently Singapore (which was always ranked close to the top of PISA) has decided to cut down on the exams and tests that children have to take in schools.  They want children to learn for themselves and for life rather then for exams.  Seems pretty sensible to me!

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