French students better prepared for citizenship than the international average, according to a study

How are young people around the world prepared for their role as citizens? This is the challenge of the international ICCS study, on civic education and citizenship. It addresses both the knowledge, but also the attitudes and civic engagement of 82,000 students in 4th grade, or equivalent, in 24 countries. French students participated for the first time and they had good results.

On the aspect of civic knowledge – how an election works for example; or what does the term “fake news” mean – French students are within the international average, with honorable results. Note that girls are better than boys in this area and in general the results depend a lot on the socio-economic level of the families.

Projection, critical thinking, equal rights

Regarding the attitudes of students, in France they stand out by a strong projection in citizenship, mixed with a fairly critical outlook, analyzes Thierry Rocher, president of the IEA association, which organizes these evaluations: “Almost 90% of them say that they will participate in elections when they are adults compared to 77% internationally. So we see that there is still really a projection in democratic life but also a critical spirit which concerns elected officials. There is more criticism from French students than internationally, for example almost three quarters of French students believe that members of Parliament do not care enough about the wishes of the population. That’s two-thirds internationally.”

Where France also stands out is on the subject of equal rights – between women and men, and between nationals and immigrants – young people in our country are more sensitive to it than the average. Finally, more of our teenagers want to get involved in environmental protection issues, while also being more worried.