Dropouts, violence, maladjustment: some of the emergencies of French schools, against which the government has decided to implement targeted policies ” “” “
Behind the apparent growth of educational levels in France there exist problems of “wastage”, maladjustment and violence: problems to which the government is now trying to respond. Positive data. French schools, both public and private, are now at a turning-point, with the growth in the school population and the generalized spread of secondary and higher education. According to Luc Ferry, minister of education, “the pupil who enters nursery school today will continue his studies, on average, for 19 years, for a duration far longer than the period prescribed for compulsory schooling”. In less than twenty years, the number of students with school leaving certificates has doubled: over 70% of young people who attend higher secondary schools obtain the baccalauréat. Negative data. This apparent success conceals, nonetheless, a serious problem of “school wastage”: 60,000 youngsters still drop out of the French school system each year without any certificate or qualification. And some 90,000 leave school with some “level” of qualification but without a certificate or diploma. Failure at school can be noted from a pupil’s earliest years of learning: from 21 to 42% of students, at the beginning of elementary school (at the age of 8), demonstrate they don’t have a good grasp of basic skills in reading, or in arithmetic, or in both. Between 21 and 35% of the pupils who enter lower secondary school (aged 11) have just the same difficulties. “Intermediate classes“. These failures often generate situations of violence within schools that previous governments failed to curb. To respond to the problem, intermediate classes have been introduced; they provide special schooling for pupils with learning difficulties and give them fresh motivation. During the council of ministers on 30 October, Xavier Darcos, minister delegate for school education, asked that at least 100 more intermediate classes be opened for the next school year; a decision that would bring the number of such classes to 300. The establishment of these intermediate classes has had some influence on student performance: 85% of youngsters are now more careful about how they behave and 49% have improved their school results. As regards the prevention and overcoming of failure at school, the minister announced a series of measures: stepping up of surveillance, development of courses for pupils with learning difficulties, measures to improve school performance. From January 2003, a booklet responding to the specific questions posed by the young will be distributed in all schools and universities.
