zefrenchpeople

Let’s talk about France’s Educational System, how it works.

If your child is clean (doesn’t wear diapers anymore) and knows a minimum (how to talk and behave), he/she can start going to school at age 2 and a half or so.  It’s called “école maternelle” and usually lasts 3 years… but if your kid starts at 4 years old then he will only stays in that “cycle” for 2 years.  It’s just to teach children how to be social, be with others, a little bit like daycare but teachers actually have a program to follow so they teach colors, letters, shapes etc… and there is nap time in the afternoons if you don’t pick up your kid from school at lunch.  A lot of parents only leave their kids for a half day at a time and then when the kid doesn’t nap anymore, the kid stays in school in the afternoon also. (I couldn’t find a translation, it linked me to kindergarten which is actually after).

Then you have the “école primaire” which starts at least at 5 years old and is mandatory where you learn how to read, write and count although most of the time, you already learned that in “maternelle“.

In France you are not allowed to use a ball pen, only fountain pain, and you learn how to write in script first.  Nobody write in capital letter except typing machine!  Especially for exams, because if your copy is too dirty with scratches, points will be taken away from your work.

When you turn 11, you go to”Collège” for 4 years.  At the end of “Collège” you take a small exam: “le brevet des collèges” with three main tests: French, History-Geography and Mathematics. The last two years of “Collège” are in “contrôle continu” which is like the US system in which your grades during the year count as a percentage of the final exam.  So depending on your average grade during those two years you know if you have a shot in getting the “brevet” or not.

Depending on these grades again and your results at the exam, you know which “Lycée” (High school) you will/should go to.  We have three types of High Schools:

1. General - Literary Focus, Economy Focus or Scientific Focus (which is the way to take if you plan on going to any University)
2. Technology - which is the way to go if you plan of going in a Tech University
3. Professional - which is the way to learn a job like hairdresser, or seller, or baker, or woodcarver… you see what I mean.

At the end of the “lycée” you take another exam, “Le Bac” (Baccalauréat). The exam is different for each specialty which determines how you are graded by coefficient.  For example, if you are in General Literary Focus and has English as a first foreign Language (usually study 3… at least that’s what I did), then the coefficient will be 5.  So if you score a 15 out of 20 (always out of 20 or 40 in High School and “Collège”, out of 10 before that), you multiply the 5 extra points over 10 by 5 and so you got 25 points (if you got 5/20 then it would be -25 points).  You need a certain amount of points to get the diploma, or get a distinction.  There is 3 distinctions:

• assez bien (12/20)
• bien (15/20)
• très bien (18/20)
• and for the really good you have “Féliciations du jury”

If you follow the professional field then you have to do an internship and you get graded on that also. Also, you will rarely get a 20/20 (100%) because nobody is perfect. (seriously!)

Then you can go to the University and technically you can enter any University with any Bac but it is way easier if you’re from the General field because you’ve been molded to fit in.  As well as if you plan on going to a Tech University, the Technology Bac is a better choice… and if you picked the professional field, you had thought about a job long ago and you didn’t  plan on going to a University.

Although it is starting to change, Universities and schools in general are free in France, it’s the law of the laïcité and it is mandatory until you hit 16 thanks to Jules Ferry.  This system is highly centralized, like anything in France.

Ecole maternelle (Petite-section, Moyenne-section, Grande-section) = 3 years
Ecole primaire (CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2) = 5 years
Collège (6ème, 5ème, 4ème, 3ème) = 4 years
Lycée (Seconde, Première, Terminale) = 3 years-5 years
Université (Licence, Master, Doctorat) = 8 years (new system since ‘04)

We also divide the School calendar by zones, so that everybody doesn’t get vacation at the same time.  It’s a weird concept but is supposed to help with traffic for example because as soon as they can, French people LOVE to go somewhere on vacation.  It’s not vacation if you stay home basically!

So you have three zones by Académies (the administrative authority for each region):

There is more info on wiki but that’s pretty much the essential…  if you have any questions though, you can comment!

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