France to make school obligatory from age three

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Europe

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that school will become obligatory for all children from age three, instead of six, as part of his plans to shake up the education system.

The move to lower the threshold would affect only a minority of families, with 97.6 percent of French children already enrolled at school at age three, education ministry figures show.

But Macron stressed that the change was intended to fight inequality in overseas territories and the poorest areas of mainland France in particular, where more parents opt not to send their children to school.

"I hope that with this obligation, from the start of the school year in 2019, we can correct this unacceptable differential," he told a conference organized to discuss pre-school education.

He promised that pre-school "is and will be more in the future a founding moment in the French education system".

Macron, who has named education one of the priorities of his term, has appointed neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik to help shape changes to the pre-school curriculum in conjunction with Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.

There are thought to be between 20,000 and 30,000 children in the country who don’t start until later.

In the 2015/2016 school year, almost 98 percent of three-year-olds in France were at school.

But the 98 percent are not evenly spread. Paris saw just 93 percent of three-year-olds in school, while the rate was 87 percent in Corsica and 70 percent in France’s overseas territories.

"This decision reflects the president's desire to make school the place of real equality and is recognition that the ecole maternelle should no longer be considered as just a form of day care or preparation for elementary school, but as a real school, focused on the acquisition of language and the development of the child," Local France reported Elysée Palace saying.

Source(s): AFP