The MR continues its essential reforms to improve the quality of education and support for our children. Our ambition is clear: to restore to school the taste for effort and a sense of high standards. From a young age, it must convey essential values: excellence, curiosity, a sense of responsibility, pride in a job well done, respect for authority and recognition of merit. Priority is given to mastering basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic). We are refocusing school on its core missions, strengthening the autonomy of institutions, simplifying procedures and avoiding the waste of public money.
1. KEY Test: detecting difficulties in maths, reading and writing earlier
A major new feature this school year: pupils in the 4th year of primary school will take the KEY Test for the first time (Calculation, Reading, Writing) organised between 15 September and 1 October. This is not a certifying exam or a test designed to penalise pupils, but a snapshot of what they have learned.
The main aim is not to wait until difficulties pile up. The results will allow teaching teams to identify skills that need to be reworked and to trigger personalised support where necessary.
This new tool goes hand in hand with reinforced staffing: 220 additional full-time equivalents are dedicated to personalised support in the 3rd, 4th and 6th years of primary school.
Support is not aimed solely at remediation: it must also enable pupils who already master basic skills to go further, so-called “extension”.
2. Two periods of digital skills and more mathematics in the 1st year of secondary school
Pupils will now have 5 periods of mathematics per week, one more than before, as well as 2 periods dedicated to digital skills as part of the technical, manual, technological and digital training course.
This is not just about learning to use tools: pupils will in particular come to understand how digital technology works, discover algorithms and develop critical use of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, while also sharpening their critical thinking about it.
This comes alongside a strengthening of digital equipment in schools and for pupils, as the Government is fully maintaining the existing “My Digital Tools” scheme, which gives families a €150 voucher towards buying computer equipment, and supports schools via a solidarity fund to boost their digital equipment.
In addition, each school will receive a flat amount of €1,000, supplemented by a variable share calculated according to its pupil numbers. The allocation of resources is based on schools' actual needs. It takes into account not only the number of pupils but also the number of classes and sites. Primary schools (nursery and primary) will receive 72% of available resources and secondary schools 28%. This split reflects the fact that individual equipment for secondary pupils continues to be funded primarily through the “My Digital Tools” scheme.
Schools that already have sufficient equipment will retain flexibility to use these resources for their other operating expenses.
3. Gradual phasing-out of the differentiated stage: the funding remains
The first year of the differentiated stage disappears from the start of the 2026 school year, as already planned under the Pact. The second year will disappear in turn in 2027-2028. But the disappearance of the scheme does not mean the disappearance of the resources devoted to it: these are fully maintained and redirected towards enhanced support for pupils in the 1st year of secondary school, amounting to €24.5 million.
In practice, a pupil who has not obtained the CEB (primary school certificate) will be able to enter the 1st year of secondary school and follow the same curriculum frameworks as other pupils, while receiving enhanced support. If they pass the year, they will be deemed to hold the CEB.
A “backpack” mechanism also ensures that resources follow the pupil's needs: each failed component of the CEB generates an extra 0.5 support period for the school taking in the pupil. This can take the form of co-teaching during lessons or targeted remedial periods outside the timetable.
4. An additional €25 million for personalised support
In total, €25 million in new funding is being invested to strengthen personalised support for pupils in primary school and the 1st year of secondary school. This represents 220 additional full-time equivalents in primary school (years 3-4-6) and 140 full-time equivalents in the 1st year of secondary school.
The aim is to bring academic rigour and support closer together: detecting difficulties more quickly, consolidating basic learning, and providing a pedagogical response before delays build up.
In practice, this support may take the form of co-teaching, with two teaching staff present simultaneously in the classroom. This allows, for example, one to continue teaching the whole group while the other provides more targeted help to certain pupils, or to work with smaller groups.
5. Reducing the administrative burden: simplification of steering plans
From this school year, steering plans are being greatly simplified to reduce the administrative burden on school leadership and teaching teams: from 15 themes down to 5 broad dimensions, less data entry and information required, and the drafting deadline extended from 110 to 150 school working days. The evaluation timeline is also being revised, with deadlines in years 3 and 6, to give teams more time and refocus the tool on its educational purpose.
At the same time, appeals, requests for exemption and notifications may now be submitted electronically, to simplify and speed up administrative procedures.
6. Discovering careers
Career guidance is also given more space from the start of secondary school. In the 1st year of secondary school, pupils will take part in activities to discover careers and the working world, in particular during “discovery days”, but also more broadly work on education for choice. For example, spending a few hours with a pharmacist to discover healthcare careers, visiting a company or workshop, meeting an electrician, carpenter or mechanic, or discovering a digital career. The aim is not to ask a 12-year-old to already choose their future job, but to give them a concrete introduction to professional worlds, sometimes little known, and gradually help them identify their interests.
This positive guidance approach will be developed throughout secondary school, in particular via the guidance record that will follow the pupil throughout their schooling.
7. Two additional periods in upper secondary school and accompanying measures
From this school year, the classroom teaching load for upper secondary teachers rises from 20 to 22 periods, thus matching that of lower secondary. The measure represents around 1,300 fewer full-time equivalents, while about 2,170 full-time equivalents are naturally freed up each year in the upper stage, notably due to natural departures, early retirement, etc. Across the whole of secondary school, more than 4,000 full-time equivalents are freed up each year.
The 2026-2027 school year also presents a special situation: with the extension of initial teacher training from three to four years, very few new graduates will enter the job market this year.
The overall context therefore remains one of shortage, even though individual losses of hours remain possible. It is precisely for these cases that we have provided two protective mechanisms.
Firstly, the effects of reassignments will be frozen for the whole of next school year. A temporary teacher will therefore not lose their hours in favour of a permanently appointed teacher reassigned under the +2 periods measure.
Secondly, we are protecting priority temporary teachers from the start of the school year. A priority temporary teacher who had 20 teaching periods on 3 July will not suffer a loss of salary at the start of the school year due to the increase of 2 “classroom” periods in upper secondary school. If periods need to be freed up for a permanently appointed teacher, they may be made available to their school to carry out other tasks in service of the school and pupils, or to cover replacements, until 31 December 2026.
8. Two classroom-teaching relief periods at the start and end of a career
In 2026-2027, in upper secondary school, teachers starting their first year in the profession as well as those aged 60 and over will benefit from a reduction of two classroom-teaching periods. The scheme is then to be extended to all levels from 2027-2028.
The aim is twofold: to better support entry into the profession, allowing for example for lesson preparation time, a period during which dropout is frequent, and to adapt the end of career, allowing experienced teachers to devote more time to passing on their expertise through mentoring.
9. Therapeutic part-time work limited to two years
From 24 August 2026, the therapeutic part-time work scheme will change, with a possible extension of up to two years. Pay is set at 60%, except in situations recognised as serious and long-term illness, for which the more favourable arrangement is maintained.
10. The pilot project on artificial intelligence in schools continues
The pilot project on the use of artificial intelligence in schools will continue in 2026-2027.
11. Pass thresholds for external assessments rise to 60%
During the 2026-2027 school year, the rules for certifying external assessments will change: from the June 2027 assessments, the pass threshold for the CEB, CE1D and CESS will be set at 60%. Note: for the CEB held in June 2026, the 50% threshold still applies.
For the CEB, pupils will need to obtain at least 50% in each of the three assessed subjects (French, mathematics and general awareness) and an overall average of at least 60%. This prevents a very strong performance in one subject from fully compensating for major difficulties in another.
For the CE1D, at the end of the 2nd year of secondary school, and the CESS, at the end of the 6th year, the threshold will be set at 60% for each external assessment
12. Neutrality: ban on visible religious or philosophical symbols for staff in official education
From the 2026-2027 school year, the new neutrality framework will ban the wearing of visible religious or philosophical symbols for staff members of the relevant official education institutions. An exception is provided for teachers responsible for religion and ethics classes while teaching those lessons. The reform aims to strengthen the school's neutrality framework and guarantee pupils a learning environment free from identity-based, religious, philosophical or political pressures.
13. The framework programme against bullying extended to more schools
The rollout of the framework programme against bullying and cyberbullying continues this school year. The aim is to allow more schools to benefit from a structured and lasting approach to preventing and dealing with bullying, rather than intervening only when a situation erupts. €8 million is being mobilised over four years, in particular to increase the number of operators supporting schools.
14. A new framework against school dropout in primary education
From the 2026-2027 school year in primary education (before secondary school in 2027-2028), a new scheme aims to detect the risk of dropout earlier and gradually support pupils, according to three levels of intervention. Monitoring of absences is strengthened through a single IT tool, with automatic updating of the DAccE (pupil support record) and better detection of repeated absences. Coordination between schools, PMS centres and partners such as youth welfare services will also be reinforced.
15. Better management of provision in special needs education
We are introducing more structured management of special needs education, with a report submitted to Parliament every four years to identify areas where provision is insufficient and better match types and forms of education to actual needs. The new framework also offers greater flexibility to create places, new sites or new types of education where a shortfall is objectively established, in particular to reduce the long school journeys imposed on some pupils for lack of suitable nearby provision. Particular attention is being paid to the growing needs linked to autism, with relaxed conditions for creating type 2 places.
16. Faster appeals in cases of expulsion
Introduction of inter-network appeal boards to handle appeals against decisions of permanent exclusion, along with shorter administrative deadlines, including a reduction of the file transmission period from 10 to 5 working days. Re-enrolment options are also being expanded: where no solution could be found, government services will be able to search for a place across all education networks. The aim is to minimise as much as possible the time a pupil spends without a school after exclusion.
And other additional measures:
(i) A maximum of three days' absence without a medical certificate per school year
(ii) Sick pay: reduced to 60%
(iii) Possibility of partial resignation for teachers in all education networks
(iv) Abolition of automatic progression between the 1st and 2nd year of secondary school