LivingInLyon

Hello.... are there any forward thinkers out there in the French Education System?????

Each day I am greeted with some new edict that seems to be beyond my comprehension.

Last week, only a few weeks into the start of the new school year, the new director of a Lyonnaise college/Lycee has put into action some really wonderful ideas - absolutely condusive to making going to school a wonderful experience - never to be forgotten!

Maybe this is an edict straight from the new Department of Education National  - who are apparantly out to modernise and improve the current system - good luck!

School is open between 7:30 to 8:00 am for those starting classes at 8:00 am (more about this one later...)

If you arrive late - bad luck - you can stand out in the rain and freezing cold (no shelter provided anywhere near the school) and WAIT until the school re-opens its doors at 8:50am......

Bad luck if your train or bus is late (SNCF/TER don't really have a great record - and we haven't even started with the strikes yet this year....!). 

The SNCF office actually has a section which provides late notes for students using its services so that they don't get reprimanded for tardiness....very forward thinking, don't you think?

Bad luck if you have a cold, bad luck if it's dark....

Last year there was an alarming increase in attacks on students coming to and leaving school - new security measures where put in place, many meetings were held with the Police and school administration and angry parents.....

and now...???

The kids can just hang around or go wander around and we can just wait for another attack.. very forward thinking!

The school has areas within the school where kids who are not in class can sit - undercover, dry and safe - but why oh why should they be available to students in the morning??? I've got no idea have you?

Another novel idea is that kids who arrive late in lycee are not allowed to enter their classroom - they have to miss the entire class. Bad luck if your train or bus is late. Bad luck if you have been sitting in traffic for an hour and a half trying to get your kids to school. Bad luck if you have a valid excuse. Bad luck if you had an exam that morning....

 Of course, you could leave earlier to try to get to school on time - but then - you will have to wait outside in the rain/snow/wind and freezing cold if you get to school in 10 minutes - afterall,  the doors are not open between 8:00 and 8:50!

 What a dilema... it seems that the system continues on its weary path of being negative instead of positive - this is the way it works here in French education!

Now... starting early - good idea to counter the problem of not enough physical space in the school - stagger school hours.. but wait..... no, the kids still have to do a WHOLE day at school - that is, they finish at 16:30 for college and much later for Lycee..... even if you start at 8:00 or 7:30am!!! Then, don't give them lunch until 13:40pm.

The teachers don't understand why the kids are inattentive, sleepy and fidgety......????

I think that these working conditions are actually illegal out in Public enterprise! Maybe someone for the work ethics department should do a Time and Motion study? That would be interesting. But knowing the French love of paperwork and redtape - we wouldn't hear about the results for a very, very long time, if at all!

There's my big moan for the week!

Hope that there will be something happier to report soon....

The events of early June 2006 at my daughter's school were shocking, to say the least.

Now CSI can join the ranks of the other infamous schools for violence...

It has always been a safe school, well, within it's walls at least. There have been many events over the last year outside it's walls where kids have been attacked and robbed. The 7th arrondisement is not making a good name for itself at all!

The one thing I like about the CSI is that around 70% or so of the kids there are either foreigners or are returning French expats.

Walking through the school one hears so many languages - but the nice think is that the common language is French.

No one feels different or foreign as a result. It feels good. Of course there is still the French educational system - this is a French government school afterall - oh well, I guess you can't have everything!.

The result of the French educational system can be seen in the results of yesterday's events.

The boy in question was Cuban. He was told that he would have to repeat the year because his grades were not good enough to let him pass into the next year! At 16 years of age this is a huge slap in the face. What about remedial teaching, I hear you ask! Hasn't been invented here yet! You just fail and repeat until you get it right or you are too old to continue! Or your parents have lots of money and can send you to one of the numerous and succesful tutoring schools!. And that's only if you are given enough warning that you child is failing. Communication is definitely not a strong point anywhere here!

Why is the French education system so poor that kids are still failing at the age of 16 one wonders?

The Anglophone education systems around the world are certainly not infallible - they do produce kids who still have problems reading and writing when they leave school - but I don't think that it produces as many psychologically tormented kids!

If you compare the French system with any Anglophone system you will find that, in the end, each produces its fair share of doctors, dentists, scientists, marketing experts etc etc etc.

The difference is, that in France, you go to school from around 8:00am (lycee) to 5:30pm (or something like that -depending on the school you go to). If you don't manage to repeat somewhere along the line then that's incredible - it's all part of they 'system'. You will be yelled at and told that you are stupid. You will have you marks announced to all the class and with it a suitable comment from you teacher! Kids being kids, you can expect that your child will then have to suffer the humiliation outside in the playground from his or her peers!

When you finally make it through school you then need to do another 1 or 2 years prepatory school before you can get into University or a special senior college. Then you can expect that any degree you do will take you at least 5-6 or 7 years! In the Anglophone world you go to university directly from high school then you do your degree - usually 4 years or a diploma, 3 years. And, voila, you have a young person ready to be trained in the real world at the age of 23 or 24 whereas, in France, you can expect to be looking for that same job at 27! And, of course, you expect the highest salary and conditions - you are 27 afterall - no matter that you have no experience!

Hmmm, let me see, which would I prefer.......! ;-)