Arts and cultural education is integrated into the national curriculum and forms part of compulsory schooling throughout primary and secondary education. It combines compulsory arts teaching with a wide range of complementary cultural activities delivered in partnership with artists, cultural institutions and territorial authorities.
Arts education is progressively developed throughout compulsory education. In primary education, visual arts and music are compulsory subjects. These disciplines continue throughout lower secondary education (collège), where they are complemented by interdisciplinary approaches linking artistic, historical and cultural learning. In upper secondary education (lycée), pupils may choose specialised arts pathways in disciplines such as visual arts, music, theatre, dance, cinema and audiovisual studies, or design. The 2019 reform of the baccalauréat further strengthened these artistic specialisations within the general upper secondary curriculum (Ministry of National Education, Organisation of the General Baccalauréat, 2019).
A distinctive feature of the French system is the network of classes à horaires aménagés, organised in partnership with conservatoires and other specialised cultural institutions. These programmes enable pupils to combine general education with intensive artistic training, particularly in music, dance and theatre (Education Code, Articles D312-10 to D312-16).
Alongside compulsory teaching, schools participate in a wide range of complementary programmes designed to strengthen pupils’ artistic practice and cultural participation. These include classes à projet artistique et culturel (PAC), artist residencies in schools, heritage classes (classes du patrimoine), and long-term partnerships between schools and museums, theatres, archives, libraries and other cultural institutions. Although these schemes are supported by national policy frameworks, they are implemented locally through cooperation between education authorities, cultural organisations and territorial authorities.
Cinema education occupies a distinctive place within French arts education policy. Coordinated by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), the nationwide programmes École et cinéma, Collège au cinéma and Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma introduce pupils to film heritage and contemporary cinema through screenings, classroom activities and educational resources.
Digital cultural resources have become an increasingly important component of arts education. The Lumni platform, developed jointly by France Télévisions, the Ministry of National Education and several national cultural institutions in 2019, provides free educational resources covering a wide range of artistic and cultural disciplines. These digital resources are intended to complement, rather than replace, direct encounters with artists, performances, collections and heritage sites.
Schools are required to incorporate an arts and cultural dimension into their educational projects (projets d’établissement), ensuring that artistic and cultural education forms part of the broader educational experience. Its implementation relies on sustained cooperation between schools, cultural institutions, artists and territorial authorities, reflecting the partnership-based approach that characterises French arts and cultural education (Education Code; Ministry of Culture and Ministry of National Education, 2020–2021 Interministerial Roadmap for Arts and Cultural Education). See also Chapter 5.1.
Comments are closed.