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The Editorial

Sovereignty and National Education

As citizens living in so-called highly developed countries, we have become accustomed to a lifestyle that is essentially based on technology, whether digital or industrial. I will not address here the issue of the environmental pressure that such a model represents, it is not the purpose of this article.
The conservation or reconquest of our industrial and digital sovereignty is a theme that is gaining more and more success, in speeches… We are waiting to see this voluntarism of communicators become concrete acts. To defend our sovereignty, there are of course several levers to activate. If we are impatiently waiting for the activation of some of them which will allow a concrete action today, there are others which must be activated quickly but whose effects will only be seen in several decades…

One of these indispensable levers of action is to put back in place the pillar that allowed us, until 20-25 years ago, to provide our industries and our engineering firms with the scientists and engineers that have allowed us to be champions for years in many innovative industrial sectors, including and especially in the digital sector. With the specificity of producing great mathematicians, essential parts of the digital industry, the industry of today’s and tomorrow’s economy. It is worth remembering that since the existence of the Field Medal (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics), a distinction awarded every 4 years since 1936, 12 have been awarded to French mathematicians.

We cannot therefore accept the fall in the PISA rankings, year after year, of our dear young heads. It is unacceptable to note that the situation is constantly deteriorating, and that the mastery of fundamental knowledge such as language, mathematics, history and geography is derisory for students entering secondary school. It is good to remember that this is not only a future handicap for our economy, but it is a state of affairs that will greatly harm our democracy more generally.

It is therefore time to implement the recovery of our national education and to return to the basics, in a transparent and long-term approach, to finally have an action in the continuity, which will allow a real evaluation of the results. We cannot sabotage our economic prosperity of tomorrow, it is our responsibility for the future generations, to give them the necessary weapons to live correctly and especially to be able to define, create, innovate the new approaches and technologies which will allow us to preserve our quality of life while taking into account all the constraints, in particular environmental which will increase.
If we want to live in a country that we can be proud of, and that allows everyone to have their place in society, it is imperative to put education back at the center of our project. Without a population trained to a very high level, whatever the type of profession, we will not be able to have either industrial or digital sovereignty, but above all our democracy will end up being in danger.

 

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