It was in the air, and now here comes the landing!
Following Christian Estrosi’s campaign, which never accepted the 4.5-day week and volunteered for an experiment with a schedule contrary to the law, nearly all the municipalities in the department have taken the same path.
The statement from the Academic Inspector attests to this.
No one will ever know if one option is more favorable than a four-day week for the children’s interest. No educational report can claim that one option is better than the other.
If we refer to other European countries, nearly all have a five-day week, which says a lot! Yet another French exception.
The alliance between teachers (quite pleased to trade an extra morning off for 45 fewer minutes of work per day), parents, and the associations managing extracurricular activities on Wednesday mornings, has made a breach.
Moreover, France is indeed the country where school is not attended on Saturday morning because it disrupts the adults’ weekend time. The February holidays are organized based on the hospitality industry’s interests, etc…
In total, French schoolchildren attend classes 162 days a year compared to an average of 185 days in OECD countries.
How can anyone believe it’s possible to learn better by applying oneself less?
Then we’re surprised by the mediocre international rankings.
The Departmental Council of National Education (CDEN) on July 7, 2017, was
consulted about the entry and exit times for each school in the 121 municipalities of
the department with a school establishment.
104 municipalities have submitted a project justifying a request for derogation to
organize the 24 hours of teaching per week over four days.
The school councils of each of these municipalities have mostly
expressed support for the school time organization projects for the 2017 school year.
After consulting the CDEN, Mr. Academic Inspector decided to authorize
the 104 derogation requests, in accordance with decree no. 2017-1108 of June 27,
2017, published on June 29, 2017, in the official bulletin, subject to the agreement of
the authorities responsible for transport. This extension aims to
provide flexibility to local actors to best respond to
the uniqueness of each context with the constant concern for the students’ interest.
The CDEN vote was 15 in favor of transitioning to the 4-day week, 4
against, and 2 abstentions.
