Finn McRedmond: University education has become meaningless - and now it doesn’t even promise a job

“Un parfum de guerre civile” – or “whiff of civil war” – is how the centre-right French newspaper Le Figaro described the atmosphere in Britain in August 2024. The streets of the north east of England and beyond had been consumed by angry and destructive rioters in the wake of the Southport killings. Rich, I thought, coming from the French. Burning upturned bins and firing missiles at law enforcement is just as Gallic as burgundy, rillettes and smoking. A nation built on enlightenment values and the rationality of Montesquieu sometimes succumbs to a destructive and often bloodthirsty id. I recommend The Rest is History’s recent series on the French Revolution for anyone in search of a refresher. But even given France’s state of semi-perma rioting, the recent civil disobedience stands out. Partially because – not being a rural French working class business owner – I found it hard to relate to the gilets jaunes, to properly parse their politics. But mainly because the source complaint of the protesters now is something universally understood; something central not just to the social health of the French republic but to the values of the West. That is the state of education. READ MOREIt started with teenagers angry about the conditions of their schools: buildings that are inadequately designed for the extremes of French weather; decrepit and decaying classrooms; classes that have too many pupils; bathrooms with no soap. Then university students joined in, teachers too. As is always the case, the root problem has somewhat been lost and what was a narrow complaint has spiralled into an omnivore movement: police brutality, vague and directionless frustration with government. But never mind that for now. The kids have a point. Even though France spends a comparatively higher amount of GDP on the education system – 0.3 percentage points higher than the European average, and 2.4 percentage points above Ireland (although the usual caveats to any data point as a percentage of Ireland’s GDP apply) – students complain about a lack of resources, shoddy buildings and a shortage of teachers. And so who is surprised? First, they are French: protesting is what they do. But second – everyone has to go to school, everyone has time to develop strong feelings about how it should work and what fairness looks like, how high the ceiling and the floor should be set. Given the decrepitude described, this episode seems inevitable. Or to make a long point short, if I were a French teenager I would be rioting too. And maybe if I was still an Irish teenager, I would be as well. Because aside from the peculiarities of the French system, the riots speak to a bigger existential moment for education systems everywhere. [ French prime minister to address nation as school protests escalateOpens in new window ]I worry that somewhere in recent decades, maybe even years, we have forgotten what school – and university – is for. No matter the quality of the facilities: the small class sizes, the state of the art interactive whiteboards, the AstroTurf hockey pitches in the school colours, the sleek labs and Home Ec kitchens – or any other accoutrement of the Dublin private school in 2026. This is not France. But what is the point of any of that without properly articulating the philosophical goals of an education?Friends who are teachers report on a cohort of students who can’t or won’t read anything beyond summaries of books. I speak to academics from my alma mater university who regularly tell me – head in hand – about whole classes who refuse to sit handwritten exams, who believe the function of an education is not to acquire knowledge but to learn how to effectively extract information from ChatGPT. There is growing debate over the role of AI in education. Photo: Getty Images In England, when Rishi Sunak suggested making mathematics compulsory for all students until the age of 18, it was though he had announced conscription. The children can’t possibly handle something so challenging, the detractors responded, blinded by the bigotry of their low expectations. And so, in place of literature and standards, we have opted for something far more transactional – an “education” in exchange for the promise of a job. We hand out meaningless degrees to students who don’t really want them because – in Ireland especially – we have functionally made third level qualifications a necessary condition for office employment. School and university are spiritually transforming into training grounds for the workplace – just at the same time that AI looks set to eradicate a huge number of entry level corporate jobs. It is the worst of both worlds – to forget that learning is a good, in and of itself, while not even being able to follow through on the promise that it will at least lead to work. I think about the French classrooms falling apart, a tragedy in a nation that really is the historical epitome of Western civilisation. They are right to protest. And then I look beyond France and wonder, huh – why does no one else seem so angry?