La place de l'École dans l'économie en France

Using the metaphor of painting, Jean-Michel Saussois sets out to provide here three broad-brush pictures representing the rôle of schools in the economy and society in France, the first two looking back to the thirty Glorious Years (the “Trente Glorieuses”) followed by the thirty Lean Years, while the third looks forward to the developments linked to what is commonly called “the knowledge-based economy”.
Against this historical backdrop, he analyses the dynamic interaction between the tasks given to schools and the changes in priorities and means of regulating the economy and society. Thus between the end of World War II and the end of the 1960s, the French republican élitist model fitted well with the Fordist organization of industrial production. During the subsequent 30 years, characterized by increasing globalization and a growing reliance on market forces, new forms of competition destabilized both the Fordist compromise and the crucial role of schools in facilitating upward social mobility, as well as the tight links between diplomas, skills and remuneration. Although paper qualifications have become more essential than ever, they are now less and less a guarantee of upward social mobility. The result has been a loss of confidence in schools, while even more is expected of them. The current rise of the knowledge-based economy demands new skills, some of which can be acquired and assessed only on the job, and this leads to the emergence of new markets in skills that oblige schools to redefine their key role and to change their ways of operating.