Education inequality in France

Foreign media concluded that the greatest injustice they are facing is education and that schools bring humiliation, not hope.

Park Hyung-sooThe author is an international news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo. In France, public education is free from kindergarten to high school. If you pass the Baccalaureate college entrance exam, you can study at a standardized public university identifiable by numbers, such as Université Paris 1 or Paris 2, at a low cost. France is thus known as a country without academic cost and ranking.

But the reality is different. Children from rich families go to expensive private schools and receive a quality education, while poor children have no choice but to attend public schools where the number of students per class is too high and the budget has run out.

Due to the teacher shortage, core subjects such as science and math cannot be offered in some cases. According to Euronews, French public schools are called the schools attended by students who do not receive any support from parents.

As students go up the grades, the poor are excluded gradually. After completing elementary school, students can choose between a two-year vocational program or three-year Baccalaureate preparation program. Most immigrant children choose the vocational option. As they engage in physical labor at low wages and are at risk of unemployment, their social status becomes fixed.

After taking Baccalaureate, the system is divided into general universities and grande école. Grande école — called the “university above universities” — are the cradle of elite education for the precious few.

High-level positions in various fields in France are mostly occupied by grande école graduates. Of the country’s seven former and current presidents since 1959, all are grande école graduates except for Nicolas Sarkozy.

The threshold is also high. Only students who get high scores on Baccalaureate can qualify to apply after two years of preparation. If you fail, there is no second chance. The tuition cost is 60 times the general universities. The path to a grande école and all its privileges is only open to those who can afford it.

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), France has the largest learning gap between rich and poor students. As schools don’t function as the ladder of class mobility, France has become a country where children born into poor families are the least likely to escape poverty, according to the Guardian.

On June 27, 17-year-old immigrant Nahel Merzouk was shot and killed by the French police. Teenagers came out to the streets, raided government offices, and set cars on fire.

Foreign media concluded that the greatest injustice they are facing is education and that schools bring humiliation, not hope. That’s why President Emmanuel Macron pinning the blame on social media such as TikTok sounds out of touch.