Although still around the OECD average, France’s score fell from 495 points in 2018 to 474 this year. By comparison, German students scored 475 points, Spanish students 473, Italian students 471 and American students 465. Japanese and Korean students topped the rankings with 530 points.
In addition to this sharp decline in performance over five years, the survey reveals a very strong correlation between educational and social inequality: the average scores of disadvantaged and advantaged students are separated by 113 points, a considerable gap.
Covid-19 is not the only cause. Among the explanations put forward by the OECD are problems in the management of the French education system, particularly the shortage of teaching staff in middle and high schools stemming from the splitting of primary-school classes into smaller groups, which began in 2018 and was introduced without additional funding. The OECD also suggests that support for struggling students (repeating a year? ability groups? smaller classes?) is probably one solution, provided it is introduced flexibly.
