Education in France is organized in a highly centralized manner, with many subdivisions. It is divided into the three stages of primary education (enseignement primaire), secondary education (enseignement secondaire), and higher education (enseignement supérieur). Two year olds do not start primary school, they start preschool. Then, by the age of six, a child in France starts primary school and advances through the year-groups until they graduate.
In French higher education, the following degrees are recognized by the Bologna Process (EU recognition): Licence and Licence Professionnelle (bachelor's degrees), and the comparably named Master and Doctorat degrees.
The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD in 2018 ranked the overall knowledge and skills of French 15-year-olds as 26th in the world in reading literacy, mathematics, and science, below the OECD average of 493. The average OECD performance of French 15-year-olds in science and mathematics has declined, with the share of low performers in reading, mathematics and science developing a sharp upward trend. France's share of top performers in mathematics and science has also declined.
France's performance in mathematics and science at the middle school level was ranked 23 in the 1995 Trends in International Math and Science Study. In 2019, France ranked 21 in the TIMSS Science general ranking.
History
Napoleon began the French university and secondary educational systems. Guizot started the elementary system. Intense battles took place over whether the Catholic Church should play a dominant role. The modern era of French education begins at the end of the 19th century. Jules Ferry, the Minister of Public Instruction in 1881, is widely credited for creating the modern school (l'école républicaine) by requiring all children between the ages of 6 and 12, both boys and girls, to attend. He also made public instruction mandatory, free of charge, and secular (laïque). With those laws, known as French Lubbers, Jules Ferry laws, and several others, the Third Republic repealed most of the Falloux Laws of 1850–1851, which gave an important role to the clergy.Albert Léon Guérard, French civilization in the nineteenth century(1914) online pp 222–55.
The French curriculum predominantly emphasized the works of French writers of European descent. Ferry and others considered literature the glue of French identity. The ethnic and cultural demographics of the student body did not factor in to the quest to transmit a "common culture" to the students.
Like literature, history education is recognised as critical to shaping the identity of young people and the integration of immigrants to French identity. Ferry's views continue to exert influence today. Ministry reports have confirmed that the rule of schools in promoting "common culture" is only made more critical by the rising levels of student diversity. According to the ministry, history education in France has, over the course of one century made possible "the integration of children of Italians, Poles, Africans and Portuguese".
Governance
All educational programmes in France are regulated by the Ministry of National Education and Youth (officially called Ministère de l'Éducation nationale et de la Jeunesse). The head of the ministry is the Minister of National Education.
All teachers in public primary and secondary schools are 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.
Zone Académies/Cites A Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers B Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg C Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles
At the primary and secondary levels, the curriculum is the same for all French students in any given year of education, 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 multiple times each year.
Since 2021, schooling is mandatory and families may only provide teaching outside of a school in exceptional circumstances: Long-term illness, Intensive athletic or artistic activities, Distance from a public school, Or other specific reasons.
School year
In Metropolitan France, the school year runs from early September to early July. The school calendar is standardized throughout the country and is the sole domain of the ministry.Marie Duru-Bellat, "France: permanence and change." in Yan Wang, ed. Education policy reform trends in G20 members (Springer, 2013) pp. 19–32.
In May, schools need time to organize exams (for example, the ). Outside Metropolitan France, the school calendar is set by the local recteur.
Major holiday breaks are as follows: All Saints (la Toussaint), two weeks (since 2012) 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. (mid-June for high school students).
Primary school
Most parents start sending their children to preschool () when they turn three. Some even start earlier at age two in pre-nursery (; "TPS"). The first two years of preschool (TPS, and nursery—, "PS") are introductions to community living. Children learn how to become students and are introduced to their first notions of arithmetic, begin to recognize letters, develop oral language, etc. The last two years of preschool, nursery 2 () and kindergarten () are more school-like; pupils are introduced to reading, writing and more mathematics.
A preschool can be stand-alone (mostly true in towns and cities) or affiliated with an elementary school (mostly in villages). As in other educational systems, primary school students in France usually have a single teacher (or two) who teaches the entire curriculum, without specialist teachers.
After kindergarten, the young students move on to the . In the first three years of elementary school, they learn to write, develop their reading skills and get some basics in subjects such as French, mathematics, science and the arts. The French word for a teacher at the primary school level is (fem. ); previously called (fem. ).
Children stay in elementary school for five years until they are ten to eleven years old. The years of education are named: CP (), CE1 (), CE2 (), CM1 () and CM2 ().
Middle school and high school
The compulsory middle and high school subjects cover French language and literature, history and geography, foreign languages, arts and crafts, musical education, civics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural sciences, technology, and PE. The curriculum is set by the Ministry of National Education and applies to most collèges in France and also to AEFE-dependent institutions. Académies and individual schools have little freedom in the State curriculum.
Class sizes vary from school to school, but usually range from 20 to 35 pupils.
After primary school, two educational stages follow: collège (middle school), for children during their first four years of secondary education from the age of 11 to 15. lycée (high school), which provides a three-year course of further secondary education for children between the ages of 15 and 18. Pupils are prepared for the (baccalaureate, colloquially known as le bac) or the CAP (Certificat d'aptitude professionnelle). The baccalauréat can lead to higher education studies or directly to professional life (there are three main types of baccalauréat: the baccalauréat général, the baccalauréat technologique, and the baccalauréat professionnel). CFA (centre de formation des apprentis, apprentice learning center), which provides vocational degrees: le Certificat d'aptitude professionnelle.
Private schools
Primary and secondary private schools in France are divided into two categories: Private schools which respect the State curriculum (known as "under contract') are private, fee-paying institutions where pupils study the same national curriculum as those in public schools. Teachers in private schools are recruited in the same way and have roughly the same status as their equivalents in public schools. They are also employed directly by the State, but they are not permanently assigned and may not return to a public school position. The great majority of private schools in France are "under contract". Private schools without contract employ their teachers directly and may teach their own curriculum; the State, however, still monitors their educational standards. Most of these schools provide religious instruction in parallel with a broad curriculum.
International education As of January 2015, the International Schools Consultancy (ISC) listed France as having 105 international schools. ISC defines an 'international school' in the following terms: "ISC includes an international school if the school delivers a curriculum to any combination of pre-school, primary or secondary students, wholly or partly in English outside an English-speaking country, or if a school in a country where English is one of the official languages, offers an English-medium curriculum other than the country's national curriculum and is international in its orientation." That definition is used by publications including The Economist.
France has its own international school regulator, the AEFE (Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger).
Higher education
Higher education in France is organized in three levels, which correspond to those of other European countries, facilitating international mobility: the Licence and Licence Professionnelle (bachelor's degrees), and the Master's and Doctorat degrees. The Licence and the Master are organized in semesters: 6 for the Licence and 4 for the Master. Those levels of study include various "parcours" or paths based on UE (Unités d'enseignement or Modules), each worth a defined number of European credits (ECTS). A student accumulates those credits, which are generally transferable between paths. A licence is awarded once 180 ECTS have been obtained; a master is awarded once 120 additional credits have been obtained.Ben-David, Joseph and Philip G. Altbach. eds. Centers of Learning: Britain, France, Germany, United States (2nd ed. 2017).
Licence and master's degrees are offered within specific domaines and carry a specific mention. Spécialités, which are either research-oriented or professionally oriented during the second year of the Master. There are also professional licences whose objective is immediate job integration. It is possible to return to school later by continuing education or to validate professional experience (through VAE, Validation des Acquis de l’Expérience).
Higher education in France is divided between grandes écoles and public universities. The grandes écoles admit the graduates of the level Baccalauréat + 2 years of validated study (or sometimes directly after the Baccalauréat) whereas universities admit all graduates of the Baccalauréat.