First day of school

This here, in the photo, is my beautiful daughter. Her face is blurred for reasons of privacy, but it's still her. And today she started school.

Some people would raise an eyebrow and ask - school? She seems too young for that...
Well, here, in France, there is no kindergarten after 3 years old, and when the children enter the public-municipal education system, they enter to a school. This is how they call it, and I believe that in a way, it's different than a kindergarten.

The school system in France is as follows:
Until the age of 3, there is no school, and the parents have a few options for their children:

1. They can go to what they call Creche (sounds a bit like "crash"), which can be either a public or a private one. A creche is a wonderful solution for working parents and/or families with low income that still want to send their child to an educational institution. However, they require paychecks, which means that non-working parents, or parents who happen to be freelancers and therefore work without pay slips (like my husband and I) have a very hard time getting into such a place. This leaves two more options (besides leaving the child home with the parents, which is also an option until the age of 4).
2. Halte-garderie: this is a strange, half-day place, which lets the parents put the child there for only a limited number of hours and days a week. I'm not sure exactly what it's good for, but I assume that if you can't get into a creche, it's the lesser evil, and doesn't cost much, too.
3. Assistante maternelle (basically - a nanny certified and authorized by the state) is a woman (usually, anyway) who takes care of up to 3 children, if I'm not mistaken. She does that from her own home, meaning the parents take their children there every morning, and then back home at the designated hour. This is what we did with our daughter, for lack of other choices, and while it was very beneficial for her, it was also very expensive. This nanny "belongs" to and takes care of 1-3 children, not to 20-30 of them, which means that someone has to pay this expense. While the payment is somewhat subsidized by France, it's still not cheap at all, and people who have financial problems can find that they're having a really hard time paying for such a luxury.

At the age of 3, the child can enter school. The first part of the educational system, called Ecole Maternelle, has three sections - the little section, the medium section, and the big section, according to age. Parents who don't wish to do so, don't have to put their children in school until they are 6 (then it becomes obligatory, but I think this is about to change to the age of 3 next year), but many do, since this school teaches the children many basic things, and is also very cheap compared to all the other options I mentioned above.

Then there's the regular elementary school (Ecole elementaire), which is the usual grade 1 to 6 (that is, until you're about 12-13 years old).

The next stage in education is College. Yes, college. But it's not exactly what it means in English - this is sort of a middle school, for grades 7-9, where there is a higher education level than before, not I think the majors are only chosen in highschool.

And now, of course, comes exactly that. Highschool, or Lycee, is the last stage of the obligatory education system in France. You go to school, you take your tests, you get your diploma. But around January you start seeing, all over Paris, ads that talk about BAC. There's BAC+2, BAC+3, BAC+5... But what is this weird thing?

BAC is a short for Baccalauréat. According to Wikipedia, it is "an academic qualification that French students take after high school. Introduced by Napoleon I in 1808, it is the main diploma that is required to pursue university studies." Which, if you ask me, sounds a lot like some of the American colleges I've heard about.

Then, there's university. In France, which is a highly socialist country, there is a really good thing about universities - they're free. FREE!!!
Well, that's not 100% accurate.
In France, technically, the universities are free for all. However, you do have to pay the taxes for your studies, which cost a few hundreds of Euros per year. You also have to buy school materials, and all the surrounding costs of being a student. However, compared to the US and some other places in the world, it's really almost nothing, and very affordable in general.
In addition, the studies take place in French, and you need a French level of B2 to be able to enroll. This is not impossible, but it makes it harder for expats and people who aren't French in general to enroll for their studies.
Last but not least - what happens when you want to go to a university or a higher education establishment that happens to be the "top of the top", the equivalent of the Ivy League universities in the US? Well, then all bets are off. Nothing is free anymore, and the costs are absolutely astronomical (I heard about a school that charges 100,000 Euros per year!!!). On the other hand, in that arena you can easily find programs and tracks in all kinds of languages and methods, and this solves the language problem. So if you don't speak French and want to go to university here - no problem! Just be super-rich and everything will work out! (what an easy solution)

I hope you enjoyed this little post of mine on the education system in France. I'd love to know how the education system in your countries work, so please comment, and of course - please resteem :-)