Territorial inequalities in education: empirical evidence and policies

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1 Territorial inequalities in education: empirical evidence and policies by Michel Quéré, MENESR, France

2 French socio-economic disparities French educational disparities

3 France: an obvious territorial variety in socio-economic conditions: North and East industrial depressive areas; South-East fragile areas; A relative merging of this mapping with educational disparities: North and South East regions, especially; However, some contrasting territorial patterns : - South West area: a favourable economic context without similarity as regards educational performing ; - East area: a depressive economic context associated with a relative performing educational context;

4 A focus on young generations:

5 A focus on educational conditions (the five-year-old children)

6 moy. nat. : 91,1% bac technologique % 教育监测与评估国际研讨会 A focus on infra-national performance in education (success rate to «Baccalauréat») Corse Rennes Caen Poitiers Grenoble Nantes moy. nat. : 91,0% Nancy-Metz Bordeaux Toulouse Lille Clermont-Ferrand Montpellier Limoges Strasbourg Besançon France métro Lyon Créteil Reims Rouen Nice Paris Versailles Dijon Orléans-Tours 88 Aix-Marseille 87 Amiens 86 bac général %

7 France is a country where education policy is a national issue, which regulation is still centrally regulated and driven from a national perspective Recently, the School Refoundation Act (2013 law from July, 8) addressed again that national purpose by: - Securing an initial training success for every student - Promoting a shared knowledge background for everybody in France (Socle) - Challenging social determinism in education performance However, previous structural patterns are far from forming a homogeneous context aimed at reaching a common performance in education efforts A central issue is: how to deal with that? How to fit educational policies for facing such territorial disparities? How to maintain a territorial equity with such differences within the country?

8 To deal with such issues, one has to take into account a further difficulty: the dynamics in households location Dealing with territorial differences is not a static issue but a dynamic one Education infrastructure is continuously adapting to demographic evolution: - year by year, due to economic change and the related mobility of people - partly also because of the rationale of their choices in education (an increasing consumerism strategy of parents) On the whole, this is a conflicting problem that education has to face continuously This taken into account, one can try to control for territorial disparities by two series of answers

9 A first series of answers to the question is to be found in «compensatory» policies: 1. Social conditions (specific incentives or individual grants) 2. Specific efforts towards declining or low-favoured contexts (some sorts of charters schools French REP+ and REP areas) 3. More largely, accepting a certain range of inequalities regarding the means dedicated to educational effort (to the benefits of depressed or rural areas for instance)

10 A second series of answers is related to pedagogical concerns: 1. Concentrating efforts during the primary school to guarantee the acquisition of fundamental skills and knowledge (a necessary condition for the effectiveness of colleges) 2. Concentrating experimentations in some unfavoured areas 3. Encouraging individual efforts, student well-being and selfesteem 4. Challenging geographical disparities thanks to ICTs efforts

11 The Bretagne region : main characteristics of the educational infrastructure: 596,000 primary and secondary students 116,058 higher students A Budget of 2,7 Billion Euros 54,000 public employees, among whom 44,000 teachers

12 Some empirical illustrations from Rennes academy (Bretagne Region) 1. The social and educational context of Bretagne: - Bretagne: a social cohesive environment (as compared to France) - Bretagne : a positive demographic improvement (high, regarding the ranking of demographical pressure among French regions) 2. A high level of performance in education but : - A social determinism in education performance (low performance for low-social classes) - A context of excessive repeating grades in secondary schools - An insufficient level of educational ambition, especially for higher education

13 The ways to deal with infra-regional territorial disparities are : - Concentrating additionnal efforts in dense rural areas - Promoting networking effects among schools to establish critical mass projects favoring pedagogical motivation and interest - Securing a continuity in the longitudinal process of schooling for students - Encouraging hybrid forms of training (ICTs) to favour exchange of experiences among teachers and propagation of good practices - Establishing a common culture among the different segments of education (primary, secondary and higher education); open the minds and expanding the possible choices for students

14 Concluding remarks: - Facing territorial inequalities is a central concern for education policy - It is a continuing challenge that implies a subtile balance between inserting some forms of inequality in order to garantee territorial equity, as far as the quality of education careers of students is concerned - It is a challenging day-to-day decision-making to fight social determinism in education performance

15 Thank you!

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