Facts on education in France
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Facts on education in France... In France, kids start school very early : school starts at age 2 (for 52% of children) or 3 (for almost 100%) and children spend 2 or 3 years in maternelle (kindergarten). School is compulsory until age 16. In primary schools, French kids spend more hours a year (more than 900, like Italy and the Netherlands) than other European countries (less than 700 for Austria, Germany and Finland). Contrary to a frequent American stereotype, learning by rote does not exist or hardly (it was true in the 19th century). All professors in public schools and universities are employed and paid by the state. The Ministry of Education is, by far, the largest employer in France and (it is said) the second in the world (after the Red Army!). Writes Nadeau : " An outstanding feature of French education is the authority of teachers. The French don't regard childhood as an age of innocence but see it as an age of ignorance. Children must be set straight and corrected." Most schools are public (85%) but there are also private schools throughout France (particularly in the very religious regions of Western and Eastern France). Separation of church and state was decreed in 1905 but Catholic schools continue to coexist alongside public ones - and get state funding for teachers salaries, social security costs, and scholarships. 13.4 % of elementary school children and 20% of high school pupils attend private schools. High school : see the (new) program of French high schools and note that there are few options and few extra-curicular activities. The final exam, the "Baccalauréat" or "Bac" is very important for French students because it gives them access to university studies, with no further selection. It is a rigorous exam with no multiple choice questions : it includes a written part and an oral part, with several subjects each. It lasts up to six days. Less than 20 per cent of those who take it fail (and now many people think it's too easy) and it does not mean anything except it gives access to the university, even for people whose level and motivation are too low. Every year, the "bac" is one of the major events of the month of June and newspapers publish and discuss the subjects in Philosophy and Literature. The French love it and refuse to change it. France has a dual system for higher education : "Universités" and "Grandes Ecoles"; the latter (less than 5% of students) requires very competitive selection entry exams. Click to understand the "Grandes Ecoles" system, which concerns mostly science and business studies. For medical and law studies, there are no Grandes Ecoles but universities have developed selection systems in the course of the studies. Education is almost free at all levels (tuition around $200 a year at Sorbonne : read below) except for private schools and business schools. 26% of university students receive scholarships. But it is a fact that French Universities do not offer as many services and facilities as American universities and from this standpoint, only Grandes Ecoles compare to the US system. The grading system goes from 0 to 20 with 20 being perfect. The grading system is extremely tough. Hardly anyone ever gets a 20 or even an 18 or 19. Teachers read the grades out loud when they hand back homework and tests. School is hard on French children it can impact the whole personality of the French. An important thing to know : in France, the grade you get is not aimed at stimulating you to improve but to punish you so you react and get better. This is why sometimes American universities are surprised when the best French student (from the Grandes Ecoles) apply when their grades in math are around 7 or 9 (a C- in France) and, when admitted, get an A+ in the USA! Schools do not sponsor extra-curricular activities, or hardly any. The only thing that goes on at school is....schoolwork. This is a major difference with the US system. French universities have much less money than US universities and therefore offer much less activities to the students. All French students study Philosophy in their last year of high school. France is one of the few European countries (with Spain, Italy and Portugal) which requires this. Questions for a 4-hour dissertation in 2003 : "Is dialog the path to truth ?", "Why are we sensitive to beauty?", "Is happiness a private matter?". Paris has many cafés where people discuss philosophical topics, with the help of a moderator. Math is the yardstick by which performance is measured. Even though a student may be of a literary bent, he or she will probably choose the "Bac S" (the math "bac") because it is seen as the best. The good side of it is that a quite high proportion of great mathematicians are French (9 Fields Medal winners out of 44) and math is one of the domains where France can challenge the USA ! French high school teachers are not in school all day long. They come to give their courses and then leave. They do not have office hours. In French schools it is common for teachers to tell children they are nuls (zeroes). This may become a thing of the past as the French come to grips with the problem of battered and abused children. Some psychologists and children's defenders are now making the link between negative treatment at school and child development. The " collège unique " is an excellent example of French rather dogmatic policies (in France, " collège " is junior high school) : in the 1970s, it was decided (Loi Haby) that all children in French high schools should be in the same classes whatever their respective level : you cannot have classes composed solely of children with learning problems, or immigrant children just arrived from their country, or particularly intelligent students, etc.. All classes must be mixed. The reason : priority to equality. The consequence : serious problems with classes, particularly in neighborhoods where the number of immigrants is high and their knowledge of French insufficient. In spite or because of the wish for equality, this law results in inequality. This is re-inforced by the "carte scolaire" : you must send your children to a school in the zone where you live. Thousands of parents do everything they can to escape this regulation (including renting a phony residence next to a better school). In France, most schools are given the name of an illustrious personality. The decision is made by the local authorities on a proposal made by the teaching staff. It is interesting to see the names of the people the French think represent best their educational system. The most popular, with hundred of schools named after them, are Jules Ferry, Jacques Prévert, Jean Jaures, Jean Moulin, Jean de La Fontaine, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean Monnet, Pierre et/ou Marie Curie. The Erasmus program allows European students to study for up to a year in another European country for full credit and at no extra cost. In France, it is much more frequent than in the USA to repeat a year (by far the highest rate of OECD countries) : if you do not adjust to a class and if your grades are not good enough, you have to do it again... DID YOU KNOW THAT....... ? Almost all three-year-olds go to school; approximately 35% start at age two ; "la maternelle", which consists of the 3 years before primary school, is very largely attended in France. It would, in fact, be hard to imagine a four-year-old French child not attending school! "Overall, 98% of children between 3 and 5 are in school in France", writes James Corbett in "Through French Windows". This compares to 50% in the U.S. Since our children attended French schools all the way through, starting at the tender ages of two and three, we can testify that, far from being traumatized as my wife thought they might be, they loved every minute of it! Understanding the "Grandes Ecoles"... France has a dual university system : the "Universités" and the "Grandes Ecoles". Grandes Ecoles have no equivalent in the USA. After High School, some students (among the best) apply to be admitted to a "Classe Préparatoire": these classes (located in some High Schools) prepare students (in two or three years) for a very competitive admission test to Ecoles d'Ingénieurs (Sciences), to Business Schools or to a few other kinds of schools. In these classes, students work like dogs (40 hours courses a week + constant tests + personal work, no week-end, etc..) to be admitted to the best possible school. Contrary to what the NYT wrote, these preparatory classes are free. Writes Nadeau : ..."French parents don't want to send their children to university. We could not believe this until we understood just what the Grandes Ecoles were. French parents do everything they can to make sure their child won't go to university but will go to a Grande Ecole...." The "Grandes Ecoles" are not part of the rest of the University system : they are smaller, they have much more money (they get 30% of the national university budget with only 4% of the students), they are kept apart from the rest of the educational system, they are based on fierce competition of the students among themselves and the schools between themselves. The most prestigious schools give access to the new French nobility : the "Grands Corps". Their graduates will always be the boss ! "Grandes écoles" are close to the labor market and, contrary to the universities, their graduates have little (if any) problem to find a job. The tuition is almost nothing (except in Business Schools where it is around $8 to 10,000 /year). In some cases (Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Ecole Normale Supérieure), the students are paid a salary (around Euro 2,000 a month). There are many Grandes Ecoles (around 250) but they are very small ; the largest (Polytechnique, HEC, Centrale, Arts et Métiers, INSA,..) have around one thousand students each. The number of students in the Grandes Ecoles represents only a few % (around 5%) of the total number of students. In a nutshell : here is the comparative cursus in Universities and Grandes Ecoles :
This organisation in 5 years is common to all European countries. It is called LMD (for "Licence, Maitrise, Doctorat"), with Licence in 3 years, Maitrise in two years and then Doctorat. The most prestigious Grandes Ecoles are Ecole Polytechnique (called "X"), Ecole Normale Supérieure ("Normale Sup") and Ecole Nationale d'Administration ("ENA", a post-graduate college), whose initial missions are to train respectively military engineers, university professors and high ranking state officials. They are followed by Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Ecole des Mines, Ecole Centrale, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, etc... France is practically run by people who graduated from X or ENA (sometimes both) : the President of France (until 2007), and the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet members, most CEO of major companies (more than 30 out of the 40 companies of CAC-40, the index of the Paris Stock Exchange). ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration) was created after WW2 to ensure a democratic recruitment of top ranking civil servants. As of today, it has become an aristocracy in itself. Around 100 students graduate every year. Read a few quotes about ENA. Grands Corps : at the end of the studies at X (Ecole Polytechnique), there is a ranking and the students choose an "Ecole d'Application" (the first ten or so : Ecole des Mines, the next fifteen of so : Ecole des Ponts & Chaussées, etc...) ; at the end of ENA, same thing : first ten or so : Inspection des Finances, then Conseil d'Etat, etc.... Then, for the rest of their carreer, the best students belong to one of these powerful "Grands Corps" (literaly : great bodies) : Corps des Mines (X + Ecole des Mines), Inspection des Finances (ENA), Corps des Ponts (X + Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées), Cour des Comptes (ENA). A "Corps" is a sort of association, in charge of managing the career of its members, in competition with the other "Corps" (once you're in a "Corps", the rest of the world does not exist...). In France, most of the leading positions are occupied by people with an engineering degree, very often civil servants or former civil servants, members of a "Grand Corps" ! Read about working with the French and politics and see the detailed figures in 2008. High school programs in France Program in hours per week of the 3 years of "lycée" (the equivalent of "high school") : "seconde" (i.e."sophomore"), "première (i.e. "junior) and "terminale" (i.e. "senior") for the three different cursus : "L" (i.e. "literary"), "ES" (i.e. "economic and social") and "S" (i.e. "science"). Section S is the most prestigious : it is practically required to be admitted in a "classe préparatoire" after "terminale)
Source : Le Monde 10/3/2010
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