December birthday can harm schooling

CHILDREN born in December are disadvantaged for life because they are the youngest in their year group, a study has shown.

An economist at national research centre CNRS, Julien Grenet, found children who are the youngest in their year are more likely to redoubler (redo a year) during their schooling, more likely to be oriented towards vocational courses and likely to be paid less in work.

The age at which a child starts French school depends on them reaching a given age in the calendar year in which they start. For example, obligatory schooling starts in the cours préparatoire (CP) class, for six-year-olds.

However, although the school year starts in September at la Rentrée (after the summer holidays), all children who either turned six or will turn six in that calendar year start in CP (all children in a given school year were therefore born in the same year).

As a result, a child born on December 31 will be the youngest in their year, and one born on January 1 the oldest.

According to Mr Grenet, being born in December rather than January makes a child drop on average seven places in a class of 30 at CP level and they get grades 66 per cent lower than their older peers.

The problem decreases in later years, but still remains: they are five places lower by CE2 (the third year of obligatory schooling), three to four at the start of secondary school, and two at the end of the collège stage in troisième.

By the age of 15, 51 per cent of December children have redone a year, compared to 35 per cent of January ones. They are also more likely to go on to a lycée professionnel (vocational high school).

There is also a small impact on salaries: men will end up being paid 2.3 per cent less, and women 0.7 per cent, that their peers.

The problem is not unique to France, the study said. In the UK, for example, it is children born in summer who are disadvantaged, because it is age at starting school in September that counts.

A spokeswoman for leading primary school union SNUipp said very few children started in CP (the start of elementary school); most start three years before that in la petite section of maternelle (infant school).

“In maternelle, teachers notice that end-of-year children tend to pick things up faster; at age three, a year’s age gap is enormous. However, we had not necessarily done any studies on the long-term impact, so it is useful that it has been flagged up.

“The fact of knowing that there is a proved effect should help teachers to pay more attention to the needs of these younger children right through their school career. It is another little element to keep in mind when tailoring our approach to a child’s individual needs."