The French school system faces significant criticism regarding its effectiveness and student performance, prompting an examination of its shortcomings and potential improvements by looking at successful international models.
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The French school system is the worst in the world, that's what everyone agrees to say,
but is that really the case? This is what we are going to see today,
the problem with the French school system, school is crucial, the beginning determines the end,
these words are those of Abd Al Malik and he shows us perfectly the role
that plays education in our societies school is an integral part of our lives
we are there from the age of 3 to the minimum age of 16 and it encompasses all social issues
entry into the school condition is the first real change
in the life of a child yet today
the French school is criticized everywhere we criticize the intensity of the school rhythms
the remuneration of teachers the drop in the overall level
without counting the incessant reforms which change the terms of the bac
all the years in short it's a little bit hard
sure after these situations they are quite personal
that is to say that there are some who are lucky enough to have an incredible schedule
like me for example with well my Wednesday
when I didn't have classes last year and at the same time
there are other students who have classes every day, even on Saturdays.
More broadly, it's difficult to describe a single situation
since we don't all the same chances we have a unique educational system
but which adapts locally according to our city our establishment
which can be public or private or even our sections and our specialties
in short there are plenty of factors to take into account
but if there has one indisputable point, a fact which reveals a major problem,
it is the drop in the level of French students on December 5, we had the
results of the PISA ranking, the international program
for monitoring student achievement which allows us to know the level
of students in each country and honestly even if we are
world football champions we are not really
the best in education even if France is the 7th world power
it ranks according to this report in 23rd position in the field of education so ok we are not
really the last ones we are not the worst education system but given the place
we have in the world how come the French school is so poorly
ranked well already we have to ask ourselves the question of who goes to school, you're going to tell me well
everyone yes and that's already a huge opportunity 99% of young French people of student age
are in school which is a long way from 'to be the case everywhere in the world everyone has access to education
and all for free and now it would also be a question of having a system that works so
there is already the question of classes we know a class that works it is a class which
does not contain too many students it is much easier to help the students and support them
when there are 25 rather than 35 in bashibak last year there were nine of us and it is certain
that it was a real chance and it really allowed us to progress quickly when
we look at the situation in recent years we realize that efforts have been made
to reduce the size of classes in primary school the age when students reach the no longer need to be
supported in 2020 we even established a maximum of 24 students in the
CP and CE1 classes but ultimately we created positions in primary to eliminate some in
middle and high school so in short since 2018 the number of students per class in middle school
increased from 25 to 26 on average and from 29 to 30 in high school and in certain public high schools we go
as far as reaching 40 students per class then in comparison with our European neighbors and
even if efforts are made we still has quite a few things to improve on this aspect
now the school rhythm I think that this is the subject which concerns young people the most with our
famous 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. what you need to know is that we are the country in Europe with the most school holidays
but where it can get stuck is that we are also the country in Europe with the
most teaching hours so with more lessons and fewer weeks of school well necessarily
our days are much busier and the pace is heavier but the problem here is
that as I said, education affects all sectors so rethinking our school pace requires
taking into account consequences that do not concern not just school, for example,
if drastically reducing summer vacations has not been possible, it is because of the pressure
put on by tourism professionals because they still make 2 thirds of
their turnover. business during the summer so on this point I don't really know how we can get
out of it in any case if there is one question which is at the heart of all the debates it is that of
money for to put it bluntly we have literally doubled the budget per student since 1980 but what
poses the most problem is still the salary of the teachers we will not recruit
carers nurses teachers if the remuneration remains the same as we know the teachers
French people are paid less well than their neighbors in Europe for example in Germany the salary of
teachers is twice as high as that in France so ok reforms are being put in place
in 2022 we have been announced an increase in the salaries of young teachers at least 2000 € per
month but we still have a way to go to catch up because
let's not forget that teachers are the heart of the proper functioning of our country what we
must understand is why why despite all the reforms put in place and there are
many why we don't have a better ranking it's true whatever we need to do to
have the best education system in the world and for that I suggest you go on
a little trip to take an interest in the best school system and you will see that being
the most efficient education system is possible but not at any
price I suggest you start our world tour with the school system at the top of the
ranking and by far Singapore Singapore is really the champions and for that they based
their system on a very particular method the Singaporean method this is a very original
name this method consists of starting from the concrete and then learning
the theory basically we in France for example well when we start a chapter of maths we
will start with the definitions the formulas and so on while they will start with
examples for example to introduce the fractions I don't know they will go and play
with part of pizza et cetera and that's so cool because it actually allows
students to understand better and not disgust them with mathematics and imagine that Gabriel Atal decided
to use this method to integrate it into our school system from the start of the 2024 school year, France
will adopt the Singapore method which has been tested all over the world basically
it is a return to the sources as this method was built from the best
international inspirations and in particular from Ferdinand Buisson director of primary education in the 19th century
and who advocated for the concrete before the pictorial then the abstract, this is exactly the
Singapore method, more than 70 countries have already adopted it around us. I remind you that Singapore is
also the first in the PISA 2022 ranking which has just been published very concretely this means
that we will anticipate the learning of certain notions in the programs I will give you
an example fractions and decimal numbers taught today I believe in CM1 class
will be advanced in CE1 class but in a very concrete way by manipulating objects to
get into these notions earlier and therefore master them better in the future we will see what it gives
in practice but I think it can really work it's a very simple example
but I remember that in 4th grade to start the probability course well our teacher before
even talking to us about the chapter he gave us coins he asked us to
throw PHAs to pilou and note the results et cetera and in fact this is to show us
that there was a one in two chance and all that and in fact it is one of the first times where
I saw that the whole class was interested in maths so it's obviously promising. In short,
that's cool but Singapore isn't really all rosy, it's a system that really puts pressure
on the students, you say. that at the age of 12 they must take a national exam the
plse which will determine their level and the rest of their studies 12 years me at 12 years old I had better things to
do than revise an exam which would define the rest of my life ah yes ah one last thing I
almost forgot anyway because of that most Singaporean children have to take
private lessons outside of school obviously the parents want their children to have
the best scores to ensure them a good life but the problem is that the well-being of the
students can really take a hit and it's a bit the same in South Korea I do
n't know if you've already come across this report while getting lost on Youtube but it it's quite
impressive he's off for his daily marathon more than 15 studies every day from
8 to 1 a.m. an insane schedule unique in the world in fact they at the age where we
take the baccalaureate he passes if exams in the same day it's called sunang and that day
it's crazy like the whole country stops so that the exams go well
during the oral comprehension tests they even stop the departures and arrivals of plane
비행교육차ange my entire French baccalaureate and if the whole country stops it's because leing
determines the entire life of the students in fact it's a system without% meritocratic if you
pass your exams like crazy you're going integrate a very good university and you will be calm
for the rest of your life whereas if you fail you will integrate a less good
university and you will really struggle to find a job you can imagine the pressure again because
the reorientation gateway systems well it's not like in France because of that
Korean students also have to take private lessons outside of school and that from a
very young age you say that 40% of kindergarten students take private lessons in
maternal like you know what I did in kindergarten the F didn't go through the mailbox
it will never get through because it's too stupid so ok the Koreans have a much
more efficient education system than ours they also work a lot more and the pressure is insane so
their mental health is taking a hit there suicide has become the leading cause of death among
adolescents besides if you are interested there is the Sky Castle series on Netflix which shows
really well the pressure that young Koreans undergo and it's quite terrifying well
finally we see that being at the top of the PISA ranking does not necessarily mean that we have a
perfect school system after all there is an in between there are countries who are high in the ranking
without necessarily putting too much pressure on the students we can think of Canada and more particularly
in Quebec what changes there is the immense freedom given to the teachers basically they can
choose the textbook they want to use it or not use it at all and it's really them
who choose how to give their lessons so sometimes they actually show videos
to their students in class and on top of that in Quebec we really value cooperation between the teachers
of different subjects for example we will pose a concrete problem to the students like the lessons of a
family and we will literally take them to a supermarket their goal will be to keep a budget
by carrying out math calculations by monitoring the impact on health and chosen foods that
's the biology aspect EPS and while understanding the economic cost that shopping can pose
for the most deprived families it's so good in reality I would have loved going on school trips
at Carrefour to take another example a little closer to home, we also have Finland
which has a system that works really well even though it only works until 1 p.m.
so we say that it's nice since it work only in the mornings how do they manage to have a
ranking as good in PISA well in fact they changed their strategy even if they only have
20 hours of lessons per week during these lessons they are asked to be ultra attentive and efficient
that's a change from Koreans who work all day and are so tired that they
fall asleep in class in Finland the students have few lessons few homework but when they
work they have to be efficient and in real life well it works pretty well well in the end we
don't do so bad that's it, actually according to the PISA reports we are not the
best but we are not the worst far from it in terms of workload even if many complain
well we are not that overloaded if we look at compared to countries like Singapore or
South Korea where students work constantly between school and private lessons on our side we
still have a more strict and nationalized system than countries like Finland or Canada and
when we compare all these countries together we realize that we should perhaps look a little
further that academic performance evaluating an education system should not be reduced
to evaluating the ability of students to solve a math exercise to to make the school better we
should be able to find a balance, a happy medium so that the students do not let themselves
be locked into a prism where the school does not let them breathe and at the same time guide them as best as possible
towards success and construction with a critical mind, we must not become machines
either, which is why, in my opinion, we should place more emphasis on the extracurricular part
and allow students to flourish in cultural or sporting disciplines. is
not all made for long studies we n not all have a literary or scientific spirit it is
normal and yet in France it is not yet normalized in mentalities we must succeed in
giving rise to vocations stop demonizing professional sectors and technological
and more generally reduce social pressure on the choice of orientation then everything is not
to be thrown away in our current system on the contrary but there are things to improve and change
as we have seen the Minister of Education national has taken many measures for the years to come
it is said that it takes 10 years to put in place and see the results of the reforms
in schools so we find ourselves in 2033 to decipher all that education is at the heart
of all social subjects it is the subject which brings together all the others determines our visions
and builds our collective intelligence and it is high time to give it the place it
[Music] deserves
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