How schools are changing in France

In France, the new academic year has brought with it a series of changes to the way schools operate, with more on the way. The government has introduced new stipulations aimed at improving grades, reducing bullying and ensuring a sense of cohesion in schools.

For starters, students in primary schools (écoles primaires) will be subject to more assessments. Previously, students aged six to eleven were assessed only every couple of years. But as of the start of the new academic year, the assessments will now take place every year.

At middle schools, or collèges, pupils in sixième and cinquième (ages 11-13) will now be grouped according to their learning ability in French and maths classes, in groups known as groups des besoins. In previous years, learning ability was not a factor in determining how classes were split. The move will be made permanent if it proves to have a beneficial impact on students' grades.

At the end of la troisième (ages fifteen to sixteen), the end-of-year brevet exam will now be worth 60% of the overall grade, as opposed to 40% in previous years. On the obverse, this means that assessments taken throughout the year will not count for as much as they used to.

Beginning next year, the government also plans to introduce a ban on smartphones in school. Smartphones are already banned in over 200 schools across the country, and they have also been banned in nurseries, primary schools and collèges. But this initiative would extend the ban to high schools (or lycées) nationwide. A study commissioned by the government even suggested banning children up to the age of thirteen from using smartphones whatsoever, but there are currently no plans to enforce this.

Another change involves school uniforms. Uniforms have not been a mandatory requirement for state schools since 1968, and in most schools pupils are entitled to wear the clothes they would normally wear at home. However, in 2023 the government decided to look into reintroducing uniforms as a mandatory requirement for all state schools, with the former French minister for education, Nicole Belloubet, arguing that school uniforms ‘reduce inequalities’ and even ‘prevent some forms of violence’. Earlier this year, the town of Béziers took part in a pilot scheme to test whether school uniforms were indeed effective in promoting harmony between students. If the scheme proves successful, the government plans to roll out the uniform mandate nationally.

If France embraces the school uniform, it will be one of only four countries in Europe where uniforms are mandatory (the others being the UK, Ireland and Malta). Not everyone is happy with the proposed changes. While parents will not have to cover the costs of the uniform, each kit is calculated to cost the state €200. Research around the efficacy of school uniforms tends to be mixed, and some would prefer the funding to be directed to other issues within education.

Most of these proposals are experimental in nature, so the changes may not be permanent. But if they prove successful, the French education system will undergo some of its biggest changes in a long time.