France tops EU for redoublement

FRANCE is the country which makes most use of redoublement (children retaking a school year) a European Union study has shown.

During primary school, 19 per cent of children redo a year, far more than some of the other countries which use the system, like Greece (two per cent) or Austria (five per cent).

France also has a high level at collège, the first stage of secondary school: 24 per cent compared to only 0.5 per cent in Finland; however Spain has an even higher one, 32 per cent.

The EU study gave a largely negative assessment of the practice, saying it does not appear to have many benefits and high levels in France mainly come down to “belief” in its efficacy.

It said that “the idea that repeating a year is beneficial for the pupil’s learning remains very present in Belgium, Spain, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Portugal. This vision is shared by the teachers, the school community and even parents.”

The UK, on the other hand, is one of Europe’s few countries in which pupils usually pass automatically from one school year to the next. The others are Bulgaria, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.

The study follows a number of different ones which have criticised excessive use of redoublement. The think-tank Institut Montaigne, for example, has said “90 per cent of children made to redo CP [the first year of elementary school] have no academic prospects after that. No other school system puts in place at such a young age the bases of social inequality and despair”.

According to the EU study “if certain children manage to catch up again after being held back, the large majority do not”.

France makes less use of redoublement than 25 years ago, when almost half of children redid a year.

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