Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - France is reacting to a pre-Christmas letter distributed by its famed grandes écoles, which turn out the majority of the country’s top managers and politicians. The group says it will not follow President Nicolas Sarkozy’s order to accept a large number of lower-income students. The universities have long been criticized by some of the public for catering to the elite. They have been told that 30 percent of their students should come from less privileged groups, but the universities argue that the tough entrance examinations do not discriminate and are therefore fair. Accepting quotas for poorer students will lower standards, they argue.
Sarkozy himself is the rare political leader in France who is not a graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration and he famously failed his examinations at Science Po, the political sciences university which now provides his model for finding gifted students in poorer areas.
Links to other sites: Figaro (Fre), Le Monde (Fre), Times, UK
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News story, GenevaLunch, 6 January 2010.
Filed under: Education
Tags: entrance examinations, France, grandes ecoles, lower income, Nicolas Sarlozy, students, universities