Education in France
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The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages:
- primary education (enseignement primaire);
- secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
- higher education (enseignement supérieur).
Primary and secondary education are predominantly public (private schools also exist, in particular a strong nationwide network of primary and secondary Catholic education). Education has both public and private elements. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks France's education as the 25th best in the world, being neither significantly higher nor lower than the OECD average. [1]
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[edit] History
While the French trace the development of their educational system to Charlemagne, the modern era of French education begins at the end of the nineteenth century. Jules Ferry, a lawyer holding the office of Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, is widely credited for creating the modern Republican school (l'école républicaine) by requiring all children under the age of 15 -- boys and girls -- to attend. He also made public instruction free of charge and secular (laïque).
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| Educational oversight
Minister
Deputy Minister |
Ministry of National Education Xavier Darcos |
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| National education budget | €64.6 billion (2009) | |
| Primary language(s) | French | |
| Central system |
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| Literacy (2003) • Men • Women |
991% 99% 99% |
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| Enrollment • Primary • Secondary • Post-secondary |
15.0 million2 6.7 million 4.8 million 2.3 million3 |
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| Attainment • Secondary diploma • Post-secondary diploma |
79.7% 27% |
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| 1As of 2004, literacy rates are no longer collected within INSEE censuses. 2Includes private education. 3Includes universities, CPGE, and technical schools. |
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All educational programmes in France are regulated by the Ministry of National Education (officially called Ministère de l'éducation nationale, de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche). The head of the ministry is the Minister of National Education, one of the highest-ranking officials in the cabinet. As of May 2007, the Minister is Xavier Darcos.
The teachers in public primary and secondary schools are all state civil servants, making the ministère the largest employer in the country. Professors and researchers in France's universities are also employed by the state.
At the primary and secondary levels, the curriculum is the same for all French students in any given grade, which includes public, semi-public and subsidised institutions. However, there exist specialised sections and a variety of options that students can choose. The reference for all French educators is the Bulletin officiel de l'éducation nationale, de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche (B.O.) which lists all current programmes and teaching directives. It is amended many times every year.
Find B.O. archives on the Ministry's official website
[edit] Académie system
In France, academic councils called académies (English : academies) are responsible for supervising all aspects of University education in a given region. Universities are answerable to their académie, and the académies are answerable to the Ministry of Education. However, private universities are independent of the state and therefore independent of the académies.
French territory is divided into 35 académies, 26 of which are located in mainland France and 9 in French overseas territories. One académie often spans a few départements, the most commonly used administrative unit in France. Académies also cover French schools located abroad so that the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, for example, falls under the jurisdiction of the Lille académie.
The académie headquarters (termed rectorat) is usually located in the largest city in the concerned territory. It is headed by a recteur. The main responsibility of the académie is to manage personnel and state budgets pertaining to the education system. It serves as a link between regional specificities and the centralised governing body in Paris. It ensures the implementation of the official educational programmes produced by the Ministry.
At one level down in the national education hierarchy, each département also has its own 'inspection académique' (academic inspection), headed by an inspecteur d'académie (academy inspector).
Note that the académie, as an education-based territorial unit, has no relation with l'Académie française, the authoritative body concerning the French language.
[edit] School calendar
| Zone | Académies |
|---|---|
| A | Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Rennes, Toulouse |
| B | Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Besançon, Dijon, Lille, Limoges, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Poitiers, Reims, Rouen, Strasbourg |
| C | Bordeaux, Créteil, Paris, Versailles |
In the Metropolitan territory, the school year extends from early-September to early-July. Most students have finished their year by Bastille Day, 14 July. The school calendar is standardized throughout the country, and is the sole domain of the ministry.
For the 2005-2006 school year, the first day of classes across the country was 2 September 2005. The year ended on 4 July 2006.
In secondary schools, the year may finish before these days because the schools need time to organise the exams (for example, the Baccalauréat ).
In French overseas departments and territories, the school calendar is set by the local recteur.
Major holiday breaks are as follows:
- All Saints (la Toussaint), one and a half weeks around the end of October and the beginning of November;
- Christmas (Noël), two weeks around Christmas Day and New Year's Day;
- winter (hiver), two weeks starting in mid-February;
- spring (printemps) or Easter (Pâques) , two weeks starting in mid-April;
- summer (été), two months starting in early-July.
All Saints, Christmas and summer holidays occur simultaneously across the country. For the winter and spring holidays, the country is divided into three zones (A, B, and C) and each zone's holiday dates are shifted by one or two weeks to prevent families from crowding up in popular destinations such as ski and seashore resorts.
Obtain the official school calendar
[edit] Primary education
| Maternelle (Kindergarten) | ||
| Age | Grade | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| 3 -> 4 | Petite section | PS |
| 4 -> 5 | Moyenne section | MS |
| 5 -> 6 | Grande section | GS |
| École élémentaire (Primary school) | ||
| Age | Grade | Abbreviation |
| 6 -> 7 | Cours préparatoire | CP / 11ème |
| 7 -> 8 | Cours élémentaire première année | CE1 / 10ème |
| 8 -> 9 | Cours élémentaire deuxième année | CE2 / 9ème |
| 9 -> 10 | Cours moyen première année | CM1 / 8ème |
| 10 -> 11 | Cours moyen deuxième année | CM2 / 7ème |
Schooling in France is mandatory as of age 6, the first year of primary school. Many parents start sending their children earlier though, around age 3 as nursery classes (maternelle) are usually affiliated to a borough's primary school. Some even start earlier at age 2 in pré-maternelle classes, which are essentially daycare centres. The last year of maternelle, grande section is an important step in the educational process as it is the year in which pupils are introduced to reading.
After nursery, the young students move on to primary school. It is in the first year (cours préparatoire) that they will learn to write and develop their reading skills. Much akin to other educational systems, French primary school students usually have a single teacher (or perhaps two) who teaches the complete curriculum, such as French, mathematics, science and humanities to name a few. Note that the French word for a teacher at the primary school level is professeur (previously called instituteur, or its feminine form institutrice).
Religious instruction is not supplied by public schools. Laïcité (secularism) is one of the main precepts of the French republic. Pupils therefore have civics courses to teach them about la République, its function, its organisation, and its famous motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity).
In a March 2004 ruling, the French government banned all "conspicuous religious symbols" from schools and other public institutions with the intent of preventing proselytisation and to foster a sense of tolerance among ethnic groups. Some religious and libertarian groups showed their opposition, saying the law hindered the freedom of religion as protected by the French constitution.
[edit] Secondary education
| Collège (Junior High) | ||
| Age | Grade | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| 11 -> 12 | Sixième | 6e |
| 12 -> 13 | Cinquième | 5e |
| 13 -> 14 | Quatrième | 4e |
| 14 -> 15 | Troisième | 3e |
| Lycée (High school) | ||
| Age | Grade | Abbreviation |
| 15 -> 16 | Seconde | 2de |
| 16 -> 17 | Première | 1e |
| 17 -> 18 | Terminale | Term |
French secondary education is divided into two schools:
- the collège for the first four years directly following primary school;
- the lycée for the next three years.
The completion of secondary studies leads to the baccalauréat.
[edit] Brevet des collèges
The Brevet des collèges is the first official diploma a pupil has to sit. It is not required in order to enter lycée. Until 2006 the school marks for the whole of the final year (3ème) were taken into account for half of the mark. The other half of the mark consisted of the final exam, the brevet. Pupils were only tested on French, mathematics and history/geography for the exam.
Starting in 2007, only the marks from the final year (3ème) were taken into consideration[vague].
[edit] Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat (also known as bac) is the end-of-lycée diploma students sit for in order to enter university, a classe préparatoire, or professional life. It is generally taken at 18 if the pupil has not repeated a class during secondary school. The term baccalauréat refers to the diploma and the examinations themselves. It is comparable to English & Welsh A-Levels, American SATs or ACTs, the Irish Leaving Certificate, New South Wales's Higher School Certificate and the German Abitur.
Most students sit for the baccalauréat général which is divided into three streams of study, called séries. The série scientifique (S) is concerned with the natural sciences, physics or mathematics (many streams exist, one of which is called série scientifique sciences de l'ingénieur (SSI), a série scientifique baccalauréat with two more specialisations, génie électrique and génie mécanique. There is also the Bac STI, Sciences & industrial technologies. There also exists the option génie mécanique and the options electrotechnique), the série économique et sociale (ES) with social sciences, and the série littéraire (L) focuses on French and foreign languages and philosophy. However, these séries are not exactly specialisations and every bac-possessor has the right to integrate any public university in the catchment area if this applies to the subject they wish to apply for. Students having followed the L series do not have enough scientific knowledge from their secondary education alone to succeed in science university courses, therefore some combinations of baccalauréats and university courses are very rare.
There is also the baccalauréat technologique and baccalauréat professionnel.
[edit] Higher Education
Higher education in France is divided into grandes écoles and universities. Grandes écoles are considered more prestigious than universities and their selection procedure is highly competitive.
Among Grandes écoles, École Polytechnique is considered most prestigious among Engineering Schools, Whereas Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC Paris) is considered most prestigious among Business Schools.
A striking trait of French higher education, compared with other countries, is the small size and multiplicity of establishments, each specialized in a more or less broad spectrum of areas. A middle-sized French city, such as Grenoble or Nancy, may have 2 or 3 universities (focused on science or sociological studies), and also a number of engineering and other specialized higher education establishments. In Paris and its suburbs there are 13 universities, none of which is specialized in one area or another, and a large number of smaller institutions which are highly specialised.
It is not uncommon for graduate teaching programmes (master's degrees, the course part of PhD programmes etc.) to be operated in common by several institutions, allowing the institutions to present a larger variety of courses.
In engineering schools such as École Polytechnique, a large share of the teaching staff is often made up of non-permanent professors; instead, part-time professors are hired to teach one specific point only. These part-time professors are generally hired from neighbouring universities, research institutes, or industries.
Another original feature of the French higher education system is that a large share of the scientific research is not done by universities, but by research establishments such as CNRS or INSERM. In many cases, the research units of those establishments are installed inside universities (or other higher education establishments), and jointly operated by the research establishment and the university.
These traits can cause international university rankings to underestimate French universities due to the criteria used[citation needed], but in spite of this the Times world universities ranking placed the École Polytechnique tenth among world universities, and the Professional Ranking of world universities placed it fourth among all world universities, and the HEC Paris fifth.[citation needed]
[edit] Tuition Costs
Since higher education is funded by the state, the fees are very low; the tuition varies from 150€ to 700€ depending on the university and the different levels of education. (licence, master, doctorate). One can therefore get a Master's degree (in 5 years) for about 750-3,500€. Additionally, students from low-income families can apply for scholarships, paying nominal sums for tuition or textbooks, and can get a monthly stipend of up to 450€/month.
The tuition in public engineering schools is comparable to universities, albeit a little higher (around 700€). However it can reach 7000€ a year for private engineering schools, and some business schools, which are all private or partially private, charge up to 12000€ a year.
Health insurance for students is free until the age of 25, so only the living costs and books expenses have to be added.
Although this is the case in many schools, some public schools have other ways of gaining money. Some do not receive sufficient funds from the government to hold many trips, and so these schools may ask for a small (optional) entrance fee for new students.
[edit] Universities in France
The public universities in France are named after the big cities near which they are located, followed by a numeral if there are several. Paris, for example, has thirteen universities, labelled Paris I to XIII. Most of them are, however, not in Paris itself, but in the suburbs. In addition, most of the universities have taken a more informal name which is usually the one of a personality or a particular place. Sometimes, it is also a way to honor a famous alumnus, for example the science university in Strasbourg is known as "Université Louis Pasteur" while its official name is "Université Strasbourg I".
The French system is currently undergoing a reform, the Bologna process, which aims at creating European standards for university studies, most notably a similar time-frame everywhere, with three years devoted to the Bachelor's degree ("licence" in French), two for the Master's, and three for the doctorate. French universities have also adopted the ECTS credit system (for example, a licence is worth 180 credits). However the traditional curriculum based on end of semester examinations still remains in place in most universities. This double standard has added complexity to a system which also remains quite rigid. It is difficult to change a major during undergraduate studies without losing a semester or even a whole year. Students usually also have few course selection options once they enroll in a particular diploma.
France also hosts various branch colleges of foreign universities. These include the University of London Institute in Paris, Parsons Paris School of Art and Design and the American University in Paris.
[edit] Grandes écoles & CPGE
The Grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments. They are generally focused on a single subject area, such as engineering or business, have a moderate size, and are often quite selective in their admission of students. They are widely regarded as prestigious[citation needed], and traditionally have produced most of France's scientists and executives. While they used to be outside the mainstream framework of the public universities this distinction tends to vanish: in 2003, 11 French leading universities formed a network of graduate schools of engineering called Polytech Group (France) with a similar selection process.
The classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (CPGE) is a prep course with the main goal of training students for enrollment in a Grande École ; of which the best-known and most prestigious[citation needed] are Lycée Saint-Louis, Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, Lycée Henri IV, Lycée Hoche and Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève. Admission to the CPGE is usually based on performance during the last two years of high school, called Première and Terminale. The CPGE programs are located within high schools but pertain to tertiary education, which means that each student must have successfully passed their Baccalauréat (or equivalent) to be admitted in CPGE. Each CPGE receives the files of hundreds of applicants worldwide[citation needed] every year during April and May, and selects its new students under its own criteria. A few CPGE programmes, mainly the private CPGEs (which account for 10% of CPGEs), also have an interview process or look at a student's involvement in the community.
CPGE programmes have a nominal duration of two years, but the second year is sometimes repeated once, mostly in the scientific sections, where the student then gains the status of cinq demi ("five halves"), for he was only a trois demi ("three halves") during his first second year. The explanation behind these names is that the most coveted engineering school is the Ecole Polytechnique, nicknamed the X (as the mathematical unknown). In French, a student is said to integrate a school when she or he is are allowed to enroll in it. A student is called a 3/2 if he integrates the Ecole Polytechnique between his first and second year of preparatory class since the integral of x from 1 to 2 is 3/2. The same idea is valid for "cinq demi", since the integral of x from 2 to 3 is 5/2. Students enrolled in their second second-year are also called "cubes", and a few turn to "bicarrés" (bisquare) for a third and final second-year. These terms probably stem from repeated attempts at applying to "X" (Polytechnique), yielding x2 and x3. Some ambitious professors encourage their top students to eschew admittance to other prestigious schools in order to try their hand at X one more time. Despite this high standard, the 30,000 students in classes préparatoires must face the fact that they will not all go to the Ecole Polytechnique. The renowned engineering schools Centrale Paris, Supélec, École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, École nationale des ponts et chaussées, École Centrale de Lyon, École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées ,École nationale supérieure des télécommunications, Supaéro, ESPCI or École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers, École nationale supérieure d'Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble , most of these being member schools of ParisTech are also a proud goal to obtain for these students.
The oldest CPGEs are the scientific ones, which can only be accessed by scientific Bacheliers. Scientific CPGE are called MPSI ("Mathematics, Physics and Engineering Science"), PCSI ("Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering Science") or PTSI ("Physics, Technology, and Engineering Science") in the first year, MP ("Mathematics and Physics"), PSI ("Physics and Engineering Science"), PC ("Physics and Chemistry") or PT ("Physics and Technology") in the second year. The classes which specifically train students for admission to the elite Écoles Normales Supérieures or Ecole Polytechnique have an "*" added to their name, e.g. MP*.
First year CPGE students are called the 'Math Sup' - or Hypotaupe - (Sup for "Classe de Mathématiques Supérieures", superior in French, meaning post-high school), and second years 'Math Spé' - or Taupe - (Spés standing for "Classe de Mathématiques Spéciales", special in French). The students of these classes are called Taupins. Both the first and second year programmes include as much as sixteen hours of mathematics teaching per week, ten hours of physics, two hours of philosophy, two to four hours of (one or two) foreign languages teaching and two to three hours of minor options: either SI, Engineering Industrial Science or Theoretical Computer Science (including some programming using the Pascal or CaML programming languages, as a practical work). With this is added several hours of homework, which can rise as much as the official hours of class. A known joke among those students is that they are becoming monks for two years. Sometimes three.
The literary and humanities CPGEs have also their own nicknames, Hypokhâgne for the first year and Khâgne for the second year. The students are called the khâgneux. These classes prepare for schools such as Écoles Normales Supérieures, Ecole des Chartes, and sometimes Sciences Po.
There are also CPGE which are focused on economics (who prepare the admission in business schools). These later are known as "Prépa EC" and are split in two parts ("prépa EC spe mathematics" , generally for those who graduated the baccalaureat S and "prépa EC spe éco" , for those who were in the economics section in the lycée.). The most famous of those business schools are HEC School of Management, ESSEC Business School, ESCP-EAP, EM Lyon, EDHEC which propose a Master degree and an MBA.
The students of CPGE are also matriculated in universities, and can rejoin college in case of failure of their grandes écoles ambitions or if they just do not wish to become engineers and feel not able to pass the Écoles Normales Supérieures competitive examinations. The ratio of students who failed to enter grandes écoles is low in the scientifics and economics CPGE, but high in humanities, for the only Grandes Écoles aimed in these classes are the Écoles Normales Supérieures.
The amount of work required of the students is exceptionally high.[citation needed]In addition to class time and homework, students spend several hours each week completing exams and 'colles' (very often written 'khôlles' to look like a Greek word, this way of writing being initially a khâgneux joke). The so called 'colles' are unique to French academic education in CPGEs. They consist of oral examinations twice a week, in maths, physics, French and the foreign languages, usually English and Spanish. Students, usually in groups of three, spend an hour facing a professor alone in a room, answering questions and solving problems. In CPGE littéraires (humanities), the system of 'colles' is different; they are taken every quarter in every subject. Students have one hour to prepare a short presentation that takes the form of a French-style dissertation (a methodologically codified essay, typically structured in 3 parts: thesis, counter-thesis, and synthesis) in history, philosophy, etc. on a given topic, and that of a commentaire composé (a methodologically codified commentary) in literature and foreign languages; as for the Ancient Greek or Latin, they involve a translation and a commentary. The student then has 20 minutes to present his work to the teacher, who ends the session by asking some questions on the presentation and on the corresponding topic. 'Colles' are regarded as extremely stressful, particularly due to the high standards expected by the teachers, and the subsequent harshness that may be directed at students who do not perform adequately, but they are important in as much as they prepare the students, from the very first year, to the oral part of the competitive examination, reserved to the happy few who successfully pass the written part.
[edit] Recruitment of teachers
Decades ago, primary teachers were educated in Ecoles Normales and secondary teachers recruited through the "Agrégation" examination. The situation has been diversified by the introduction in the 1950s of the CAPES examination for secondary teachers and in the 1990s by the institution of "Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maîtres" (IUFM). University teachers are recruited by special commissions, and are divided between:
- "teachers-researchers" (enseignants-chercheurs), with at least a doctorate: they teach classes and conduct research in their field of expertise with a full tenure. They are either Maître de Conférences (Senior lecturers), or Professeurs (Professors). Only a Professor can be the director of studies for a PhD student. Net pay : from 2300 to 8800 euro (extra duties).
- Secondary school teachers who have been permanently "detached" from their original school position to teach in a university. They are not required to conduct any research but teach twice as many hours as the "teachers-researchers". They are called PRAG (professeurs agrégés) and PRCE (professeurs certifiés). Their weekly service is 15 or 18 hours. Net pay : from 1600 to 3900 euro.
- CPGE teachers are usually "agrégés" or "chaire sup", detached by the Inspection Générale, according to their qualifications and competitive exam rank, but not only. Their weekly service is about 9 hours a week, 25 or 33 weeks a year. Net pay : from 2000 to 7500 euro (extra hours)
- Primary school and kindergarten teachers (Professeurs des écoles), educated in "Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maîtres" (IUFM), have usually a "licence" (Bac+3). Their weekly service is about 31 hours a week.
[edit] Statistics for education in France
The French Republic has 63 million inhabitants, living in the 22 regions of metropolitan France and four overseas departments (1.7 million). Despite the fact that the population is growing slightly (up 0.4% a year), the number and proportion of young people under 25 is falling. There are now fewer than 19 million young people in metropolitan France, or 32% of the total population, compared with 40% in the 1970s and 35% at the time of the 1990 census. France is seeing a slow aging of the population — less marked however than in other neighbouring countries (Germany and Italy), especially as the annual number of births is currently increasing slightly.
18 million pupils and students, i.e. a quarter of the population, are in the education system. Of these, over 2 million are in higher education.
In 1999, France's GDP was close to FF 9,000 billion (EUR 1,330 billion), i.e. FF 150,000 (EUR 22,000) per inhabitant. Of this total, just over FF 600 billion (EUR 95 billion) were devoted to initial or continuing education: 7.2% of GDP. As far as school education spending is concerned, France is in a middle position, behind the Nordic countries (Sweden and Denmark), but fairly significantly ahead of Italy and Japan.
[edit] See also
CampusFrance[2]
- Minister of National Education (France)
- Agence pour l'Enseignement Français à l'Etranger
- Home Education in France
- University of London Institute in Paris
