France Straight a's in Street Politics

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A curious mix of triumph and dirge marked the demonstration, but there was good reason for the paradox. Bearing a black banner and badges proclaiming PLUS JAMAIS CA (Never Again), some 125,000 students, parents and union members marched through the boulevards of Paris last week in memory of Malik Oussekine, a 22-year-old student who had been killed several days earlier in a violent clash with police. Though the overall tone of the procession was somber and defiant, at one point a celebratory cry rang out: "We have won!"

Indeed they had. Appearing on nationwide television, French Premier Jacques Chirac had announced two days earlier the withdrawal of his proposal to reform the country's tradition-bound university system. The measure had sparked three weeks of bloody street protests that left some 200 students and policemen injured and Oussekine dead. Suddenly, within the space of a few frenzied days, Chirac faced the most serious crisis of his nine months in office. Though the Premier's retreat defused the controversy, the affair badly strained his coalition government and raised questions about the future of his legislative program. "Chirac did not handle the situation well," said Jean-Pierre Mailles, 42, president of a 650,000-member group representing the parents of students. "He contradicted himself and then capitulated. This will not be forgotten."

The government initiative that sparked the violent clash had seemed innocuous enough. Unveiled last summer, the package called for restructuring the country's 78 universities to make them more competitive. Each institution ! would be allowed to tighten its admission standards, increase its fees slightly (now less than $100 a year) and grant its own diplomas. At present, all those who pass the tough baccalaureat exam, which is given after secondary school, are guaranteed admission to a university on a first-come, first-served basis. Upon graduation from the university, students receive "national" diplomas that do not identify the school attended.

Many immediately denounced the reforms as "elitist," charging that they restricted educational opportunities. French students, traditionally eager to man the barricades, have protested attempts at school reform before, including staging a revolt in 1968 that badly shook the government of Charles de Gaulle. But unlike the 1968 rioters, who were engaged in an ideological battle against "bourgeois society," this year's protesters had a strong economic motive. With nearly 30% of those ages 18 to 25 unemployed, the French young increasingly view a college diploma as the surest passport, perhaps the only passport, to a good job and a secure future. Many felt that the Chirac proposals would undermine what is meant to be an egalitarian educational system by making it more difficult for some to enter college and thus eventually to win good-paying jobs. Said a student protest banner: EDUCATION FOR ALL, WITH OR WITHOUT MONEY.

Nonetheless, some kind of university reform is clearly needed. State spending per student has fallen over the years, as have maintenance and investment in new buildings. At the same time, enrollment has boomed. Equipment and funds are scarce, classes overcrowded; more than 60% of enrollees drop out after their first year. Even the Sorbonne, the most famous of French universities, has lost much of its academic luster.