Educational Reform In France
No matter how many efforts all countries carry out in order to improve their respective education systems, reality comes to show that school failure is still prevalent. The last international reports on academic performance in the secondary school level reveal worrisome rates of school failure.
The French Minister of Education, François Fillon, proposed an educational reform aiming to mitigate this crisis. It consists of introducing the “second to last course” during upper secondary education in order to diversify the teachings provided to students. The reform represents a solution similar to the proposal of the Spanish Law of the Quality of Education which establishes a system of different itineraries for students starting from the third grade of compulsory Secondary Education, which is currently suspended.
The French reform aims to guide students within the education system who do not feel motivated to study. Many of these students expressively manifest their refusal to study, and if they go to school it is only because their parents forced them to. These students would receive a special module that would allow them to discover a personalised path towards professional training instead of continuing with the traditional options offered in high school.
It was in 1975 that the emphasis was placed in achieving social equality starting from quality in education. It was argued that one kind of education created a path towards social inequalities. However, reality comes to show that all students are not the same. The differences between the performances of students become greater each time, which in turn increases school failure. In Spain, about 150,000 students drop out of school each year without receiving a Secondary School Diploma and without any professional qualifications. Wouldn’t it have been better for them to have started an initial professional training course that would have helped them integrate socially and into the labour market? This is the objective of the French educational reform.
(Translated by Gianna Sanchez Moretti)
Arturo Ramo
Education Inspector (retired)
Coordinator of the Independent Forum for Opinion
Teruel, Spain
