foreign hello how are you I hope you guys are well Dr Dinka here with a video lecture titled Francis education system in this week's lecture I am providing an overview of the French education system with a look at the structure credentials and some of its history I am also sharing some of my personal experience with the French education system when I was young and I lived in Europe in a francophone country um that had an education system modeled after the French and I also took the bach exam at the end of the high school that had the same name on the back all right so let's get started I have put together a PowerPoint for you hopefully you find it useful and I'm going to be sharing this with you okay all right so education is a priority in France um but about 21 of the annual National budget uh year marked for education in the country boast uh 99 literacy rate um this is not surprising if you guys remember uh the role that France has had in the world and its civilizing Mission um as it was stated in the article that we read earlier in the semester now France's education's um has um a long history and it started with University of Paris one of the world's oldest universities that was founded in 1215 prior to 1789 education was controlled by the Catholic church and after the French Revolution a standardized and centralized education system was instituted um also at the University of sorbonne that's located in Paris as well was founded in 1257. so I like to start with um talking about some of the differences between um the U.S education system and the French education system and then we're going to um analyze them in detail so first the grading scale is different um in France comparing to um the U.S and this is from the article that um you had to read for uh this week and you can see here the U.S grade equivalent in in letters and the French now you have two scales one it starts from zero to Fourteen and the second one it starts from 0 to 20 and this one was uh the one instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte um in the 1800s and it still stands today also the French education system it's mandatory or what they call compulsory um between the ages of 6 and 16 uh the Academic Year actually they start school in September and then in June a lot of their exams are in June as well and we start here you have a chart of the education system so it starts at the bottom with a la Sonoma Elementary the primary education followed by the college this would be a junior secondary education uh followed by um Lily said this would be high school so we have several of these you have Lily say General that um this would be a senior secondary general education than you have for those people specializing in different trades you have Lisa technologique Elise professional um and then this is when you earn the bakalaurea or uh that's the short for for this uh the shortening for the 6 a.m now for those students who continue on to University level uh they're usually going for their bachelor's and that's called lalisons this would be the university education uh some people uh choose to go for uh the master colomaster uh professional and the doctora so um some also choose to enroll and um starting a PhD program coming back here to this um to some of the differences um regarding the University tuition is almost free it's about uh they have a fee a yearly fee of about 170 Euros it comes to about two hundred dollars a year and um the whole education system is centered around this idea of cultur General so general knowledge knowledge about a wide range of subjects and the start from the primary school goes all the way through high school and concludes with the back the exam that's also testing a lot of this cultural General now let's have a look more closely at the various cycles of education so we have the elementary education that's mandatory as we mentioned between the ages of 6 and 16. um so last Cinema Elementary begins at age six less for about five years divided into two cycles you have the basic learning cycle for two years in the consolidation cycle for three years now the elementary education focuses on French mathematics reading and writing social sciences science and introduction of the first foreign language and you'll see that by the time French students starting high school they know two foreign languages um secondary education following Elementary School students enrolled in secondary school secondary education is divided into two levels you have the lower secondary and senior master secondary the premier C clue and the upper secondary asunuman secondary the doseum Seeker now the lower secondary education it starts at middle schools called the college and it's open to all students who have completed Elementary School the program is four years in length and consists of four grades numbered in the standard ordered now studies begin in the sixth year the CCM and end in the year three through ICM and the curriculum focuses on French foreign language mathematics history and geography life and Earth Science physics and chemistry art technology music and physical education to the end of lower Secondary School students taking National examination in one of the three areas or three streams uh academic technological or vocational and those who pass the examination earn the diploma National de breve and those who failed the examination are in a school living certificate called certificate the pharmacy in general moving on to high school you have the upper secondary education um and this is three years in length and it's current price of years 10 11 and 12. because they go on Premiere in terminal upper secondary education takes place at high school in French they're called Lily say and at the end of the first year La second students choose a stream um of study or a major that will be followed for the final two years of upper secondary study leading to the bakalaurea examinations and the general academic stream culminates in the plum de orientation so the academic stream is offered in three concentrations you have literary economic and social sciences and scientific and students have to be very careful um when they choose this particular concentration area because that will determine what they'll be starting at University level so for example if somebody chooses the literary track um it's very difficult for them to go on and study medicine at University level for example because older classes and everything they're preparing for it's going to be a career in the humanities now students follow a curriculum of math science life and Earth Sciences or engineering Sciences physics and chemistry philosophy languages Civics social science and physical education during the final year of study of students in the literary stream on the other hand Focus their coursework on languages history and geography the Arts and literature uh sometimes they have to know three three different foreign languages or original languages and students in the science stream Focus their coursework on science and math while students in the economic and social science stream focus on economics and social sciences history and geography math and languages now the French baccalaurea or the back it's an extensive National exam taken at the end of already said a high school upon completion of 11 of the 12th grades and it marks a successful conclusion of secondary studies and it is the required qualification in France for students wishing to carry on their studies in higher education it is a very stressful exam I took it and um you have to know a lot you have to be prepared because you have to know the class material that you studied for two years in high school and it's not just one subject it's several subjects and we're going to look at a sample of how this uh back exam is structured now the baccalaurea even though it has only existed in this present form as a school living exam since Napoleon bonaparte's implementation in 1808 it's still a long time its Origins date back to the first medieval French universities and according to French law the baccalaurea is the first academic degree though it grants the completion of secondary education and here you have a sample diploma General um so this is for um student in France and it's a it's a very important um document because as I mentioned this will um make sure that you have access to um enroll in a university or at least to apply to to study at a university in France the process is a little bit different than in the United States and we'll talk about it in a little bit now the boxes as we mentioned students typically study for tobacco for two years between the ages of 16 and 18. there are different options available depending on their preference and the desires of higher education and or career paths um so you have to choose a career path early and um sometimes it's very difficult if you're trying to change career with bats but again it's 16 people are young so that's one of the controversies of the back right what if somebody changes their mind later on um what if they are not good at that particular track that they're studying they should be able to to change tracks more easily so here we have um the curriculum the the exam format for the bakala rashineral for the series the scientific so the S streams as you mentioned prepare students for work in scientific Fields such as medicine engineering and Natural Sciences and science students must specialize in mathematics physics and chemistry computer science or Earth and life sciences and students in the Stream must generally have a good result in physics chemistry math Earth and life science and if available engineering sciences and computer science and you can see here the format of this exam it starts with the French language and it also has a French literature component and it has two parts you have a written part of about four hours so yes you will be sitting there writing for four hours and then you have and also an oral examination part this is a little bit more difficult more nerve-wracking because sometimes you have several teachers or professors in that committee they can be from out of town because they're trying to have this as a fair exam uh but look you also your uh these people who are in the science track that they are also being tested in what in history and geography uh it's a written exam that lasts about three hours of course their main area concentration areas that were Sciences right so math physics chemistry or Science Biology so this is to be expected but look what's interesting they have a first uh foreign language exam and then they have a second foreign language original language so um by the time they graduate high school most French students they have to know two foreign languages not only that but they're being tested on them at the end of their High School career plus very important they also have a philosophy um exam and this lasts about four hours and um it's very important because people usually discuss uh the questions for those philosophy exams that some something that it's a topic that people um often discuss after the exam is over and you also have a physical education um at the end now here are some uh back exam questions for French students studying English so for example they have to put the verbs in the correct tense um for each one of these okay so they have they meet in Paris this afternoon at three so students will have to know okay so is this talking about the past future is that they will meet in Paris or they are meeting in Paris uh say for this one for example number three I wish we of course is not B we are on a holiday right now I wish we were so these are not easy Concepts in English but students have to know them um for this exam so again um it's a lot of preparation um a lot of effort a lot of work now um the results of the back they're posted outside the doors of their schools uh when I took it you just they put your name and the score and of course all your classmates can see it people from the town um now it has changed a little bit with great privacy so um you have a certain number so that it's um um it's not as easily identifiable of who who took that that particular um that particular exam but in some regions they still do the names and then the grade um I'm also sharing the experience of um Sandy and um she has a uh she was a student who's studied in France and in her blog she talks about the experience of in um one of the years in 2016 um the questions of the Bach was stolen and remember this is a national exam they cannot stop the exam they cannot redo the questions so some students had enough Fair advantage and because of that the following year um they had very strict measures security measures for this so the student mentions and I'm quoting from her website that um she says the forms the questions on them are wrapped in three different plastic films count them three they were shipped by truck out to the test centers with an escort vehicle to make sure no one hijacked them on Route at 7 50 am the force are the forms are taken out of the saves in which they stayed overnight under guard of course students are not allowed to bring to the exam any documents into the test room or any briefcases or backpacks or even fanny packs of course no cell phones allowed no iPads nothing just your ID something to write with so it's a it's a very strict exam now regarding the method of evaluation for the back and also in general um when did um students started being evaluated when either work start to be evaluated um in the western culture so it goes back to the 12th century in Europe um when students were evaluated by Oral disputation in Latin in the 14th century some written examinations occurred but were rare now by the 16th century the Catholic Church um was struggling against the Protestant Reformation and uh were advancing the Catholic scholarship as a defense of Doctrine this is when we also have the Society of Jesus that was created by Saint Ignatius of Loyola and with this also came the Jesuit colleges that are very prestigious even today we have several Jesuit colleges universities high schools even in the US um so back then one of the those College the Jesuit colleges the College of Romano um published the Razia studio room in 1599 um this um book right here um that was the book of rose for Jesuit education in which official procedures for examinations competitions in homework were outlined along with the method for ranking and classifying students so this was one of the first books that talks about a more formalized method of um evaluations of students work during the Asian regime in France that was between a 15th and 18th century as the oral examination was still the most common method of the valways students in about 1558 the school in Portugal was the first European school to distribute prices to the best students and by the end of the century other schools follow suit now by the end of the 18th century schools in France were beginning to publish bulletins with student evaluations in class rankings and the Jesuit college at Kane would develop a numerical four point ranking so they had Catherine Evo right here four levels we have for the one it's beyond good um you have Tu asebia quite good and then you have luthra the third one mediocre and zero unsatisfactory and even in the early days of the bakalaria that again was as you mentioned was created in 1808 by Napoleon the oral evaluation committee members expressed the appraisal of candidates with colored balls for example red for favor all white fur of station black for unfavorable and in the second French Empire the representation of color balls was converted into a numerical system from zero to five and then in 1890 the numerical system was 0 to 20 that was created along with the mother french baccalaurea which comprises several stages of return examinations as we mentioned um you know some people didn't like the system we had student rebellions um of 1968 and in the bulletin uh that came out in January 6 of 1969 uh they recommended a change from 0 to 20 grading scale to a qualitative evaluation such as a very satisfactory unsatisfactory Etc or adopting a more General ABCDE letter system as we have in the United States for a simplified numerical system one two three four five but before the change could be fully implemented the recommendation was reversed in a bulletin on July 9 UM 1971 um which recommended the continuation of the 0 to 20 system that still takes place today now here are some simple uh sample bug questions from the philosophy exam for example for the literary track your ask is students are asked what is gained by working you got Newton on Trava Young for the scientific track would we be more free without the states that you own a blue Libra and the other one is is working merely being useful so students had to write um remember this exam for the philosophy tracks about four hours so they have to quote different philosophers in their answers or works that they study so this is a big essay and it has to be written by hand okay so let's talk now about the higher education and we'll start with the admission process so the admission to higher education is based on um the bakalaurea examination so this determines the grades for this determines if you're getting into a good uh higher education institution and um some selective higher education programs offer the grand the call requires students to take a competitive exam on concur for entrance into the program and that's because there are only so many spots available um and more students so when you take this Concord this exam this is actually similar to a Bach exam but it's more it's geared to more towards the specialty that you plan on starting at that particular University sometimes you compete with three other students for the same spot in other schools can be five seven so there's a lot of um there's a lot of competition and also in order to take this examination the concur students um generally complete two years of Preparatory study class Preparatory it's specialized high schools Lisa now in regards to universities there are about 83 public universities in France in 80 of the tertiary student population attends these institutions as they are very accessible affordable enough for many programs of study now a three-thier system of Education universities are the bachelor's degree lalisons the Master's Degree Le master and the doctoral doctora what about tuition rates in public institutions and this is very interesting because it's not just in France but in other countries as well for example if we look at this chart we see that in Norway um tuition is free for EU students and even for non-eu students uh Sweden same uh but then for if you're not if you're a student that's um from a state that's not a member of the European Union then you have to pay a fee okay and same with Germany Iceland now in France it's interesting that the same um tuition is paid for students who are um from a country member of the European Union as well as those who are not and the tuition starts at about 180 80 euros and goes up to about 650 Euros businesses for the whole year and why is this well that's because um so the situation fees are lower in France um because the French government subsidizes the higher education so the true cost of education is about the same as elsewhere in the world around ten thousand Euros a year but as you mentioned the difference is that in France the government assumes a large share of the cost and um this is your rehab the tuition uh charges for the academic year 2018 2019 and we have 170 Euros at the police Bachelor level and they can go up for example for somebody who's studying engineering they have to pay about 600 euros and doctorates it's a little bit more expensive too about 380 per year at the doctorate level now as you mentioned the France the academic year begins September October it usually ends in May or June it is punctuated by vacations uh students have about two weeks at the end of the year um the semester and the two semesters are divided by a short break following final examinations at the end of the first semester and then of course you have more examinations at the end of the second semester um some of them are quite extensive because they are so those examinations that are taking uh place in June after the first e or second year studies so um students are tested on a lot of lectures a lot of the material form the whole Academic Year um I have heard for example some French professors they don't use PowerPoints in their classes or um or technology they like to lecture it's very traditional and you have to take notes that's the only way to pass the class sometimes if students don't come to class they have one of their friends take notes so at any point they have to know what's what's going on in order to be successful now let's talk about a grande call because one of the videos that were um viewing for uh this week um has the topic of La Grande call so what are they so in addition to universities France is home to about about 200 Grand the call now these calls are similar to Ivy League schools in the United States they are specialized institutions and about 30 of them are considered to be very prestigious they offer programs in areas such as engineering education architecture business administration and admission to the Grand Decor requires the completion of two years of Preparatory study and pass in a competitive examination here too called again also Le concur it's followed by a three-year program of study and some schools admit students directly after the bug exam and offer a five-year program meeting to a diploma in engineering a call Polytechnic one of the most known uh Grande call is located in Palestine France specializes in science and engineering is founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris um and it's interesting that the school was founded in um 1794 by mathematician gasparmonish during the French Revolution and was militarized under Napoleon the first in 1804 and it's still being supervised by the French Ministry of armed forces and originally located in the Latin quarter in the central part of Paris institution moved to balasur in 1976 um in the Paris Claire technology cluster now about its history polytechnics history historic engineering graduate program has a select very selective admission process consisting of or both written and oral exams following class preparator or a bachelor's degree um French engineering students undergoing National military training and have the status of paid officer Cadets this is very interesting right because they have again we have um the military right this military influence in the school that still takes place today and the school uh I call polytechnique has also been awarding doctorates since 1985. Masters since 2005 and bachelor's since 2017 and most Polytechnic graduates go on to become top Executives in companies senior civil servants Military Officers or researchers but this again is not without controversy as that video that were studying Dimensions right about it's a very elitist School uh it's lacking minorities and there are some efforts to to change and we'll discuss that more in um the discussion that we have on canvas that's due um this week all right so I hope that you enjoyed this uh lecture on Francis education system if you have any questions send me an email if you have any suggestions send me an email as well and I'll approachen until next au revoir bye bye