ABSTRACT
Based on PISA findings, across OECD countries, France appears to be one of the most affected countries by a very high level of social inequality in education. Since the first PISA in the early 2000s, this situation has even deteriorated. In addition, the individual or collective indicators of well-being at school also appear negative in France. These poor French results lead us to question in this article both the national and local policies that aim to combat social inequalities at school and their link with the overall care of child growth. We will first present the performance of the French system at the end of compulsory schooling, regarding the students’ cognitive skills as well as their psycho-social attitudes and the quality of life at school. Then, in the second part of this article, we will examine the policy choices made by the Ministry of Education and local authorities regarding affirmative action. Finally, in the third part, through a historical analysis, which spans four decades (1981–2021), we will analyze how concerns about the child’s overall development have been integrated (or not) into these policies.
