Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Napoleon's Reforms: Education - Coggle Diagram
Napoleon's Reforms: Education
Lycee
Secondary education was mostly restricted to sons of notables, educated (often free of charge if their fathers were army officers) in the 45 highly selective, militarised lycees established by the education law of 1 May 1802, and to a lesser extent to boys attending the rather less high-powered secondary schools established 3 years later
A very uniform, centralised system
One of Napoleon's permanent legacies
Establishment of central control
The system of lycees was highly centralised and government-appointed teachers would all teach to a common syllabus from identical textbooks
The Imperial University, with its control over the education system, helped confirm this central control
Control over syllabuses and teachers
The University controlled the curricula and appointed all the teachers of state secondary schools
Both parents and teachers had a number of concerns about the education system:
Total obedience was demanded by the University from its member teachers, who had to take an oath of loyalty to their superiors and were subject to many petty restrictions - a visit to Paris without special permission would mean a spell in prison
Lessons were standardised and what was taught was dictated in accordance with the needs and demands of the government
There was no room for freedom of choice within the state system, or for freedom of thought or expression by pupils or staff, so many parents preferred to send their children, if they could, to the more expensive private church schools, especially when these became more easily available after the Concordat with the Pope
Imperial University 1808
Founded 17 March 1808 to ensure Napoleon's wishes concerning education were complied with
It was a kind of Ministry of Education developed from Napoleon's earlier 'Order of Teachers', it controlled the curricula and appointed al the teachers of the state secondary schools, which operated only by its permission and under its authority
It demanded total obedience from its member teachers
Education
Napoleon believed the functions of the education system were:
to provide the state with a ready supply of civilian officials and administrators and loyal and disciplined army officers, recruited from the property-owning classes
to bind the nation closer together, an aim which could only be fulfilled if the government took direct control of the system
Education for ordinary people was neglected by Napoleon, they only received 'moral education', basic literacy and numeracy from primary schools, and through Napoleon declared his belief in equal opportunities according to ability, he failed to ensure this was carried out in practice
The education of girls was neglected, as Napoleon thought them inferior to men and only destined for marriage and children
Scientific education and research was also neglected - the Polytechnique, founded during the Revolution to promote scientific research, was converted into a military academy in 1805