The ENS and the Ecole Polytechnique have a combined annual intake of 694 students. They are ’Grand Ecoles’ with all the snoberry and elitism that one associates with the finishing schools of the last century.
The top ten being divided at 6 to the US and 4 to the UK.
Looking at individual disciplines, they fare a touch better
In technology one of their grand ecoles manages 34th just after the Indian Bombay Institute of technology and is the only French representative in the top 50.
In Arts and Humanities, the Sorbonne and the ENS are their only 2 representatives in the top 50.with the Sorbonne leading the way at 28th.
In Life Sciences & Biomedicine, the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg is the only French representative, scraping in at 48th.
In Natural Sciences France manages three entries in the top 50 with the ENS leading the way at 20th.
In Social Sciences France draws a blank, with no establishments in the world top 50.
If we become more local and look at just the European top 50 establishments, France fares a little better;
The ENS comes in at 7th just behind Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College London, Edingburgh and King’s College London.
The Ecole Polytechnique comes in at 8th, just in front of Manchester, Bristol and Zurich.
But that is it. 2/50 for France, one behind little Belgium, compared to 8 out of the top 10 or 23/50 for the UK, Germany has 4/50, Netherlands 6/50.
So when looking at further education choices, what should one do for the best?
The ENS ( Ecole Normale Supérieure, PARIS) is France’s flagship at 26th in the world rankings and 7th in Europe. This is a ’Grand Ecole’, basically teaching would be teachers and professors.
To get your child there, he or she must first pass the BAC and obtain, at least, a mention. then get a place at a ’Preppa’ (Ecole Preparatoire) that prepares for the ENS.
There is usually a cull of about 30% of the students at the end of their first year at Preppa and of the remaining students who take the ’competition’ for a place at ENS, only 6%, that is a grand global total of 194 pupils each year, win a place at the ENS.
According to statistics, any other further education in France is second rate and mediocre. In a world where the European countries have and are developing equivalencies of qualifications, degrees etc foreign travel would not only broaden your child’s mind but also equip him with better qualifications for the future.
So, why is the French education system so bad?
At the top, it is an anachronistic elitist system 194 students admitted by ENS each year, 500 by l’Ecole Polytechnique.
The principle of a place at a university (as opposed to the Grand Ecoles) for all who pass the BAC leads to an absurd situation with a unwieldy masss of first year input - a lot of the first year students at Montpellier have to sit outside their lecture rooms and try to listen to lectures from steps stairs and corridors, unless they get there very early to bag the seats that are inside.
This high input means that the first year is a culling operation and of little or no educational benefit.
From a low level, children are encouraged to learn by rote, the correct answers are what the teacher has said or more often, has handed out on photocopied sheets, and not that which is correct - our children have learnt this lesson, and much to our horror, will often deliberately repeat, in homework and texts, incorrect English to get marks from teachers who have a small inaccurate but fixed grasp of the language.
Original thought is discouraged at all levels, which probably explains why Cambridge, UK can boast more Nobel prizes than the whole of France.
I am amazed by the way French literature is taught. The pupils do not read and are not asked to read the books, but are encouraged to learn by rote the critiques gathered by their teachers about those books. This runs from the lowest level to the very top.
Recently on French television a famous French professor of literature, from one of the Grand Ecoles, stated that he had given courses of lectures on James Joyce and ’Ulysses’ but had never read ’Ulysses’ - basing his courses on crib sheets and the perceptions of others. Worse, this was not a shame faced admission, he saw nothing wrong with this form of teaching.
I will be writing more on the different stages of French schooling as seen through the experience of our children.
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