According to a recent survey, many young French people have significant deficiencies in the history of France and Europe. Some have never heard of the Holocaust.
It’s time to delve back into your history books. Torture for some, overflowing passion for others, history lessons nevertheless have two advantages: working on your gray matter and developing your general knowledge. Which is not a luxury these days, especially after the release of the latest PISA 2023 ranking, on December 5. This study evaluates students on several tests, specifically reading comprehension, mathematical and scientific culture. Unfortunately, the news is not good for France. She finished in 23rd place in this ranking and fell heavily in mathematics.
Mathematics and French are not the only subjects in which young French people experience significant difficulties. Their knowledge of history, and in particular concerning several essential historical events, leaves something to be desired. If we say to you, French Revolution, will you respond? 1789. Well according to the last survey OpinionWay for La Tribune on Sunday published on January 7, almost one in two young people between 16 and 24 years old (46%) are unable to date the French Revolution. The survey was carried out on nearly a thousand young people aged 16 to 24, representative of the population in this age category. And the results are edifying.
Of the panel of respondents, 18% say, for example, that they have never heard of the Shoah, even though it was taught in elementary school, and 63% say they know what it is about. 60% of 16-24 year olds do not know that the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and almost two thirds (63%) do not know that Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. Figures which, correlated with the results of the latest PISA ranking, suggest a certain drop in the level of French students, also in history.
The study carried out by political scientist Chloé Morin does not stop there. 45% assure that Jews are more protected than Muslims by the authorities. Furthermore, 41% of respondents think that secularism is intended to “discriminate” against believers and particularly Muslims in France. Even more surprising, three out of ten young people who spend more than 8 hours a day on their phone express doubts about the veracity of the genocide of the Jews. Finally, 23% do not know the date of the abolition of the death penalty: 1981.