G20 DEVELOPMENT WORKING GROUP

Early Childhood Development KNOWLEDGE GATHERING TEMPLATE

In the “G20 Initiative for Early Childhood Development”, G20 countries committed to share best practices and lessons learned through a platform that will be developed by ECDAN and will be operative by 2019.

G20 countries are invited to voluntarily submit projects, programs, policies, or similar initiatives implemented domestically, internationally or through official development assistance that are aimed Early Childhood Development, prioritizing those which address the issue in a multidimensional manner.

Countries are invited to share as many projects, programs, policies or initiatives as they wish to showcase, submitting one form per best practice.

Country Information

(1) Country : FRANCE

(2) Project, Program, Policy, or Initiative name/title:

The lowering of the age of compulsory education

(3) Project, Program, Policy, or Initiative location

(3a) City: (3b) Country: FRANCE

General information

(4) Brief Description

The small section, medium section and large section, a free service offered to the families and organized in

a single cycle, is fundamental for the success of all (small section, medium section and large section -

2,522,282 students at the start of 2018 school year). It welcomes all children starting from 3 years of age

(from 2 years for children coming from disadvantaged families). As one of the great strengths of the

French system, preschool enables children, since an early age, to the learning of basic skills: reading,

writing, counting and respecting others.

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Since the first years of education are decisive to prepare children’s success and to help them on their self-

confidence, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced the lowering of the age of

compulsory education to 3 years, starting from 2019’s school year.

Before the age of 3, children’s reception to the public system is supervised by the Ministry of Health and

Solidarity and is a paid service at the expense of the families. Children can be kept in a childminder or in a

collective host institution (daycares …)

(5) What are the expected results/impacts/beneficiaries of the project/program/policy/initiative?

Allowing students to master the basic skills (reading, writing, counting and respecting others) requires

doing even more at the small section, medium section and large section, a school of growth and language.

At the beginning of the 2019 school year, the lowering of the age of compulsory education to 3 years will

provide all students with the same opportunities to succeed in school.

Today, if 97% of students are enrolled at 3 years, they are however in an imperfect manner. There are

indeed different levels of schooling depending on different parts of the territory and social backgrounds,

and irregular attendance of students during the day, especially in small sections.

This is even more decisive before the age of 6 when a good command of the language is fundamental for

the student success.

Legal framework

(6) (Does the Project/Program/Initiative/Policy have an associated regulatory or legal framework?)

Lowering the age of the beginning of compulsory education to 3 years will be at the heart of a law that will

be debated in the Parliament during the 2018-2019 school year.

The emphasis is placed on the training of actors:

- September 2018: three days of training for 1,400 inspectors of National Education (IEN –

inspecteur de l’Education nationale) in order to help them implement the transformation

of primary school. One of the three components of this training will be specifically devoted

to small section, medium section and large section.

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- 2nd semester 2018: a specific seminar for teachers in small section, medium section and

large section will offer specialization modules leading to increase their qualifications. It will

continue the reflection initiated during the Foundations of the small section, medium

section and large sectionl (Assises de la maternelle), by promoting the development of the

language learning of the students (vocabulary) and the concerns to the attachment and

the blossoming, in connection with the works of the professor Cyrulnik.

- 1st semester 2019: a common training plan for teachers and specialized territorial agents

of small section, medium section and large section (Atsem - agents territoriaux spécialisés

des écoles maternelles) will be deployed in close collaboration with local authorities.

Indeed, the Atsem are essential actors of the small section, medium section and large

section, whose mission evolves towards a more educational role. The training must allow

accompanying these evolutions, in perfect complementarity with the role of the

professors (the city halls employ today about 55 000 Atsem which are to 85% of the

employees. Two decrees, relating to their status and their recruitment were published on

March 1st, 2018. Atsem's belonging to the educational community is particularly affirmed).

During the year 2018-2019, the Conseil supérieur des programmes will be asked to clarify the small

section, medium section and large section programs (Cycle 1) in order to highlight the importance of

language learning. Likewise, annual benchmarks for progress will provide teachers with clear benchmarks

to organize, in the best conditions, their teachings on the entire small section, medium section and large

section cycle.

Implementation

(7) Implementation level (Is the Project/Program/Policy/Initiative implemented within the country’s national territory or in support of other countries?)

(8) Geographical impact (more than one answer possible)

q Domestic q Sub-national / Community

q Support of developing and low-income countries

x National

q Regional

q Global

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(9) Nº of countries involved (if Project/Program/Initiative/Policy is Regional/Global)

(9a) City, Country, Region 1:

(9b) City, Country, Region 2:

(9c) City, Country, Region 3:

(9d) City, Country, Region 4:

(9e) City, Country, Region 5:

(10) Status (11) Start date

q Under design 2019

xIn progress (12) End date

q Completed /

(13) Action area/s (more than one answer possible )

q Health q Responsive caregiving

q Food Security and Nutrition x Early learning and stimulation

q Security and safety q Gender policies with impact on ECD

q Other: ___________

Funding

(14) Origin (more than one answer possible)

x National budget

q Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) or Development Financial Institutions (DFI)

q International Organizations (IOs)

q Global Partnerships or Initiatives

q Other: ___________

(15) Brief description of funding (e.g. name of funding institution or partnership, etc.)

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(16) Available funds (optional)

Monitoring and Evaluation

(17) Does the Project/Program/Initiative/Policy involve a monitoring / evaluation process?

x Yes

q No

(18) Brief description If “Yes”, briefly describe monitoring & evaluation process

(19) Are there any research studies completed, evaluation reports, or other reviews?

q Yes

q No

q Under development

(20) If “Yes” please provide links to relevant reports and studies

(21) If “Under development”, when will they be available?

(22) Lessons Learned (specific of the initiative and for general ECD application)

Contact Information

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(23) Is there a Project/Program/Initiative/Policy website? Or a website where it is profiled?

x Yes

q No

q Under development

(24) If “Yes”, please provide link to the website

http://eduscol.education.fr/pid33040/programme-ressources-et-evaluation.html http://eduscol.education.fr/cid97131/suivi-et-evaluation-a-l-ecole-maternelle.html

(25) Contact Information

Supporting material

(26) Please provide links to or upload any further supporting materials, including: case studies, toolkits, photographs1, and any other relevant materials to help illustrate the project

1 Please bear in mind that individual members/countries are responsible for obtaining photographic permissions from the subject/s and from the photographer/owner.