France National Education survey of school drop-outs

May 12, 2011

Comment: In an article dated May 12th 2011, the French daily newspaper “Le Monde” published an article on the latest school drop-out numbers in France.

The article, quoting Luc Chatel – the French Minister of Education – reports that in France, from June 2010 to March 2011, 306 000 children dropped out from school. While 60 000 of them are involved in some form of vocational training and 80 000 are reported to seek an employment, the authorities are unable to say what the largest part of this group – accounting for 166 000 pupils – is currently doing.

Luc Chatel states that he has made this issue a priority and committed his Ministry to put all the necessary means to prevent this phenomenon and create a mechanism to detect and identify the children that are registered in school in June but disappear in September when the French pupils start school after the summer break.

The interest of the French government is a positive step towards reducing the level of school drop out, but the work that has to be undertaken on the root causes of such a phenomenon is not mentioned in the article. School drop out often affects the most vulnerable children of our societies, but no insight is offered into the sociological patterns of the phenomenon in France and the way the government intends to build a strategy that addresses all the events and conditions that cause children leaving the school environment early.

Comments: Pierre Cazenave, Regional Child Rights Officer, Tdh Regional Office for C/SEE