Are the French pupils less good than the others? And could it be the fault of their too long holidays? Interviewed by The cross (paid item) on March 17, Yannick Jadot affirmed that “all countries that do better in school than us have fewer school holidays”. To improve the grades of French schoolchildren, the environmental candidate for the presidential election does not rule out “reduce the duration of holidays, especially that of summer holidays”. But is the observation made by the MEP correct and is his solution the right one?
In some countries, the length of school holidays is not the same in primary and secondary education, as noted in the European Commission’s Eurydice report on the organization of school time in Europe. The OECD report which studies the school systems of 35 countries, however, allows a comparison by focusing on the leave granted to college students. On this point, France ranks 7th among the countries that grant the most holidays to their students.
With sixteen weeks of school holidays over the whole year (16.4 precisely), France gives two weeks more vacation than the OECD average (14.1). It is certainly more than Switzerland, which brings up the rear with 10 weeks, but less than Ireland, which occupies first place, with 18.6 weeks of annual leave.
The distribution of school holidays throughout the year also varies from country to country. If we look at the duration of the summer holidays, France only comes in 28th place. French college students have 8 weeks of summer vacation, compared to 9.3 on average within the OECD. Far from Latvia and Russia, which share first place with 13.2 weeks, but ahead of Switzerland, last with 5 weeks of break in summer.
French pupils therefore have more holidays than the average, but shorter summer holidays. This particularity reveals the importance of intermediate vacations in the French school system. With 8 weeks of holidays during the school year, France is well above the ranking average (4.8 weeks) and occupies the undisputed first position.
“We are one of the rare countries to try to do ‘7+2’: seven weeks of classes and two weeks of vacation, which allows the learning to be distributed over time. On that, we are better, it is a good operation”says Claude Lelièvre, teacher-researcher in the history of education and honorary professor at the University of Paris Descartes.
Once this observation has been made, is there a link between the duration of holidays and school results? If we compare the duration of holidays with the results of the latest Pisa ranking, which serves as a reference on the question of the level of students in the OECD, one conclusion is obvious: no link can be established between the two. There are certainly several examples of countries that do better with shorter holidays than France, in 18th place. Finland, 3rd in the Pisa ranking, has about 14 weeks of leave. In 13th place, Danish pupils, who are only on vacation for 11.2 weeks a year, also obtain better results than the French.
Conversely, some countries have much better results with longer holidays. Estonia, first in the Pisa ranking, and Ireland, 4th, have more school holidays than France. Estonian pupils thus have 17.5 weeks of holidays in the year, in both primary and secondary schools, above the 16.4 French weeks. The Irish are certainly two weeks less than the French in primary school, but they are more than 18 weeks in secondary – the longest of the countries surveyed. Last example: Switzerland, which has only 10 vacation weeks – the shortest duration – is 23rd in the Pisa ranking, five places behind France.
“No link has ever been established between the duration of holidays and school results.“, confirms Claude Lelièvre. “This is a hasty and wrong conclusion, just compare yourself to other countries“, adds Agnès Florin, professor emeritus in child psychology and education at Nantes University. For the researcher, reducing school holidays would have very little effect on the results of French students. : “Educational outcomes are the product of many factors : social inequalities, pedagogy, number of students in class, teacher training…” The expert therefore judges Yannick Jadot’s proposal “very reductive”.
For the two researchers, the question is not so much that of vacations as that of school timetables. “The analysis of school time must also take into account the organization of the week and the school day. Isolating only the holidays would not change anything”says Agnès Florin.
Because if French students are more often on vacation than their neighbours, they also spend more time in class. The French follow a total of 8,152 hours of lessons during primary and secondary school, compared to 7 638 hours on average in the OECD. An astonishing figure, especially since the week of lessons in France is one of the shortest in Europe, with four days of primary school in the municipalities that wish it.
“It’s the distribution of the week that we are bad at. We have too many hours a day and not enough days in the yearanalyzes Claude Lelièvre. In Europe, we are almost the only ones to do the four-day week. A situation that has negative consequences on student learning, according to the researchers interviewed, and therefore on their results. “France has the longest school day. Children cannot mobilize for so long, they need to go out, play sports to stay focused”emphasizes Agnès Florin.
“At the daily level, it is known that a student cannot be concentrated for seven hours.”
Claude Lelièvre, honorary professor in the history of educationat franceinfo
The two experts would therefore see a usefulness in reducing vacations, but as part of a general overhaul of school time. “If we remove vacations and this makes it possible to better distribute lesson hours, it can bear fruit”Judge Claude Lelièvre.
Questioned by franceinfo on the absence of an established link between the duration of the holidays and school results, the team of Yannick Jadot reformulates its remarks. “The more exact formulation would be: ‘The most inspiring countries in terms of school organization are those with the shortest holidays’.“ She also recalls that the project that the candidate wishes to launch is broader: “We want to open a discussion on the school rhythm in general, and in particular on the work and rest time of the pupils.”