> I never would have been able to afford the tuition fees for an equivalent school in a lot of countries.
This is indeed one of the great pluses in French (and, broadly, in European) education
The other points you mentioned are indeed great too (the nature of the questions, anonymity, ...) but there are really black parts:
- the high school you go to may or may not have an impact. For the ones who have 18/20 it does not matter that much. But when you are average (say - 14/20) in a school like Hoche in Versailles and 14/20 in a weaker one, then you are in big trouble. A very limited amount of schools will take the name of the high school in consideration and the rest will not. So being average puts you not in an average situation, but in a very bad one.
Looking at the distribution of marks in Hoche, i can assure you that there are the good ones, and then the rest. So why bother going to a "good" school?
The solution: entrance exams to universities.
Why not the high school end exam then? (baccaluréat) - because its have exactly zero value today, you know where you will be before its results are known.
You then have the "elite" universities (Grandes Ecoles), full of themselves and that do not lower themselves to accepting students before their third year after high school. Instead of just having an exam. France wants to be unique here, but we are just dumb by having our students leave abroad.
As you mentioned, we now have "prépas intégrées" (integrated prep schools), which is just just saying "prepas are dumb, but we want to keep the name to be fancy". It is just a 5 years school.
I went though this system, including an engineering degree from one of the Grande Ecoles, and then a doctorate, then teaching in France at a Grande Ecole, and in a University, and also abroad. The politics in our schools are the same as abroad, with the added twist of demi-gods who think that what was put in place in 1732 is the best solution because our world did not change since then.
I love the fact that France provides a good education to people and that (really) everyone can have it. The unfair marking system and ill-placed elitism is what is making our ministers whine, our head of schools whine but nobody has the courage to change anything.
This is indeed one of the great pluses in French (and, broadly, in European) education
The other points you mentioned are indeed great too (the nature of the questions, anonymity, ...) but there are really black parts:
- the high school you go to may or may not have an impact. For the ones who have 18/20 it does not matter that much. But when you are average (say - 14/20) in a school like Hoche in Versailles and 14/20 in a weaker one, then you are in big trouble. A very limited amount of schools will take the name of the high school in consideration and the rest will not. So being average puts you not in an average situation, but in a very bad one.
Looking at the distribution of marks in Hoche, i can assure you that there are the good ones, and then the rest. So why bother going to a "good" school?
The solution: entrance exams to universities.
Why not the high school end exam then? (baccaluréat) - because its have exactly zero value today, you know where you will be before its results are known.
You then have the "elite" universities (Grandes Ecoles), full of themselves and that do not lower themselves to accepting students before their third year after high school. Instead of just having an exam. France wants to be unique here, but we are just dumb by having our students leave abroad.
As you mentioned, we now have "prépas intégrées" (integrated prep schools), which is just just saying "prepas are dumb, but we want to keep the name to be fancy". It is just a 5 years school.
I went though this system, including an engineering degree from one of the Grande Ecoles, and then a doctorate, then teaching in France at a Grande Ecole, and in a University, and also abroad. The politics in our schools are the same as abroad, with the added twist of demi-gods who think that what was put in place in 1732 is the best solution because our world did not change since then.
I love the fact that France provides a good education to people and that (really) everyone can have it. The unfair marking system and ill-placed elitism is what is making our ministers whine, our head of schools whine but nobody has the courage to change anything.