The decree concerning the organization of school time in nursery and elementary schools was published on January 26, 2013, in the Official Journal. The reform will come into effect at the start of the 2013 school year. The new version of the decree provides an additional one-month period for local authorities: they will thus have until March 31, 2013, to request to implement the reform at the start of the 2014 school year.
In our previous article on January 25th, we mentioned the opposing opinion of the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who, supported by the results of a survey he organized himself, presented a negative stance from his constituents regarding the modification of the current situation and the reaction of the local Socialist Party spokesperson, Xavier Garcia, who criticized the attitude of the city’s chief official.
We should therefore deduce that the City of Nice will likely be among those requesting to apply the reform at the last possible moment.
To be continued…
Towards a new school organization
This text is the result of extensive consultation and discussions conducted with all stakeholders, which have led to a consensus on the need for a reorganization of school rhythms. The current concentration of teaching over 4 days is an exception in Europe and worldwide.
French schoolchildren have the fewest school days, with 144 days compared to an average of 187 days in OECD countries. By distributing educational time more harmoniously, the reform encourages student learning and contributes to the academic success of all. It also provides a better link between school time and extracurricular time and promotes access for all children to cultural, artistic, and sports activities.
The decree also fully considers the concerns of municipalities since mayors or presidents of public inter-communal cooperation institutions (EPCI), as well as school councils, will have the opportunity to present school time organization projects to the academic director of national education services (DASEN) for the 2013 school year, in compliance with the principles set out by the decree. However, the school week’s organization will be determined by national education.
All measures are being taken to assist elected officials and teachers in this reform. In all regional education authorities, a support unit has been set up to provide necessary information and help to local stakeholders in constructing the school time organization project and the territorial educational project.
