Pupils will return to schools across France next week as the 2024 - 2025 academic year begins.
The rentrée will see a number of reforms for pupils of all ages.
These are mostly based on a series of proposals made by current caretaker prime minister Gabriel Attal, when he was Education Minister.
The changes were announced by current caretaker Education Minister Nicole Belloubet at the ‘conférence de Rentrée’ earlier this week.
Major – and controversial – changes include more assessments for primary school children, and a potential nationwide ban on smartphones for pupils.
You can see an overview of the changes below, as well as more detailed points underneath.
VisActu / The Connexion
Pause on secondary school reforms
A number of changes to collèges (high schools or secondary schools, for pupils aged 11 - 16) have been postponed or ruled out.
These included a reworking of the ‘brevet’ or high-school diploma (equivalent to GCSEs in the UK) and a requirement for all pupils to obtain a brevet with certain grades before entering lycée (UK college or sixth-form, for students aged 16 - 18).
Teacher training
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No reforms are scheduled for teacher training courses, but the ministry (when a new government is announced) may review this.
French and maths lessons for younger pupils
A reworking of the French and maths syllabuses for children in nursery and the first years of primary school will begin this year.
The new lessons will start from 2025 onwards.
More assessments of primary school children
Annual assessments of primary school pupils are now required.
Previously, exams were only taken every other year of primary school, but will now be set every year.
Unions are particularly against this arguing it increases stress for pupils, parents, and teachers, and removing this measure is a key demand of strike action, set to take place on September 10.
Pupils in secondary schools will be grouped based on skill level, starting in maths and French classes but then potentially across all subjects.
Previously, pupils were placed in classes without factoring their skills or primary school grades in classes.
New rules will see them split into skill levels (renamed groups des besoins or needs groups), with struggling pupils placed alongside each other, and stronger pupils in their own classes.
These new classes – for children aged 11-13, in the first two years of secondary school – are aimed at helping teachers improve education levels across the board, and will see smaller classes for the struggling groups.
Class sizes will be around 15 pupils maximum according to the ministry, but there are no exact limits stated in the decree passing the new regulations.
Alongside a different focus of the curriculum, grouping this way will allow for ‘‘more cross-curricular skills” to be worked, including “the ability to concentrate, memorise or organise one's work” according to the ministry.
Certain teachers are against the changes, seeing them as unfair for struggling pupils who will have less opportunities to improve than they would alongside stronger classmates.
Smartphone ban
Finally, trialling a smartphone ban will take place in 200 schools, with the ministry aiming to roll it out nationally by January 2025.
Secondary school pupils will be able to bring their smartphones to school, but must put them in lockers before the day begins, only being allowed to retrieve them at the end of the day.
