Initiatives in priority education zones

In France, as in many other countries, there are so-called "priority education zones" (ZEP). In these zones, special measures are put in place to reduce the disparities observed at national level. Many teachers in the Créteil Academy, for example, receive special bonuses to encourage them to work in these zones. There are also support solutions such as "study" or "pact", which are complementary missions for teachers in these zones.

The "étude" is paid for by the town hall, and the "pacte" by the government. During these extra hours, children in difficulty are looked after by teachers. This scheme is supposed to improve learners' results, but is it really the case?

The classification of priority education zones

The creation of priority education zones in France dates back to 1981. The decision to create these zones was prompted by proven educational failure in specific environments, as summarized in this text on the Eduscol website:

"Sociological research has revealed the importance of students' social background, emphasizing the role played by the "family and social environment", and more specifically by parents' level of education, on academic success. This research also shows how social inequalities and spatial disparities combine and reinforce each other. In fact, they lead to the concentration of pupils with major educational difficulties within certain zones."

The concept of priority education zones was then exported to countries such as Cameroon. In 2005, the Cameroonian government adopted the term to designate areas in need of special support: the provinces of Extreme North, North, Adamaoua, South West and North West, pockets of under-schooling in large conurbations and border areas. But in 2013, Herrick MOUAFO DJONTU pointed out after a field study that this concept had remained more of a slogan and had not really been applied in Cameroon. This is not the case in France.

From 1981 to 2022, the concept of priority education (ZEP) moved from zones to priority education networks and reinforced priority education networks (REP and REP+), passing through "ambition success networks" and "school success networks" (RAR and RRS ) and schools, colleges and lycées for ambition, innovation and success (ÉCLAIR). All these solutions have certainly had a positive impact, but they have failed to narrow the gap in terms of the number of schools involved. We have gone from 3,730 schools and 503 collèges and lycées in 1982 to 6,636 schools and 1,092 collèges and lycées in 2022.

This mixed record is partly due to the fact that the main causes of failure often lie outside the school. The imbalance in schooling has its origins in other imbalances.

• Imbalance between parents' professional and family lives
  
  Many of the students in this study are selected on the basis of the unavailability of parents who work all day. Since children can't come home and be alone, they are forced to stay at school and wait for their parents to return home. The result is a lack of balance between parents' professional and family lives. This can not only have a negative impact on the parents' own productivity, but also create a gap between children and parents.
  
  It has to be said that some of the children living in single-parent families rely on just one parent, which pushes that parent to work twice as hard. Hence the imbalance at parental level.

• Imbalance in family structure
  
  Many children in priority education zones have "default parents", i.e. parents who look after their children alone, without the presence of a spouse. The impact of single parenthood is enormous. Laurette Cretin, in an article entitled "Les familles monoparentales et l'école : un plus grand risque d'échec au collège?" notes that
  

  "Less than half of students living with just one of their two parents are enrolled in the seconde générale et technologique class four years after starting sixth form, whereas two-thirds of students living with both parents are. This situation is explained in particular by a higher risk of repeating a year at secondary school: when living in a single-parent family, 15% of pupils have had to repeat at least one year during the first four years of secondary school, compared to just 8% of secondary school pupils raised by both parents."
  

• Infrastructural imbalance
  
  Priority education zones are generally less affluent in terms of infrastructure and resources. This is the case in Cameroon, where there is a shortage of classrooms in the areas concerned.
  
  In France, several schools lack equipment. For example, in several schools in the Seine Saint-Denis department, you'll find one photocopier per school, which very often breaks down and takes weeks to be repaired, which doesn't make the supervisors' work any easier.
  
  Not only is the equipment inadequate, but parents are among the poorest, whether in France, Belgium or elsewhere. As a result, they find it hard to provide the tools they need to ensure their children's education. These parents are mostly immigrants and less educated than other parents (Cretin, 2012).
  
  Faced with these imbalances, it's easy to understand the mixed results of support policies in so-called priority areas. However, there are a few solutions that could be improved or applied.

Solutions

• Provide these establishments with sufficient infrastructure and equipment.
  
  Since we can't educate parents, we can at least provide these schools with quality infrastructure to facilitate teachers' work. Teachers who receive bonuses of up to 500 euros in REP+ schools often find themselves obliged to buy materials themselves: a printer, with all the expense that entails, reams of paper and so on. So it's understandable that, despite the benefits granted to teachers, these areas are still understaffed.
  
  
• Provide more support for single-parent families so that they can look after their children.
  
  A poorly educated child can become a burden on society. So it's best to anticipate the situation downstream, by investing in the child's supervision within the family, to prevent him or her from becoming a burden.
  
  We can't force couples to stay together either, but we can multiply the number of social workers to support single, willing parents in their offspring's education.
  
  
• Contextualize the concept of priority education zones.
  
  In Cameroon, or in other countries that have imported the concept, appropriate content needs to be developed and then applied, in addition to the provision of infrastructure and qualified personnel.

Moreover, the imbalance observed in education is the direct consequence of several imbalances surrounding the learner's immediate environment. It's not enough to support students solely at school, but to find solutions outside the school setting too.

References:

Karien Guy, 2019 , "The default parent: A balance unique to every family"
http://mamanbooh.com/2019/09/le-parent-par-defaut-un-equilibre-unique-a-chaque-famille.html

Cretin Laurette, 2012, "Les familles monoparentales et l'école: un plus grand risque d'échec au collège?", DEPP B1 - Bureau des études statistiques sur les élèves,

Eduscol, (2022), "Éducation prioritaire - repères historiques", https://eduscol.education.fr/3568/education-prioritaire-reperes-historiques

Friant,Nathanaël et al (2008), "Les politiques d'éducation prioritaire en Belgique : deux modes de régulation des effets d'une logique de marché", https://books.openedition.org/enseditions/1927?lang=fr

MOUAFO DJONTU, Herrick (2013), "La notion de Zones d'Éducation Prioritaires (ZEP) au Cameroun : entre impensé, bricolage et informalité ", https://www.irenees.net/bdf_fiche-analyse-1004_fr.html