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Aren’t the grandes ecoles universities, where Eton is a college?
Sorry, missed this. Yes, but they're funny kinds of universities. I was trying to work out how entrenched privilege mainly goes in the education system, and finds its connections, and I think in France it's less at secondary/A-level school level than at university. Obviously, one might say that that's precisely what makes it non-comparable.
Oliver Schick-
Grandes Écoles (and there are many of them) are definitely not universities. Not the ones I've attended anyway.
All GE have a very selective entry process. Not based on your grades at the baccalaureat but with a very hard entry exam. To sit that exam, you will have to have been attending a prep school (very often private high schools in the largest cities only, and if you studied in the "province" or shires you're already at a disadvantage cos the concept of GE is a very Paris-centric one with all the snotty snobbishness you can imagine).
I'm surprised that Macron is able to replace the grandest of GE, the ENA where past leaders, ambassadors, prefects learn the ropes about leading and running a country, with something a little less elitist-looking at least on the surface.
What I'm not surprised about though is that he's attempting to push through more much-needed reforms.
I wonder if the sons and daughters of the bourgeois families who are going to be the ones impacted the most by this small revolution will descend sporting Dior and St Laurent-branded gilets jaunes.
EagleEyez
Aren’t the grandes ecoles universities, where Eton is a college?