They were supposed to be one of the key education achievements of Nicolas Sarkozy's term in office as president. Announced in 2008, the first so-called internat d'excellence or boarding school of excellence was launched in 2009, with 12 more set up in 2010 and a similar number the following year.
President Sarkozy saw these schools as a vehicle for taking pupils from underprivileged areas and putting them as boarders into educational centres of excellence where they could thrive. It was intended to be a step on the road towards a true “meritocracy”. The education department, headed by education minister Luc Chatel, has constantly talked up the schools' merits and successes. The ultimate aim was to have up to 20,000 pupils attending these establishments, which are located around France.
However, a bleaker picture of these schools has been revealed in a report by education inspectors that was completed in June 2011. It is one of 17 critical reports left unpublished by Chatel and his ministerial team, and which have only seen the light of day since the arrival of his successor Vincent Peillon as minister of education following the election of François Hollande as president.
Of those 17 reports the one on the internats d'excellence is probably the most damning for Chatel and the former president. To start with the study, carried out by education inspectors from the Inspection générale de l’éducation nationale, underlines the huge cost of the initiative, which was made possible, it says, by “political support at the highest level of state”. It shows that during a time of budgetary restrictions the twelve schools of excellence set up in 2010 were allocated a total of 200 million euros.
To finance this “meritocratic innovation” the state also used all the relevant organizations at its disposal. These included the urban renovation agency Anru (agence nationale pour la rénovation urbaine), the national agency for social unity and equal opportunity Acsé (agence nationale pour la cohésion sociale et l’égalité des chances), and state funds earmarked to help young people, as well as calling on private money through foundations or sponsors. “In Montpellier, the Fondation Total [oil company] contributes 1.2 million euros to the funding, to which can be added 300,000 euros from the Fondation HSBC,” says the report.
Ultimately each place in one of the boarding schools of excellence, excluding staff salaries, costs between 2,000 euros and 10,000 euros, depending on whether the school is linked to an existing educational establishment. This leads the report's authors to write that “the financial sustainability is uncertain for those projects that demand exceptional amounts from general funds and which can only be supported in the framework of a one-off operation like that of the national loan”. (1)
To ensure the longevity of such a plan “it seems indispensable”, say the inspectors, “that the handover should be carried out by the usual partners of the education system, who are the local authorities. In this respect nothing is decided, for we have seen that even the legitimacy of the boarding school of excellence is far from being a matter of consensus among these partners.”
For in addition to the question of cost, the report directly questions the justification for such a project, with its “intrinsic limits” which make it a “partial response to a more global need”.
------------------------------
1: The French term is 'grand emprunt', literally 'big loan'. In 2009 the French government announced plans for a 35-billion euro grand emprunt, or national loan, to help fund national infrastructure projects, research and other long-term plans.
Only half of boarders at one school qualify for a grant
The inspectors show that they are aware that the schools of excellence are a high-profile project, with the pupils receiving not just regular schooling but also sporting and cultural activities. “What the current experience shows is that by committing significant and dedicated resources, used by selected, competent and motivated personnel, better support for a small number of pupils from modest backgrounds is possible. We can reasonably hope that this support leads to successful school careers,” say the inspectors with what seems like irony.
Yet the real surprises in this report are still to come. For despite the resources ploughed in and the support among the highest echelons of state, the results on the ground of these schools have been more than disappointing.
The first surprise is that those who attended the schools were not always the kind of pupils that might be expected in establishments aimed at helping youngsters from poorer areas. The proportion of pupils eligible for grants in the schools of excellence is only around 60%. In the pilot project carried out at Sourdun in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France, which was set up a year before the others, the proportion is just 50% (139 pupils out of 259). “How can you not be surprised, in such a boarding school, by the presence of a child of a primary school teacher, the child of a notaire, of a vet and even...of a headteacher,” write the inspectors.
Conversely, some educational establishments have clearly used this new system to “get rid of troublemakers” at any cost, “even if it means sending false applications”. The report notes: “Half of the 50 pupils at Cachan [one of the schools, south of Paris] appear to have problems of a medical, psychological, emotional or behavioural nature.” To the extent that “the principal says they 'have been had'. The headteacher at the Langres school of excellence speaks for their part of 'shameless lies' and cites the case of a pupil whose file described him as 'timid but brilliant' when in fact he was shown to be very weak and exhibiting behaviour problems.”
Another significant reservation was a very high fallout rate: between 10% and 30% of the schools' pupils did not finish the year. The reason? Rules that are, to say the least, strict. “Constant monitoring, individual outings banned or restricted, removal of or very controlled access to television and mobile phones, free time reduced to a strict minimum...” says the report. But the days were also overloaded with activities (kayaking, lino cutting, theatre workshops...) as if they were more for show than for the well-being of pupils.
Given its contents, it is perhaps easier to understand why, as President Sarkozy prepared in election year to announce the doubling of potential places in schools of excellence from 10,000 to 20,000, the education ministry decided to bury this explosive report.
-------------------------
English version: Michael Streeter