A normal school was responsible for training primary school teachers in France. This system, which had long been an essential part of the structure of state primary education, lasted in France from 1808 to 1990–1991. They were commonly called or . Later, they were integrated into the IUFM, which trains primary and secondary school teachers.
For a time, Japan followed the French model with the creation of normal schools in 1886.[1]
During the First Empire (1804–1814), article 108 of the Imperial Decree of March 17, 1808, concerning the organization of the University of France, provided for the creation of "normal classes" within the lycées or collèges "intended to train teachers for the primary schools". After the short-lived[2] first normal school in Paris in 1794, the second "normal school" was created in Strasbourg in 1810, mainly thanks to the prefect Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia.[3] Initially, this normal school for boys was only an annex of the lycée for boys of Strasbourg, before being granted autonomy in 1820.
Until 1879, the normal schools for boys and girls provided mainly moral and religious education. During the Restoration (1814–1830) and then the July Monarchy (1830–1848), the number of normal schools for boys reached 13 in 1829, 47 in 1832,[4] and 56 on June 28, 1833, according to the table [5] drawn up by the Minister François Guizot on July 24, 1833, in his circular letter to the prefects. This table lists 35 "boarding schools" and 21 "day schools" for these 56 normal schools in operation, 15 normal schools in project, and 18 departments without projects out of a total of 86 departments.
On January 2, 1833, François Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction, presented his bill on primary education to the Chamber of Deputies. In his introductory [6]
This meant that the majority of "primary" teachers, recruited outside the normal school system and therefore without any initial professional training, had to have at least the primary certificate. They then had the precarious status of (auxiliary teachers who could be dismissed at any time) and had to teach for several years before they could finally obtain their CAP and thus tenure. Until 1924, the superior certificate (BS) - the "keystone" diploma of the "popular" primary curriculum - was also the final diploma of the "bourgeois" secondary curriculum for girls. Until that year, the baccalauréat was limited to boys' public and private lycées and collèges. The exception was girls who took the baccalauréat as free candidates, and only those who passed were admitted to university.
A major educational project[14] for the democratization of education - proposed by Jean Zay, Minister of National Education and Fine Arts in the Léon Blum government - was stopped in 1937 by the conservative majority in the Senate under the Popular Front (1936–1937). In terms of teacher training, it envisaged that primary school teachers would be awarded the baccalaureate, prepared in three years in the lycées by and, who would remain trainees in the normal schools, where they would receive two years of modernized professional training.
Under the Vichy regime (1940–1944), the superior certificate and the normal schools were abolished by decree on August 15, 1941, and a small number of future primary school teachers were recruited through an entrance examination from among students able to continue their studies after the second year of secondary school in the so-called "bourgeois" curriculum. After the first three years in lycée, which culminated in the baccalauréat, they had to complete an internship in one of the (33 for boys and 33 for girls). Jean Zay, the former Minister of Education and Fine Arts under the Front Populaire, described this internship as "derisory" in his prison[15] diary. However, on March 15, 1944, the (CNR - National Council of the Resistance) adopted its government program for a major democratic reform of the school system and education.
At the time of the Liberation (1944–1945), the commission appointed on November 8, 1944, by René Capitant, minister of the GPRF, and chaired by Charles de Gaulle, was to draw up a major democratic reform of education. Its proposals, adopted unanimously, became known as the Langevin-Wallon plan. Future primary school teachers (aged 3 to 18) were to be recruited after the baccalauréat, and the plan provided for "a special system of scholarships to ensure that the recruitment of teachers remains popular [...] And it was only after obtaining the baccalauréat of their choice that future teachers of general or specialized subjects would spend their two pre-university years in normal schools. There they were to receive a dual training: practical training in contact with the schoolchildren of the secondary schools and specialized theoretical training to prepare them for the universities".[16] The two years of normal schooling would be followed by two years of university studies. However, this modernist plan was adopted too late and was only presented on June 19, 1947 (after the end of the MRP-SFIO-PCF "tripartisme" and amid the Cold War). It was never implemented by the "Third Force" governments of the Fourth Republic, and the old division between "popular" primary education and "bourgeois" secondary education remained.
The normal schools were re-established after the Liberation in 1945, but recruitment was mainly aimed at third-year students from the "popular" complementary courses, the largest of which had a "special third-year" class to prepare them for the highly selective entrance exam to the normal schools for boys and girls.
Those admitted were obliged to complete a four-year training program, including preparation for the baccalaureate, in the normal schools. The first two years of training correspond to the second M' and first M' classes, and in the second year, they prepare for the two sessions in February and June of the first part of the baccalauréat "série Moderne prime (M')", with a single modern foreign language and no ancient languages (Latin or Greek), but with an examination in natural sciences. The third year corresponds to the terminal class, with preparation for the June session of the second part of the baccalauréat "Sciences expérimentales" (known as Science-ex). The fourth year is a year of both theoretical and professional training, with internships in primary school classes, particularly in the annex school. The fourth year would culminate in an examination - the famous CFEN - that students have to pass to qualify for the position of trainee teacher. At the end of their first term as teachers, after an inspection of their class, they have to pass the CAP to finally become full-fledged primary school teachers, and therefore category B civil servants. If they fail, they become "substitute" teachers, just like those who had not obtained their CFEN at the end of their fourth year of normal school, and therefore also like those recruited based on diplomas, who were also not tenured until they obtained their CAP.
According to André Payan-Passeron's[17] study, under the Third Republic, outstanding aspiring teachers (boys and girls) could take the examination for a fourth year, in other words, special classes, such as those at the normal school for boys in Versailles. These classes prepared them for the entrance exam to the (founded in 1882) for boys and Fontenay-aux-Roses (founded in 1880) for girls. From there, they went on to become teachers and then directors of normal schools, or primary school inspectors.
Under the Fourth and Fifth Republics, those with the best academic results in their second year were then eligible for a scholarship to attend their third year in one of the two mixed regional classes in the main town of the Académie. Either the class preparing for the elementary mathematics baccalaureate (known as the) at the normal school for boys, for those strong in math-physics and chemistry, or the class preparing for the philosophy baccalaureate (known as the) at the normal school for girls, for those with the most talent in literary subjects. At the end of this class, depending on their ranking and subject to having passed the baccalauréat, they could - on the advice of the teachers' council and the decision of the Inspector of the Académie - either enter a preparatory class for the entrance exam to the (for boys) or (for girls), or be appointed as trainees in a two-year regional training center for middle school teachers, or return to their original normal school.
In addition, at the end of their third or even fourth year at a normal school, some of them - among the most outstanding - could in turn obtain a scholarship to be appointed as trainees in one of these two-year regional education centers for secondary school teachers (PEGc), attached to a normal school in the main town of the Académie. In these educational centers, they received remuneration as trainee civil servants and were responsible for their accommodation, while benefiting from their student status when it came to (CROUS) university canteens at reduced rates. They were required to attend theoretical training courses in both pedagogy and the subjects they were to teach: French and history-geography, French and modern foreign languages, mathematics and science... They were also required, once a term, to undertake a one-month internship, first in a primary school class (CP to CM2) and then in a secondary school class (6e to 3e).
Given these constraints, they could only partially attend courses at the faculty in which they were entitled to enroll: the Faculty of Letters and Humanities for literary students, and the Faculty of Science for scientists, excluding the faculties of law and medicine. They then benefited from dual training, both professional and academic, with the possibility of taking the university certificate for the first year of university studies, and thus possibly being admitted to the IPES, where they were paid as trainee teachers for three years to prepare for their teaching license and the CAPES examination, or for 4 years to prepare for a DES and take the agrégation examination to become certified or chartered teachers in collèges or lycées. Those who were not fortunate enough to be admitted to the IPES (given the very low number of places available), had to pass the written and oral tests for the CFEN - CEG at the end of their two years at the education center, to qualify for a middle school teaching post in their home department. If they failed to do so, they were appointed as substitute teachers, that is, as non-tenured teachers who could be dismissed at any time.
This was the initial situation for the majority of male and female primary school teachers, who, recruited based on diplomas (BE or BS then baccalauréat) without having attended a normal school, had to wait many years before obtaining their CAP and thus becoming tenured category B civil servants with their posts.
There was also another route open to athletically gifted aspiring teachers after their fourth year at a normal school. This was the entrance examination for the IREPS, which provided a three-year training course for physical education and sports teachers, enabling some of them to pass the competitive entrance examination for the ENSEPS in Paris.
With the possibility of promotion to secondary school for some, the opportunity for others to become primary school principals, and, for some, a successful career in the private sector, the normal schools were a powerful "social elevator" for those from working-class backgrounds. This makes it all the more understandable that the majority of serving primary school teachers did not go through the entrance examinations to the normal schools, but were recruited directly by the education inspectors resident in each departmental capital as substitute teachers based on their diplomas. In this way, the effective social role played by the normal schools since their creation becomes clearer: the education of members of the teaching elite, from pedagogues such as Célestin Freinet to educational innovators, as well as administrative staff, particularly managers and inspectors.
After 1973, the entrance examination for normal schools was postponed until after the baccalauréat, with professional training extended from one to two years, as envisaged in part by the 1947 Langevin-Wallon[18] plan.
In 1990–1991, IUFM replaced normal schools, following the Jospin Law of July 10, 1989.
Under the July 8, 2013 law of orientation and programming for the refoundation of the school of the Republic, ESPEs succeeded IUFMs, and entrance examinations to the teaching profession are accessible with enrolment in the first year of a Master's degree. Under the July 26, 2019 law for a school of confidence, ESPEs are renamed INSPÉ .
The new regulations redefined normal schools: religious instruction was abolished and replaced by a republican moral and civic education, legitimizing the nickname of "black hussars" given to primary school teachers after the 1905 vote on the Law of Separation of Church and State.In reality, only a fraction of future primary school teachers are recruited by entrance examination. Candidates were required to have the CEP or, later, the "primary[13]
During the Second Republic (1848–1852) and the Second Empire (1852–1870), normal schools were viewed with suspicion by the authorities, who suspected them of promoting democratic or even socialist ideas. As early as June 18, 1849, Alfred de Falloux, Minister of Public Instruction, presented his bill [8] in favor of freedom of education to the Constitutional Assembly:
During the debates in the Assembly, Victor Hugo (now a Republican) declared himself firmly opposed to the bill, which he considered too clerical and reactionary. Although it was debated and amended, Alfred Falloux's bill was nevertheless passed. And so, on March 15, 1850, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, President of the Republic, promulgated the Falloux law[10] concerning primary education. Article 35 of this law concerns only normal schools for boys, whose existence is called into question by its first and second paragraphs:
Article 35 of the Falloux law (March 15, 1850) obliged the départements to ensure the recruitment of aspiring teachers but left them free to choose between the normal school or the simple primary schools reserved for this purpose. It also explicitly stated that the normal schools for boys could be abolished by the General Council or even by the Minister of Public Instruction. As a result, the number of normal schools would not increase, it would even decrease, even though religious instruction would be given in these schools by a resident chaplain with considerable authority.
Under the Third Republic (1870–1940), the Republican victory in the senatorial elections of 1879 led to Jules Ferry's appointment to the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, then to the presidency of the council. Between 1879 and 1882, a series of school laws were passed establishing compulsory, free, and secular primary education for all boys and girls in France between the ages of 6 and 13 (rising to 14 in 1936). Those who obtained the CEP at the age of 11 were released from their schooling obligations.
On 14 January 1878, deputy Paul Bert presented a bill [11] to the French Chamber of Deputies on the creation of normal schools. In his introductory speech, Paul Bert said:
After lengthy discussions and amendments, Paul Bert's bill was finally passed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate the following year.
The Paul Bert Law [12] was promulgated by the President of the Republic, Jules Grévy, on August 9, 1879. This seven-article law once again required the departments to have a normal school for boys and, for the first time, a normal school for girls.[13]
The regulations of 1833 established the certificate of proficiency required to teach in both private and public schools. There were to be two such certificates: a "primary" certificate (BE in French), followed by a " superior " certificate (BS in French). As a result, anyone over the age of 18 who wished to work as a primary school teacher or head a primary school would have to have not only a certificate of good character but also a certificate of proficiency (BE or BS), depending on the level of the school, obtained after an examination organized in each department by designated committees.
On June 2, 1833, David Lévi Alvarès, in partnership with M. Lourmand, opened a regular course for aspiring female teachers at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. Every Sunday, five hundred of these aspiring female teachers attended this gathering in the Salle Saint-Jean.
Five years later, in 1838, France's first normal school for girls was founded. This was facilitated by the royal order of June 23, 1836,[8]
This means that aspiring teachers had to finance all or part of their short studies at a normal school themselves unless they were eligible for all or part of a municipal, departmental, or state scholarship. At the end of these short studies, they must obtain a "certificate of proficiency"[8]
On July 24, 1833, the Minister sent a long circular letter[8]