FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 5

FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

I REDUCTION IN HOURS OF ! INSTRUCTION. the Paris Correspondent of "The Times. 7 ') The French Minister for Kducation has issued a circular prescribing a considerable reduction in the hours of instruction in class in all secondary schools, whether lycees or colleges. The amount of reduction varies from 4i hours a week iu the sixth class (the lowest) to 14 hours in the senior classes. The question of the particular subjects of instruction to which the diminution of hours will apply is, however, left in suspense. As tliia revision is essential it seems clear that some time will elapse before the new system can come into full operation. A reform in this sense had been expected for some time. It was recommended by a Committee on Overwork which sat several months ago, and which included doctors as well as teachers. Parents have for long, protested against the strain to which their children were subjected. Class hours alone were long enough, but homework also was heavy, < and the mere variety of the subjects which are crammed into tho courses in itself also put pressure on any pupil ambitious or assiduous enough to attempt to do justice to all of them. The overcrowding of the programme is, in one aspect, a result of the conflict which has been going on in recent years over the question of the real aims of secondary education. The dispute has been hottest in regard to the old controversy of "classical" and "modern," but there were also such special claims as those of natural science which had to be heard. In consequence, the existing programmes were in great part designed to include a little of everything and so please everybody a bit, if nobody very much. On the whole the programmes since 1925 may be said to have reduced the former predominance of classics in favour of modern subjects. Tho Ministerial circular does not touch the question of the allocation of the school hours now remaining, but announces that the Superior Council, an advisory body, will be consulted on that subject at its next meeting. The class hours in the sixth will be 20 a week, while those in the -dvaneed classes of philosophy and mathematics will be 23J and 25 respectively. It may be assumed that the protagonists of the various causes will all try to protect the subjects in which they are specially interested against the hand of the despoiler. Many educational reformers hope that the new measure may be the beginning of a larger change in the system of secondary education. Naturally, the Overwork Committee dealt with the physical aspect of the matter, and there is a movement for devoting more time to games. French lycees are a good deal behind the secondary schools of other countries in this respect, and there is an increasing demand for real, lively sports on playing fields instead of the monotonous and more or less disciplined exercises on asphalted courtyards which used to pass as open-air recreation.