Education

Education - The French Education Minister Jean Michel Blanquer has declared that "School is at the forefront of social progress in France," Speaking this morning during the traditional Press conference ahead of the beginning of the school year he added that “priority will be given to primary education along with the planned baccalaureate reform, which has been widely critised. Blanquer defended his reforms by talking about three major challenges: "equal opportunities", "well-being” "and" the environmental issue ".

Primary education remains the "priority" of the government, with a new measure to reduce the age of compulsory education from 6 to 3 years old.

Another government project defended by Jean-Michel Blanquer was the delicate reform of the baccalaureate, which must be effective in 2021. This reform, plans to reduce the number of final exams in favour of continuous controls

Finally, the minister also unveiled new measures to tackle violence in schools. A move which had been promised in October following the release of a video showing a student threatening his teacher with a fake weapon in a high school in Paris.