Changing cultures and school in France

International audienceIn France schooling is based on two principles : the desire for a democratization of education and the will to integrate individuals into modernity. Throughout the XXth century, schooling has historically been concerned with making education more democratic by endeavouring to base selection uniquely on criteria of merit and by attempting to turn individuals into full citizens. Today, these two principles are still considered as fundemental aims. But their meaning has changed and the school has to resolve problems of another nature. The democratization of the system no longer refers to the access of all pupils to secondary education (an aim which has practically been fulfilled). Rather it entails the administration and management of an extremely diverse population-both from the point of view of its educational level and of its relationship to schooling and knowledge. Integration no longer raises only the question of citizenship. It also raises questions regarding the recognition of the individual and his or her subjectivity. It is no longer simply a question of transmitting the universal values which help to mould individuals. On the contrary, the question today is how to preserve the specificity of each individual of each in order to protect him or her from a system which, in many respects, appears to brutalize them. Today, changes in French schools result not so much from structural reforms, as from transformations in society's relationship to the school system and in expectations regarding education. Presently school has become part of everyday life and debates over education are in fact discussions about society itself. Discussions about violence or immigration in schools, (in the case, for example, of the Muslim girls wearing 'headscarfs'), convey both the decline of the school as an institution and the need for it to face social problems. In this paper, I shall first present the organisation of the school system. Then I shall go on to discuss three major topics which reflect the challenges facing the school system : democratisation and the question of mass education ; competivity at school in the present situation of widespread unemployment ; the socialisation of young people in the context of the decline of the institutions. I. Recent developments in the French school system In France, the history of schooling can be regarded as a quest to achieve uniformisation. As in many other countries, school was initially divided into several distinct educational units. The vast majority of pupils left school at the end of the primary cycle. Only the most "deserving