6. (a) National vocational schools (E.N.P.): (école nationale professionnelle)-old name (b) National schools for study of technical education (école nationale d'étude technique)-old name (lycée technique)—new name 7. Trade schools: (école de métier)-old name (lycée technique)-new name Among the public vocational schools in the year 1960-61 there were 906 apprenticeship centers; 306 vocational sections in lower secondary schools; 210 collèges techniques; 162 technical sections in academic secondary schools; 39 national vocational schools; and 25 trade schools.16 For that year there were 14,108 teachers for the public apprenticeship centers, and 11,244 teachers for all those public vocational schools now to be called lycée technique." Vocational education for many students begins at age 13 after 7 years of elementary education when they enter the collège technique or one of the national vocational schools. Some make their choice 1 or 2 years earlier by entering a preparatory section of one of the vocational schools where they complete grades 6 and 7 before starting the real vocational program in the eighth grade. Similarly, those enrolled in the vocational sections of the lower secondary school have made their choice at the age of 11 after completion of 5 years of Table 29.—Enrollments in vocational secondary schools, by types of schools, public and private: 1961-621 1 Education in France, No. 16, January 1962, p. 6. Data for public cours complémentaires are for 1960-61 and are taken from Informations Statistiques, décembre 1960, p. 472; septembre-octobre 1960, p. 352; and mai 1960, p. 257. The figure for cours complémentaires in private schools is for the year 1959-60 and is taken from Informations Statistiques, No. 34–35, décembre 1961. p. 311. 16 Informations Statistiques, septembre 1961. p. 192. 17 France. Ministère de l'Education Nationale. The Education Movement in France During the Academic Year 1960-61. Paris: 1961. p. 10. schooling. Students have entered the apprenticeship centers typically at the age of 14 after completion of the 8 years of the elementary school. Many of the students in vocational schools are overage indicating previous school failure; for the school year 1959-60, 18 percent of those in the eighth grade were 15 years old and 24 percent in the ninth grade were 16 years old.18 Students have a choice between public and private vocational education; many of the private facilities are operated by business and industrial concerns. In the latter part of the 1950's the growth of public vocational education far outstripped that of private vocational education. As indicated in the data for 1961-1962, public vocational education has more than doubled the enrollment of private vocational education. Between 1952-53 and 1958-59 public vocational education increased by 29 percent. A big increase (57 percent) came in the national vocational schools, while other schools increased as follows: 19 41.7 percent-technical secondary schools. 23.5 percent-technical sections of academic secondary schools. 18 percent-apprenticeship centers. The vocational sections in the lower secondary school almost doubled between 1952 and 1960. The increase in vocational education has been more than matched by the increase in academic secondary education, so that the balance has not shifted. As of October 5, 1960, vocational education had 27.3 Table 30.-Enrollments in vocational secondary education by types of schools and selected years: 1952-19601 1 Education in France, No. 12, December 1960. p. 8. Data for October 5, 1960, are given in Informations Statistiques, décembre 1960. p. 472. percent of the total public secondary school enrollment. In this calculation the vocational sections of the lower secondary school were counted as part of vocational education. Not counted at all were the approximately 170,000 enrolled in part-time studies in agriculture. If this figure is added, vocational education then represents 33.3 percent, or one-third, of all public secondary school enrollments. On the basis of the increases in 1961 over 1960 for public education, the 64,000 pupil-increase in academic secondary schools compares to an increase of 39,000 in vocational education. Percentage-wise, however, the vocational schools increased more than the academic secondary schools. The balance is tipped back toward academic education when the lower secondary schools (cours complémentaires) are included. The 77,000 increase in these lower secondary schools was the largest of all, and proportionately the academic sections of the lower secondary schools increased more than the vocational sections.20 Cours Complémentaire-Vocational Sections In 1959-60, in the public lower secondary schools, there were 48,489 students in the vocational and 361,784 in the academic sections. Of those in the vocational sections the largest number, 26,219, were in the commercial program, compared to 12,413 in the industrial sections. Far behind were the small enrollments in home economics and agriculture. Moreover, while the industrial sections had an enrollment increase of 7.8 percent over the previous year and the commercial sections 4 percent, the enrollments in agriculture went down 20 percent.21 In the 1930's, however, the chief reasons for adding vocational sections to the cours complémentaire, a procedure authorized by a law of 1926, were summarized as (a) cost of providing separate vocational schools in rural areas; (b) desire not to draw rural youth away from the farm areas.22 In practice, however, most of the vocational sections were established in urban areas, particularly in the region of Paris. For the year 1958-59 the Paris region (académie of Paris) had 62.7 percent of the total French enrollment in vocational sections in public cours complémentaires, and the immediate Paris area (Département of the Seine) had 49.9 percent of the total. On the other hand, the Paris region had only 25.9 percent of the enrollment in academic sections of the public cours complémentaires.23 Girls predominate in both the vocational and academic sections of the cours complémentaires. 20 Informations Statistiques, mai 1960, p. 247 and décembre 1960, p. 448. 21 Ibid., mai 1960, p. 247. 22 Ministère de l'Education Nationale. Paris 1960. p. 172. Encyclopédie Pratique de l'Education en France. 23 Informations Statistiques, mai 1960. p. 248. The vocational sections accept students at the age of 11 after completion of the first 5 years of elementary schooling. A 4-year program is then offered (grades 6, 7, 8, 9) of which the first 2 years are largely academic education, with some vocational orientation. The third and fourth year of the program (grades 8, 9) are vocational and are similar to the work offered in the same grades of the technical secondary school (collège technique). Those who complete the 4-year program of the cours complémentaire are supposed to be eligible to enter the 10th grade level (2e in French terminology) of the collège technique. Apprenticeship Centers In France, many workers in industry and in the various trades and crafts receive their training through the apprenticeship system. This training may be the old-fashioned system of a young person (age 14-17) working in factories or commercial establishments under an artisan and attending a minimum of 150 hours per year of course work, for which the employer must release him during the work day." Training may also be taken in one of the many apprenticeship centers which came into being shortly before World War II as an emergency measure for rapid training of young workers as a part of the stepped-up rearmament of the late 1930's. The number of such centers has more than doubled since World War II. The apprenticeship center has been characterized as a cross between a factory and a school, because the students tend to spend about half of a 40-hour week in formal classroom study and the other half in practical work—in a factory or in a shop maintained by the apprenticeship center. In 1959, 34.2 percent of the apprentice students boarded at the center, and 38 percent of all the students enrolled in that year were girls.25 Some of the apprenticeship centers are public, operated by a municipal government or the national government, while others are privately operated by business and industrial concerns in order to prepare workers for a particular industry. The apprenticeship tax on industrial and business concerns provides the money for apprenticeship centers. An English authority on French education calls the apprenticeship center the greatest achievement in French postwar education, because it fulfills the ideal of a worker-citizen, stated as long ago as the 1790's by Condorcet but so long neglected; and because it represents a new approach in educational method.28 Since the apprenticeship centers 24 Encyclopédie Pratique de l'Education en France, 1960, op. cit. p. 162. Informations Statistiques, septembre 1961. p. 204. 1958. Dobinson, Charles H. "The French Centre d'Apprentissage." Yearbook of Education, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York: World Book Co., 1958. p. 184-190. were designed for young people not doing well in school, a fresh approach was needed in order to reach them. Hence, the old incentives of academic study were replaced by an appeal to practicality, to vocational interest, to the concrete. The great stress is on ability to think and to use materials, and not on the "cramming" of facts." According to the original plan, all 14-year olds who applied, except those obviously unfit, were to be accepted by the apprenticeship centers. Actually, because of lack of sufficient facilities, some students are turned down.28 Each region has its own way of handling this problem, usually by arranging an examination when the number of applicants exceeds the available places. The apprenticeship centers charge no tuition. Typically a student enters after finishing the eighth year of the elementary school; it is not necessary to have the elementary school certificate, although 71.7 percent of those entering in 1959 did possess this certificate. Of the 1959 enrollment, 83.9 percent came from the 8-year elementary school and 8.1 percent from the cours complémentaires; in addition, 4.2 percent transferred from academic secondary schools and 3.8 percent from technical secondary schools.29 A variety of programs in the apprenticeship centers prepare for many different occupations, often grouped into 4 or 5 categories, such as automobile repair, woodworking, metal work and electrical work. Many of the apprenticeship centers for girls offer sewing, dressmaking and home economics. In large urban areas, particularly Paris, there are specialized programs, such as zinc work, roofing and tiling, radio, and refrigeration.31 Local apprenticeship centers tend to train youth for local industries, and even for a specific industrial concern when the center is operated by that concern, whereas national centers train for jobs in more than one locality. Contact with the needs of industry is maintained through a system of local advisory committees which include representatives of employers and trade unions, along with others nominated by the technical division of the Ministry of National Education. The general theory behind all vocational education in France is that utilitarian and cultural ends are merged in the interest of forming a technical, yet humane man, keeping in mind the realities of the modern world where technology and culture are inseparable.32 For the ap 27 Dobinson, Charles H. "France and Technical Education Today." Educational Forum, January, 1957. p. 163. Education in France, No. 12, December 1960. p. 10. 20 Informations Statistiques, septembre 1961. p. 205. For a long list of these occupations see: Encyclopédie Pratique de l'Education en France, 1960, op. cit., p. 164-165. 81 Dobinson, op. cit., p. 162. Annuaire de l'Education Nationale, 1960, op. cit., p. 82. |