Pet care to be part of France’s school curriculum from September 2024
The new programme will aim to teach respect and compassion for pets, in a bid to fight animal mistreatment
Teaching animal ethics helps children to acquire “essential psychosocial and prosocial skills” that benefit “humans and other animals”, the LFDA said
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Pet care and respect are to be taught to pupils in French primary schools from this September, as part of their ‘moral and civic education’.
The new Enseignement moral et civique programme will be taught to pupils in CP (cours préparatoire, ‘Reception’ in the UK, age five to six).
It will focus on “addressing the issue of respect for pets” as part of the ‘collective rules and autonomy’ skill set, the French Ministry of Education has confirmed.
Animal welfare group la fondation droit animal, éthique et sciences (LFDA), which consulted on the new programme, said the change was a “notable step forward that we must celebrate”.
Teachers will help pupils to “understand the respect that is due to the environment and to living things, from familiar spaces to more distant ones, which are part of our collective world”, said the LFDA.
Teaching animal ethics helps children to acquire “essential psychosocial and prosocial skills” that benefit “humans and other animals”, the group said.
“By understanding that animals have their own interests, students learn to tolerate differences. They will be able to develop compassion for them and apply it to others.”
The programme will also seek to invite children to respect animals, to fight potential mistreatment of pets and other animals later in life.
Read also: France launches €20m action plan against animal abandonment
Lifelong animal education
The lessons in CP will act as preparatory steps for animal education later in life, as the curriculum for secondary school pupils in France (at collège and lycée level) already includes sections on how to respect pets as sensitive animals, in a bid to prevent pet and animal abuse.
However, the LFDA said it was disappointed that the Education Ministry had only included mention of pets in the new CP programme.
“In practice, we could see this module being an opportunity to invite pupils to go beyond this, and look at what makes an animal an individual,” it said.
The plan comes amid increased legislation on the protection of animals in France in recent years, particularly after figures emerged suggesting that the country has a poor record for pet abandonment.
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