Pan European Education

This evening there was a meeting at the Lycée Francais Charles de Gaulle. Big changes were rumoured to be afoot. 

The minister for French education, M. Darcos, is coming to London this week to discuss the possibility of a Franco-British qualification, a 'bi-certification', with his British counterpart. The lycée, which up till now exclusively pursued the French system, will gradually merge with the British system. At the age of 14, the lycée splits into 2 schools, the French section which follows the baccalaureat and the British section which studies for GCSE's and A' levels. Already one of the French junior schools (Clapham) that feeds into the Lycée, has classes that are 50% anglophone and 50% francophone. The first year at the lycée, (year 7 or 6 eme), has now half a dozen classes that are taught bilingually.

My daughter who is in her first year of GCSE's will not be affected. This new system will take 4 years to be in place. 

The 'proviseur', the head, announced these upcoming changes to the parents of pupils in the British section, who immediately, French style, panicked and started rowing. They seemed to feel that some of the teachers in the British section would leave. They worried also that the new qualification would not be taken seriously by universities.

The proviseur said:"We need to talk to you parents who have experience of both systems and we need to keep our British teachers as they will now start to teach our French pupils. We want to open up our very Francophone school to England, to the England that lies outside our doors."

In my opinion, this is a good thing. It always stuns me how many of the French pupils do not adequately speak English, arguably the lingua franca of today. (Link to this story)

I was surprised however to learn that even in the French section, 60% of the pupils apply to British universities rather than French. The Lycée Charles de Gaulle, more than any other international lycée in the world, has a higher percentage, 68%, of French pupils, no doubt in part due to proximity to France. Only 18% of the school are non-French. The majority are of mixed parentage. A mere 9% are purely French.

However there are genuine practical problems with opening up the school to British pupils. Already the French lycée in London is over-subscribed. I actually had to move to France for a year in order to gain entry for my child.  During the last 15 years a huge influx of French people have come to London for work. When the credit crunch really hits, this may change.

Some French parents were concerned because one of the advantages of the French system is that it is homogeneous. If it is 9 am on a Wednesday and you are doing Geography, then every class in that year, in the world,  is doing Geography. (Something the National Curriculum attempts to emulate). This is useful for French parents who regularly move from job to job throughout the world. Their children will have a consistent education throughout.  

Germany, always at the forefront of any European initiative, has been pursuing the 'abibac' for several years now and are the driving force behind merging European education systems. 

This has taken place in Spain, Italy, Czech, Slovakia and Austria. True to form, Britain is last on the list for this merger. These bi-national agreements are part of the Lisbon agreement.

I asked: "Is this a pilot scheme for an eventual pan-European system of education and certification?  A bit like an educational euro zone? Is this what we are looking at in the next 10 to 20 years?"

There were a few chuckles and somebody quipped that Britain needs perhaps to adopt the euro first. The proviseur didn't answer clearly but at the end of the meeting admitted that there was a 'political desire' for a 'fusion' between European educational systems.

It could be an exciting development, the best of the French system; the academia, the emphasis on hand-writing, presentation, and generalisation; and the best of the British...creativity, lateral thinking, multiple teaching methods, specialisms, inclusion of art, sport and music. However the bac generally contains at least 6 subjects whereas few people do more than 4 A'levels and people are reluctant to drop their own systems.

As one mother said: "If your child wishes to become a vet in British education, it is impossible with a bac or an I.B. They will only accept A'levels. The British are chauvinist about their system just as we are about ours".

The I.B. is the International Baccalaureat, but apparently this isn't taken very seriously by universities.

One parent asked "How is history going to be taught? Will there be a special textbook? I imagine the German point of view on World War II is rather different from the French view."

He has a point. French perspective on history is very different from the British. For instance Dunkirk, for the French, was an example of English cowardice, hence the phrase 'filer à l'anglaise' (run away like the English) whereas for the British, it was our finest hour. 

If you are thinking of sending your kid to a French school...

My teenager has been educated in the French system most of her life. Now she is in the British section of her French school. Things are very different. At the end of each class the teachers says stuff like "Well done. You all did very well today"to a bemused class. This is unheard of in the French system for they do not believe in encouraging pupils with positive praise.

Her friend, who is still in the French section, has already written 30 pages in her folder and they have only been back a week. My daughter has written a mere 3 pages. She says that her hand used to ache at the end of the day. 

Other differences: in the French system, History and Geography are combined, as are Chemistry and Physics. 

In the British system Maths is applied. In the French system, every rule is justified with written sentences whereas British Maths is explained via mathematics itself. You use a sum to explain a sum.

Equally, in Chemistry, just like in Maths, it's more applied, with less recalling of facts. You are encouraged to use your knowledge to explain a theory. Tell us a fact, then use that fact to explain.

e.g. Rate of reaction in Chemistry, the pupils will do a practical experiment and then use that to account for the results. Nor is the explanation set in stone.

This difference in teaching technique has a huge influence on how the French and the British approach life. The French come up with a theory, a priori, and then prove it on a practical level. The Anglo-Saxon way is empirical; form your theory based on practical experience.

In History and Geography, the British teach in terms of topics, for instance: coastal management. The French, on the other hand, spend several weeks on a particular part of the world, covering all aspects of it's geography and history.(Personally I prefer this, it becomes more of a story and easier to remember).  

In the French system, pupils are regularly expected to do 'exposés', that is, speaking aloud to the class on a subject for at least ten minutes. (I think this is a great idea).

Handwriting and presentation is very important in the French system. Every pupil has the same handwriting. Essays have a strict format: pupil's name, class, date, number of the question in brackets, recopying the question in it's entirety, then precisely 4 lines below one may begin the answer. Margin size, ink colour are all prescribed. It's not like the British system in which you get brownie points just for writing your name correctly.

Another big difference: in the French system there is no pastoral care. The teachers consider that they are there to teach a subject academically and that's it. Teachers are civil servants. They are not there to deal with or even recognize that a pupil might have personal problems or difficult circumstances at home.

Miss Jean Brodie

My sister is working as a teacher in a tough outer London comprehensive school. She has just started a blog diary... http://passthepenciltest.blogspot.com/. (Link also in the side bar).

I recommend it, it's hilarious. I hope she keeps it up.

Her school is the definition of a sink school. One of the alumnae from this school was kicked out of the recent Big Brother (9) show for intimidating other housemates with gangster threats (link). Intake has shrunk over the last 5 years from 9 'Year 7' (first year of Secondary education) forms to only 4. No one wants to send their children there. 

Located in Croydon on the outskirts of London, this borough has the highest number of 'unaccompanied' children in the U.K. These are children direct from war zones throughout the world. Every couple of weeks, arrives in class yet another traumatised non-English speaking child. This obviously causes tremendous problems for continuity of teaching. Some of them are clearly not able to be in mainstream education. 

The school is going into 'special measures' as it's a failing school that will be closed and merged. Finally it will be taken over by a private company as part of New Labour's Public Private Partnership initiative. This company allows creationism to be taught in schools.

As my teenager is undergoing la rentrée, we have been discussing the differences between the French and British educational systems. French schools are old fashioned, academic and based on the rigid system of the baccalauréat. Pupils spend long hours sitting down listening to "chalk and talk". 

British pupils are encouraged to learn sensually, kinesthetically, to get up and move in order to improve retention of information. Otherwise pupils can sit there and "glaze" through the lessons. My teenager has spent the last two years "glazing" through every lesson. Copying stuff out in beautiful French script but retaining very little.

We are so concerned about education in this country that British teachers are taught the most advanced teaching methods in the world. Each British school has somebody assigned just to keep up teacher training. So what's going wrong?