Seven presidential candidates answered questions from young people during a special day organized by France Inter and Chemins d’Avenir. We checked two of their claims.
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40% of children cannot read well in 6th grade
“Today there are 30 to 40% of children who arrive in sixth grade without knowing how to read well, in some neighborhoods this figure rises to more than 50%”, said candidate Eric Zemmour.
True, and even slightly below reality. The results of the latest primary school assessments published in November by the Ministry of National Education show that only half of 6th graders had the expected level in reading. With regard to the establishments placed in priority education, it is no longer one out of two students, but only one out of three students who has the level. But be careful, this only concerns reading. The overall level in French is much higher. According to these same assessments, 90% of 6th graders had a good or even very good command of skills in this subject.
10% less public investment per student in ten years
“Our country for ten years has reduced investment per student. We have reduced public investment per university student by almost 10%”, for his part declared the ecologist Yannick Jadot.
It is rather true. Even if we lack more recent data, on the website of the Ministry of Higher Education we can see that in 2010 the expenditure per student was approximately 12,440 euros, whereas it was 11,530 euros in 2019, i.e. a drop of 7% between 2010 and 2019. This drop can be explained in particular because the number of students has increased sharply, while the total budget for education expenditure has rather slowed down.