Citizens' assembly on school times in France
On 2 May 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the convening of a Citizens' Assembly on the question of how long the French school year and school day should be - and whether the summer holidays should be shortened.
‘I think it is necessary that we work on organising the school day in a way that is more conducive to the development and learning of pupils and that we find a balance to make life easier for families,’ said Macron in an interview with the French daily newspaper Le Parisien.
‘Children are falling behind in performance levels’
‘We have very, very long summer holidays. Children who don't have family support often fall behind in their performance levels. The Citizens‘ Assembly seems to me to be the most suitable instrument for consulting the French population,’ said Macron.
It is a very complex issue that requires a consensus between all stakeholders, including parents, the education system including extracurricular activities, local authorities and even tourism professionals.
The Citizens' Assembly should help to get a picture of the opinions of a cross-section of the French population and involve citizens more directly in the work of the government.
Two months of summer holidays
French schoolchildren generally have a two-month summer holiday, with the school year ending in the first week of July and starting again on or shortly after 1 September.
Although the ‘grandes vacances’ are the longest holidays, there are many other holidays during the school year. Pupils (and teachers) have several two-week holidays. These include the autumn holidays on All Saints' Day, the Christmas holidays in December, the winter holidays in February/March and the spring holidays in April/May.
In total, schools have 16 weeks of holidays per year and 36 weeks of lessons. This means that France has one of the shortest school years in the world - the average in OECD countries is 38 weeks. Around a third of all countries worldwide have a school year of 40 weeks or more. However, according to the OECD, France is above average in terms of the number of lessons per year.
Citizens' Assembly begins on 20 June
The Citizens' Assembly on school and care times for children and young people between the ages of 3 and 18 is due to start on 20 June 2025 and run until the autumn. It consists of 130 members who represent the French population in terms of age, gender, education, profession, place of residence and region of origin. All participants receive an expense allowance. All costs for travelling, accommodation and meals are covered. There is also a childcare allowance.
Seven working sessions are planned from June to November 2025. Teachers, head teachers, parents, local politicians, sports and cultural organisations as well as medical, social and economic experts will be involved in the consultations. A group of 20 children and young people aged between 12 and 17 will come together to share their experiences and express their expectations.
Steering committee accompanies the process
A steering committee will oversee the process and monitor compliance with the principles of transparency and neutrality.
The organisation of the assembly has been entrusted to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). ‘The democratic unease of our fellow citizens is also a crisis in the effectiveness of government action. And this is where participatory and social democracy comes into play by providing the necessary material for better-designed, better-implemented and better-accepted public policies,’ explained its President Thierry Beaudet.
Criticism from trade union
The president's initiative has been criticised by the main middle and secondary school teachers' union. ‘Emmanuel Macron's proposal misses the point,’ Sophie Vénétitay, General Secretary of the Snes-FSU union, told the AFP news agency. ‘It distracts us from addressing urgent problems and conceals the desolate state of schools: there is a lack of teachers, we have the most overcrowded classes in Europe.’
Grégoire Ensel, Vice President of the parents‘ association FCPE, on the other hand, welcomes the Citizens’ Assembly: ‘We believe that the education system has reached a point where it no longer works and that we need to fundamentally rethink schools in terms of their expectations and objectives, and this requires a social debate.’
‘Calling for a more comprehensive approach’
‘We need to rethink the issue of school hours (...) but we are calling for a much more comprehensive approach for children. There are many other issues that need to be addressed: the issue of social and school mix, the issue of inclusion of disabled people, the issue of class sizes,’ said Ensel.
Tackling school hours harbours risks. Former Education Minister Vincent Peillon failed in 2013 with a reform that introduced a four-and-a-half-day school week. ‘The majority of the French were in favour of reform, but neither the parents nor the teachers were,’ recalls education historian Claude Lelièvre.
Inequalities in afternoon care
‘The local authorities had to organise extracurricular activities in the afternoons, but they didn't all have the same resources, which led to inequalities. Extra lessons on Wednesdays meant additional childcare costs for teachers and a deterioration in their working conditions,‘ recalls Guislaine David, Co-General Secretary of the SNUipp-FSU (primary school teachers’ union).
Another difficulty: the timetable for reforms is tight. Local elections will be held in March 2026 and presidential elections in April 2027. ‘This would force the Citizens' Assembly to work very quickly and present its recommendations in November. And that decisions have to be made by the start of the 2026 school year,’ Guislaine David calculates.
Municipalities would have to pitch in
If the Citizens' Assembly were to propose shortening the school day, the municipalities would have to help organise extracurricular activities. ‘However, they are already affected by budget cuts,’ notes Claude Lelièvre. In his opinion, an immediate national reform of school hours would also be problematic. ‘The only way out would be a reform with variable procedures that can be adapted according to the needs of the regions,’ he says.
The Citizens' Assembly on school and childcare hours is the third national assembly in France. Previously, there had already been citizens' assemblies on climate action and assisted dying.