The French republican school under pressure: falling standards, and rising inequalities

In the historical development of the relationship between education and society, primary education in France has played a central role. The French educational system is one of the most stable public institutions, given its constitutional significance and relevance for the embodiment of the republican virtues. Its organisational structure has remained almost unchanged since the Loi Goblet, enacted on 30 October 1886. The principles of universalism, uniformity and equality of opportunity have marked over time that policy developments in France aimed at fighting inherited disadvantage and lifting children above the poverty line through state-based education. The scholarly focus on the institutional and administrative dimension of the French system of education has helped illuminate some of the difficulties associated with the implementation of change, including the disappointing experience with the introduction of positive discrimination in the 1980s. However, to date, the empirical evidence of the effects of educational reforms that were implemented remains unfortunately secondary to the conventional wisdom of the ‘politics of non-reform’ and institutional inertia. Governmental initiatives have concentrated on tackling educational underachievements in basic literacy and numeracy in primary schools. The empirical findings in this article point not only to the general deterioration of educational achievements, but also to a persisting gap between pupils from different social background. The article will document how educational inequalities driven by different social economic groups have increased, despite government efforts and new policy initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s.