• For this new school year, the size of first degree classes should continue to decrease.

  • And this, thanks to the demographic decline, the duplication of classes in priority education and the cap at 24 of the number of students per class in large section, CP and CE1 on all establishments, excluding priority education, started in 2020.

  • But France remains an average student in terms of class size, compared to its OECD comrades.

This is a question that concerns all parents on the first day of school: how many students will there be in their child's class?

Because it is difficult for them to imagine that their toddler will be able to find his marks in a crowded classroom.

And that he will be able to benefit from the best learning conditions in an overloaded class.

The good news is that for this start of the school year, the numbers in primary school will be lower.

And this, "due to a strong demographic decline", recalled this Monday, Guislaine David, co-secretary general and spokesperson for the teachers' union SNUipp-FSU, which held its back-to-school press conference.

The primary school indeed anticipates a reduction in numbers of 67,000 pupils this school year (-1.2%), according to the Ministry of National Education.

This phenomenon will concern the whole territory, except for Mayotte and Guyana.

A much less significant decline is expected in the private sector, where projections for this start of the school year show -0.8% of students.

The priority given to primary school since the first five-year term

The phenomenon is not new because in the last five years, the number of students enrolled in public primary education has decreased by 4.4%, underlines the SNUIpp.

And if we only look at nursery school, the drop in enrollment is even greater (7.6%).

But who says drop in numbers does not necessarily mean fewer students per class.

Because National Education could be tempted to close classes and overload those that exist.

But this is generally not the case in the first degree.

During Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term, priority was given to primary school and the mastery of fundamental knowledge (reading, writing, mathematics).

The executive wanted to fight early on against school difficulties to improve the level of students in secondary school.

To reduce educational inequalities in the first degree, the government has undertaken since 2017 a policy of splitting classes in priority education, with a limitation of the number of students to 12 first in CP and CE1, then from of 2020, in the large kindergarten section.

In primary schools that are not part of priority education, the government has also set itself the objective of reducing the number of large section, CP and CE1 classes.

It aims for 24 students per class.

France remains an average student compared to its neighbors

Even if we have to wait until the start of the school year to have a clear view of the numbers per class, we already know that there will be slightly fewer of them than in 2021. As a reminder, last year the average number of students per class in establishments not classified REP or REP +, was 22.4 in kindergarten and 21.3 in elementary.

In priority education, the average number was 12 in CP and CE1, but the average number of pupils in CE2, CM1 and CM2 was much higher: it fluctuated between 20 and 22 pupils depending on the level.

According to Guislaine David, these averages can hide territorial disparities: “In priority education, the threshold of 12 is not always respected and often rises to 14 and the CM2 classes are sometimes loaded”.

Ditto in schools that are not in priority education: “In urban areas, classes can sometimes be loaded and go up to 28 or 29 students in kindergarten.

This kind of case should still arise this fall and lead to mobilizations of parents of students.

A Depp note published in January showed that in schools outside priority education, 29% of large section classes, 14% of CPs and 22% of CE1s had more than 24 students.

Moreover, despite its progress in reducing the size of its classes at school, France is still an average student compared to other OECD countries.

With an average of 21.3 pupils per class in primary school, compared to 21.1 for the OECD average and 19.7 for the countries of the European Union, according to a 2021 OECD report.

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