This paper outlines the trends in nursery schools in France, focusing on the perspective of these schools being a medium of connection to primary schools. In France, 97.6% of 3-yearolds attend nursery schools, which are considered to be a part of compulsory education, and provide education that is consistent with the compulsory education system. This high enrolment rate is largely due to the fact that the Fundamental Law of Education of 1989 guaranteed free preschool education for all toddlers aged 3 and over. In addition, President Emmanuel Macron announced at the Nursery School Education Council meeting that he would lower the age at which compulsory education begins to 3 years from the academic year 2019 onwards.
In France, there is a popular trend to point the finger at the role of nursery schools as the root cause of children’s success or failure in schoolwork. The fundamental mission of nursery schools is to teach children the abilities needed in Year 1 of primary school, and in particular, to teach the spoken language. On the other hand, teachers and national education inspectors are in charge of both nursery schools and primary schools, but they are being trained to carry out education with a strong emphasis on primary school learning, and it is being continuously pointed out that this conversion of nursery schools to primary schools is having an unfavourable influence on the motivation of young children. In response to these problems, the new Fundamental Law of Education in 2013 revised the learning period as a whole, making nursery school a learning period independent from the rest of schooling.
This revision of the learning period involves the establishment of a consistent educational program that includes not only the connection between nursery schools and primary schools, or between primary schools and middle schools, but also secondary schools, which are not a part of compulsory education. This is ‘The Arts and Culture Education Pathway (Le parcours d'education artistique et culturelle (PEAC)’ enacted in the new Fundamental Law of Education of 2013, whereby all children in school, including nursery schools, can have their own long-term learning plans for art and culture. In addition, it aims to make the personal background in art and culture substantial for each student while continuously covering the prescribed contents until the end of high school. Art education is thus attracting attention as a tool that connects the different learning periods.