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EI's French affiliates, SE-UNSA and SNUIPP, have condemned a government plan to ask teachers to test children as young as five on their behaviour and learning abilities. The government is seeking to classify pupils into one of the three categories: nothing to report, risk, and high risk. Children's evaluation would be based on four skills: behaviour at school, language, mobility, and phonology (awareness of individual sounds). According to the Education Ministry, this evaluation will be an 'identification tool' for pre-school students who 'show signs that they pose a risk to learning.' It is supposed to 'identify each student's needs in preparation for primary school.'

A group of French parents and teachers have called for a two-week boycott of homework in schools, saying it is useless, tiring and reinforces inequalities between children. They say homework pushes the responsibility for learning on parents and causes rows between themselves and their children. And they conclude children would be better off reading a book.

PARIS (AP) - Tens of thousands of French teachers and their supporters took to the streets Tuesday for a national strike and protests over education job cuts under President Nicolas Sarkozy's government. As children nationwide packed into a shrinking number of classes because their teachers were out, Sarkozy insisted that his first responsibility was to private-sector workers and employers facing international competition at a time of economic woe, not state employees.