More research is needed into why France’s education system is failing the country’s growing multicultural population

France has a history of universal education that stretches back more than a century. However, this system has been marred in recent years by a decrease in student achievement, and recent reforms to address this problem have been less than effective. Paola Mattei calls into question the French education system’s ‘republican’ foundations and argues that further research is needed into the social and economic reasons why some students have lower educational outcomes.