Originally published in 1985. The French education system is unique in many ways and provides a useful contrast for those in all English-speaking countries to their own education system. The nature of the system; the resulting multiplicity of Inspectors; emphasis on nursery and primary schools and on vocational training; and the distinctions between different categories of teachers. This book provides an overview of the French education system and all its components. It discusses developments since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958 and it relates the developments to changing political forces.

This Springer brief explores the contribution of Nicolas de Condorcet in French higher education, the historical development of his work and its influence on the history of the French education system. Condorcet's educational proposals were first devised as five Memoires, which were consolidated into the ‘Rapport et Projet de Decret sur l'Organisation Generale de l'Instruction Publique’. This report has sparked debate on the subject of education in the past and lives on as a basis for ongoing iterations of plans for education by other writers. In developing these ideas and especially how they apply to higher education, this book bridges the gap between the 18th century French Enlightenment shift and the Revolution of higher education, with the advent of the Grandes Écoles such as École Normale Supérieure, École Polytechnique and Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers. Each of these schools was represented by a specific institutionalized educational idea rooted in the works of the philosopher. This book offers insights to a wider audience in the educational thought of Condorcet, which at the time of his writing was overshadowed by Rousseau, and shows how his ideas of liberty and equality flourish in the French educational system and remain an important part in today's French academic, cultural and political culture.

The globalization of schooling has become a lively focus for research in the field of international education; however, few scholars have looked at specific model "global" schools. This history of French schools outside of France, and specifically French schools in New York, proposes that the network of over 490 French schools in 130 countries constitutes a fruitful field of research into globalization in practice in elementary and secondary education. A case study of the Lycée Français de New York (1935 - present) and other French schools in New York explores how the French national education system functions not only beyond the hexagon of France itself, but also beyond the strictly colonial "civilizing mission" that was advanced by French schools in both French colonies and former colonies. The history of these New York schools, dating back to the early nineteenth century, also provides insights into French cultural diplomacy and the changing nature of Franco-American relations through the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

Originally published in 1971. This book looks at the French educational services. which had been being reformed over the 1960s. The dynamic for change stemmed from population pressures, higher aspirations and students' dissatisfaction. The author shows how attempts to reform have been limited by administrative, political and cultural restraints. He also explores the whole complex of inter-related professional problems which face the reformers, including the need to revise and modernize the syllabus of work in many subjects, relationships between students and their teachers, and changes in the professional education of teachers. The book will interest all those interested in the working of an educational system and its relationship to the society around it.