A reformation for France education started. Francois Gerardes Hollande, who was elected as France president last April, is putting his pledges into practice. This includes various reforms in education from those about teachers and students to those about overall system. Among them, eliminating homeworks is especially innovative and controversial. President Hollande said that he will make studying time longer at school instead not giving homework to students.
In addition, he said that the number of school days will be extended for 4.5 days per week from 2013, adding 2 hours morning class on Wednesday.
In return, home time would be earlier, 4:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. This plan is for lessening the students' studying burden and cut down school hours, because school hour for French students is more than average school hour for OECD country students. And it's also for giving equal education opportunities to students whose families are not affordable to support their children's study.
But there are some critical views on Holland's reforms. They insisted that if students go home early, it will make the burden for their parents. And they will probably take their children to public sector, so the budget for those sector will be rise.
And the AP news pointed out that the level of academic ability of French students is lower than nearby European studnets' and U.S. students' level.
Also, Le Monde predicted that they will find difficulty when they start to review and act their plans, such as changing curriculums, timetables, and homeworks.
President Hollande also stated the reduce of flunk, which was not helpful to education, improvement of teachers, early entrance into school for vulnerable social group students, etc. For this he push ahead with the plan that children of the immigrants are allowed to enter school when they become 3 years old. And he is planning to give incentives to the teachers who work at those areas. Also, he will employ 60thousand teachers for improving the quality of education.
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201210111748201&code=970100
Some great ideas there. I'm not sure about time in school, but the effect of homework is limited. Most of what students learn is in school or in doing things not homework-related. I look forward to seeing some research out of France in the next few years.
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