Primary schools given four day week option

The French school week can seem baffling. Unlike the British Monday to Friday routine, which mirrors standard office working hours, the French school week has been adjusted several times, at various points including a half day on Saturday or Wednesday.

Since the 1980s French academics and pedagogues have been asking what routine is most beneficial for children, with the system evolving with changing attitudes. Many in France are asking if the return of a four day week in primary schools will benefit children, or if it would be better to stick with the current four and a half day school week, where Wednesday is a half day.

The Macron administration wants to allow communes to make the decision themselves. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said earlier this week that where the four and a half day week is working it can be kept in place, but that schools will essentially have the liberty to decide for themselves which system to follow.

He envisages giving communes the choice from 2018, following an experiment at the end of 2017. “If a certain school board and a commune could come to an agreement about which system to follow, a local official would make a decision based on the conditions in that particular school”, Mr Blanquer said.

In 2008, the the Sarkozy administration instituted the four day school week, with children attending school for six hours a day on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. Under former President François Hollande, in 2013 the system was again changed, with children attending school for three and a half hours on Wednesday and five and a half hours on other weekdays. If the new policy is adopted in 2018 it would represent the third change in less than 10 years.

Under both systems, children are in class for a total of 24 hours per week. But some chronobiologists believe that shorter days spread out over the week allow children more time to take on extracurricular activities.