• According to a survey conducted by Ifop for the Kairos Foundation for Educational Innovation unveiled Monday evening, 58% of French people believe that school does not give the same opportunities to all children.
  • Ways to improve equal opportunities include free choice of school for families of disadvantaged children, the merger of public and private education, and a quota policy to accommodate pupils of different levels and social backgrounds.
  • Ideas that are far from the school co-education plan recently announced by Minister Pap Ndiaye.

The republican motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", visible on the pediments of schools, has lead in the wing. This is what can be deduced by reading the survey conducted by Ifop for the Kairos Foundation for Educational Innovation and unveiled Monday evening. According to it, 6 out of 10 French people consider that school does not give the same opportunities to all children. The fact that disadvantaged children are most often grouped together in the same institutions explains this perception. But that's not all: "For the past ten years, some French people have considered that the quality of public schools has deteriorated. They noted, with the various Pisa studies and statistically, the trend decline in student performance and the fact that social origins weighed on academic success," says Jérôme Fourquet, who heads the opinion department at Ifop.

Parents of middle school students are the ones who make the most pessimistic diagnosis. Not surprising when we know that it is from middle school that some students evaporate into the private sector; A way to circumvent the school map when their parents judge the sector college negatively. The place of life also seems to play an important role in the chances of success at school: 58% of French respondents believe that each child does not benefit from the same opportunities if he lives in a city or in a small rural town. A sign that they are aware that inner-city establishments, public or private, are most often attended by children from privileged social classes.

Opening the doors of all schools to disadvantaged students

Despite this gloomy observation, the French do not remain with their heads in their hands. They even have strong opinions to improve equal opportunities at school. Thus, 56% of them consider that the State can act by allowing less advantaged students to access the public or private school of their choice, by covering all school fees and by abolishing the school card. A model that particularly appeals to parents in intermediate professions, who do not always have the means to finance school fees in the private sector when they want to put their children there.

This idea resonates all the more after the co-education plan recently announced by Pap Ndiaye. Except that this option is far from the orientations taken by the Minister of Education. The school map still exists in the public, even if in Paris, for example, the Afelnet system allows scholarship students to make choices of high schools and takes into account their good academic results in their assignment. The minister has set the somewhat vague objective of "reducing the differences in social recruitment between institutions by 20% by 2027", without knowing with what means. Moreover, private education has undertaken to admit more scholarship holders only if they benefit from the aid of the territorial collectivities for the canteen. And the municipalities, departments and regions have not reacted to these announcements, which is not very engaging for the future.

One in 4 French people pleads for a comprehensive reform of the Ministry of National Education

Another suggestion put forward by the Ifop poll: to educate all French people in a single system, where the private and public sectors would be merged (25% of respondents approve of this proposal). An idea supported by 29% of parents who send their children to school in the public sector, but by only 15% of those who have a child in the private sector. "Those who want the most change are the families of the public. Those in the private sector do not want to open the game of meritocracy, especially for fear of competition with students from the public analyzes Anne Coffinier, founder of the Kairos Foundation



As for the idea of imposing quotas forcing the most successful schools to take students of different levels and social backgrounds, it appeals to 15% of French people. But it was impossible for it to see the light of day, as private education refused to allow Pap Ndiaye to imposethis system on him.

Whatever the orientations taken, they will require a global reform of the Ministry of National Education, according to 40% of the French. "Faced with the collapse of the school's results, they no longer want half measures," says Jérôme Fourquet. Some of them also advocate for more autonomy for public schools, the regular evaluation of their results and the publication of these evaluations (20% of respondents). At the risk of further increasing competition between institutions.

* The survey was conducted among a sample of 1,004 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, according to the quota method. Interviews were conducted by online self-administered questionnaire from May 9 to 10, 2023.

  • Society
  • Pisa
  • Ministry of National Education
  • Pap Ndiaye
  • Ifop