Reforms to middle-school (collèges)The most talked-about and controversial of the changes to schools are the middle-school reforms (réformes des collèges), which were provoked strikes and protests when they were announced last year. Language learning will also change with the middle school reforms, with students learning their second modern language a year earlier in the cinquième (aged 11-12, equivalent of Year 8 in UK). School security a top priorityHeightened security measures are to be put in place in all schools in a bid to protect them from any potential terror threats. Teachers will also be better paid as of September 1st, with the annual indemnification for supervising and accompanying schoolchildren going up from €400 to €1,200 for all school teachers. However, this falls short of what the education minister had envisaged for schools back in 2015, when she promised that up to 40 percent of middle schools would be equipped with new computers by 2016.

Source: The Local August 31, 2016 11:03 UTC