Secondary education in France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
- the collèges (pronounced [kɔˈlɛʒ]) cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15;
- the lycées ([liˈse]) provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between the ages of 15 and 18. Pupils are prepared for the baccalauréat ([bakalɔreˈa) (baccalaureate, colloquially aka le bac). The baccalauréat degree can lead to higher education studies or directly to professional life.
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[edit] Organization & Progress
French students usually spend seven years in secondary education, from age 11 to age 18. The collèges and lycées normally are separate institutions in different buildings.
The school year starts in early September and ends in mid-June. French school holidays are scheduled by the Ministry of Education, by dividing the country in three zones (A, B and C) to prevent holiday-makers from crowding tourist resorts such as the Mediterranean
coast and the ski resorts, e.g. Paris and Bordeaux are in zone C while Lyon is in zone A, and Marseille in zone B.
In contrast with most other education systems, the French use a decreasing numerical system in naming the various school years. Pupils begin their secondary education in the sixième (form 6), and transfer to a lycée in the seconde (form 2), while the final year is the terminale.
In French, the word for student (étudiant) usually is reserved for university-level students, whereas, in collège and lycée students are élèves (pupils and students, in English translation).
The curriculum (le programme officiel) is standardised in all French public institutions. Changes to the programme are made every year by the French Ministry of Education and are published in the Ministry's Bulletin Officiel de l'Éducation Nationale (BO), the official reference bulletin for educators.
[edit] Collège
| Collège | ||
| Age | Name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| 11-12 | Sixième | 6e |
| 12-13 | Cinquième | 5e |
| 13-14 | Quatrième | 4e |
| 14-15 | Troisième | 3e |
The collège is the first level of secondary education in the French educational system. A pupil attending collège is called collégien (boy) or collégienne (girl). Men and women teachers at the collège- and lycée-level are called professeur (no official feminine professional form exists in France).
Entry in sixième occurs directly after the last year of primary school, called cours moyen deuxième année (CM2). There is no entrance examination into collège, yet administrators have established a comprehensive academic examination of students starting sixième. The purpose of the examination is evaluating the pupil's level on being graduated from primary school.
[edit] Curriculum
| Subject | Remarks | Starting in |
|---|---|---|
| Humanities & Languages | ||
| French Language and Literature | Features French and translated foreign works; concentrates on grammar and spelling | 6e |
| History & Geography | French-based, but includes foreign history and geography | 6e |
| A first foreign language1 | Known as Première langue vivante étrangère (LV1) | 6e |
| A second foreign language1 or a French regional language | Deuxième langue vivante étrangère (LV2) | 4e |
| Arts & Crafts | 6e | |
| Musical Education | 6e | |
| Civics | Éducation civique, juridique et sociale (ECJS) | 6e |
| 1Available foreign languages include: English, German, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian; other languages available per locale. Most pupils study English as the foreign language, either first or second. | ||
| Natural & Applied Sciences | ||
| Mathematics | 6e | |
| Biology & Geology | Sciences de la vie et de la Terre (SVT) | 6e |
| Technology | 6e | |
| Physics & Chemistry | 5e | |
| Optional courses | ||
| Technology | Extra hours in smaller groups | 6e |
| Latin | 5e | |
| Ancient Greek | 3e | |
The table at the right details the French curriculum. Along with three-to-four weekly hours of physical education, a typical school week consists of some twenty-six (26) hours of schooling. French language and literature occupy the most time, 4-5 hours per week, followed by mathematics, 4 hours per week; other subjects occupy some 1.0-3.5 hours per week.
The curriculum is devised by the French Ministry of National Education and applies to all collèges in France and also for AEFE-dependent institutions. Académies and individual schools have little margin for curriculum customisation. Teachers compose syllabi per precise government educational regulations, and choose textbooks accordingly; every major French publishing house has a textbook branch.
[edit] Process & Purpose
Each subject usually is taught by a different professeur; most professeurs teach different age groups. Collège pupils sit with the same group of students throughout the school year, and in every subject (except optional courses, e.g. foreign languages, students from several groups mix). Therefore, in each grade, pupils are divided into as many classes as necessary, because there exists the strong pedagogical belief in mixed-ability classes; streaming is rare.
Class size varies from school to school, but usually ranges between 20-35 pupils. Each classe has a professeur principal (principal professor) who is the link among the faculty, the administration, and the pupils. Early in the school year, the pupils elect two délégués (delegates) and two suppléants (substitutes) from their own classes. They represent the pupils in the class council, acting as links between the students and the principal professor (head teacher).
Teachers, administrators, and delegates of each grade meet thrice yearly in conseil de classe (class council). In those meetings are discussed the individual level of each student, and of the class, and matters of logistics and discipline inherent to the group of pupils.[1] It is during those meetings that the conseil de classe bestows either honours or warnings on the bulletin de note (report card).
Ultimately, the role of the collège is to prepare students for the advanced subjects of the lycée. At the end of troisième, students sit for le diplôme national du Brevet, an end-of-collège examination; The brevet is not required for entrance to the lycée, nor does passing it guarantee that a pupil will progress to the higher-level school.
During the last conseil de classe of the year, held in June, the professeurs and administrators decide whether or not a pupil can progress to the next grade. In deciding, they evaluate the student's skills, participation, and behaviour. Three outcomes are possible:
- the student progresses to the next grade;
- his or her redoublement (redoubling or repeating) can be required;
- he or she can, in specific cases, be offered to skip over a grade and be promoted two grades.
A student asked to repeat a grade can appeal said decision for review, yet the decision of the appeals council is final.
[edit] Carte scolaire
French parents are not free to choose the public school that their children will attend; unless said children have special pedagogical needs, they will attend the school allocated to them by the carte scolaire (school map). Reasons for attending a different public school, other than the local assigned one, include studying a unique elective (e.g. a rare foreign language) unavailable in the assigned school.
For many reasons, many parents consider the allocated school inadequate, most notably the "bad frequentation" (bad social elements) of the school. This is especially the case in poor neighbourhoods with great foreign immigrant populations. In any city, there are "better" lycées and collèges, which parents would prefer their children attend (usually dating from the 19th century, in the city centre). The two, principal methods of assigned school-circumvention used in such circumstances are:
- paying for partly-subsidised private schooling;
- having the child choose a unique elective (e.g. Ancient Greek) available only in the "better" schools.
A like trick used in case there are "better" classes in a given school: for easy organisation, students of certain elective subjects will be grouped in special classes, which may be academically attractive. Such choice elective courses typically include Latin or German or Ancient Greek as a first foreign language.
[edit] Lycée
| Lycée | ||
| Age | Name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| 15-16 | Seconde | 2de |
| 16-17 | Première | 1e |
| 17-18 | Terminale | Term |
The lycée is the second, and last, stage of secondary education in the French educational system. At the end of the final year of schooling, most students take the baccalauréat.
Lycées are divided as (i) the lycée général, leading to two or more years of post–baccalauréat studies, (ii) the lycée technologique, leading to short-term studies, and (iii) the lycée professionel, a vocational qualification leading directly to a particular career. General and technological education streams are imparted at 'standard' lycées, while vocational streams are imparted at separate professional lycées.
In fact, provided one is a good, competent pupil, when one is attending a vocational 'lycée professionel', one can apply for short-term, post–baccalauréat studies, titled the Brevet de technicien suppérieur (BTS); it is a professional education. Moreover, a pupil in lycée général can apply for the same, short-term studies. Famous lycées in Paris include: Lycée Henri IV, Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée Saint-Louis.
[edit] Lycée général & Lycée technologique
In France, the lycée général is the usual stepping stone to university degrees. The Seconde is a link-year during which students make their final choice of série (academic stream) for the final two years. During the seconde, students mostly take the same courses, despite having different intellectual and academic skills and interests. Therefore, that schooling year usually is deemed easier than either the première or the terminale.
[edit] General Streams
After the seconde, most French students chose a general stream. In all streams, some subjects occupy more hours in the student's timetable. The baccalauréat examination is different for all three séries, and subjects are weighted according to the fxstudent's academic stream.
| Streams | S scientifique (various hard sciences) |
ES économique et social (economics and social sciences) |
L littéraire (humanities) |
| Description | The sciences stream requires high-level mathematics (very heavily weighted), physics, and chemistry. | The série ES is balanced between literary and scientific courses; students must take economics and social sciences exams. | The série L heavily weighs French language, history and geography and foreign languages; also including a literature section. Students must present examinations in one-to-three modern languages, and also have the option of presenting examinations for either Latin or ancient Greek or for both. |
According to the official statistics, for the 2003–2004 school year, 33 per cent of students chose série S; 19 per cent chose série ES; and 11 per cent chose série L.
In all streams, students have philosophy courses in terminale, while French language classes end in the première, excepting the série L, where they become French literature classes.
There also is a required option for further specialisation in all séries, although it is restricted to the chosen stream. For example, a student in série S can choose to specialise in mathematics, physics, natural sciences or "engineering sciences", but not in philosophy. Specialisation adds a separate, weekly two-hour class in the chosen discipline; also, it increases the weight of said subject at the baccalauréat. The syllabus in the specialisation class is unrelated to the material learned in the common class. Specialisation is an important step in choosing a post–secondary career or subject at university, especially for admission to a classe préparatoire (CPGE).
[edit] Technical Streams
The lycée includes eight other streams, called séries technologiques:
- sciences et technologies de la gestion (Management Sciences and Technologies, STG) (replaced sciences et technologies tertiaires (Service Sciences and Technologies, STT) for the June 2007 Bac Exam)
- sciences et technologies industrielles (Industrial Science and Technologies, STI)
- sciences et technologies de laboratoire (Laboratory Science and Technologies, STL)
- sciences médico-sociales (Health and Social Sciences, SMS)
- sciences et technologies du produit agroalimentaire (Food Science and Technologies, STPA)
- sciences et technologies de l'agronomie et de l'environnement (Agronomy and Environment Science and Technologies, STAE)
- techniques de la musique et de la danse (Music and Dance Techniques, TMD)
- hôtellerie
The STPA and STAE stream are only available in lycées agricoles, speciality schools for agricultural sciences.
[edit] Lycée professionnel
The Lycée Professionnel leads to several, different vocational diplomas in all fields of study. The enrolled students are not planning on getting a higher education, as the schooling is vocational training as craftspeople and through internships in companies. It is a good track of schooling for students more interested in a hands-on educational approach than in academic schooling and learning.
The first diploma, the CAP, is prepared for during 2 years; usually preparing the student for a specific occupation: carpenter, childcare provider, tailor, and so on. It is the easiest obtainable diploma, hence, the academically weakest students often follow this schooling track.
The second diploma, the BEP, is prepared for during 3 years, after the collège. It leads to a professional qualification in a specific field, such as restaurant industry, metallurgy, et cetera. It is more difficult diploma to earn than a CAP diploma; some students who have earned a CAP continue to a BEP.
The final diploma is the Baccalauréat Professionnel, the BP, it is the highest professional qualification available. It can be prepared for during 3 years after the college, but most students first earn a BEP and then continue to a Bac Professionnel.
The principal problem is that, while there are many tracks from which to choose, and, as some are more popular than others, there is a selection process undergone for entrance to them, that the academically weakest students often are assigned to a track they did not choose.
[edit] French Secondary Education Outside France
Main article: Agence pour l'Enseignement Français à l'Étranger
[edit] References
- ^ H. D. Lewis (1985). The French Education System. Routledge, 58. ISBN 0709916833.
[edit] See also
- Baccalauréat
- Grandes écoles
- Education in France
- Lycée Français
- Lycée Lakanal
- Lycée en France (in French)
