A shocking proposition. Guest of CNews this Tuesday, the former Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire notably proposed bringing forward entry into kindergarten from three years to one year, in order to fight against academic difficulties and inequalities between children from a very young age. “The multiplication of reforms does not work. We need to rethink our educational model,” said Bruno Le Maire, before detailing four ways to combat the decline in student levels.
The first concerns language learning. “We need to bring kindergarten forward from three years to one year,” he said. The objective, according to him, would be to allow all children to be welcomed “in a collective setting” from their first year in order to acquire the basics of language. “There will no longer be fundamental inequalities from which we never escape where some three-year-old children know 500 words, others 700 words, others 1500,” he explained.
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“It seems to me a good way to achieve equal opportunities. We are in a large developed country and we have parents who are fighting to get places in daycare. But are we in France or in a fourth-class country? In a first-zone country, parents should not have difficulty providing care for their children and should have the assurance that they will learn the language of the country where they are, French,” insisted Bruno Le Maire.
Give more “autonomy” to educational establishments
The former minister also proposes giving more “autonomy” to educational establishments, with school heads having increased decision-making margins. At the same time, he wants establishments to be evaluated by independent evaluators from National Education. Finally, he pleads for a change of direction regarding the objectives of the school system. Rather than aiming for “100% at the baccalaureate”, he believes that we should achieve “100% in class with a job or activity”. The former tenant of Bercy wishes in particular to revalorize apprenticeship and place it under the responsibility of the Regions.
Bruno Le Maire's position is in line with the reactions of the main French leaders regarding the performance of French students, once again at the heart of concerns. France's results in the 2025 edition of the international Pisa survey, which assesses the skills of 15-year-old students, are the lowest ever recorded by the country. However, France remains within the average of OECD countries.
Since the 2022 edition, French performance has fallen by 18 points in reading comprehension and by 16 points in mathematics, while it has remained relatively stable in science. Over a longer period, between 2012 and 2025, the French score increased from 505 to 456 points in reading and from 484 to 458 in mathematics. In science, it decreased from 499 to 483 points. According to the OECD, around twenty points correspond approximately to one year of schooling.
Another worrying signal: the level gaps remain strongly linked to social origin. In ten years, the proportion of high-performing students has notably been halved in mathematics and in reading comprehension. Nearly a third of French students also encounter great difficulties in written comprehension. Bruno Le Maire, who has withdrawn from political life for two years, returned to the forefront this summer with the publication of a manifesto of around sixty pages, entitled “For another France”. He defends three priorities: “authority”, “prosperity” and “sovereignty”, while leaving open the possibility of participating in the next presidential campaign.
