An Interview with Maria Jordan on the French and Venezuelan Education Systems // Part 3: High School

Maria Jordan is an educator and a Spanish teacher in Bordeaux, France

Moving on to high school, both education systems are comprised of branches that each focus on preparing students for different career paths. At the age of around 15 students are given the choice of which path they would like to take and they need to stick with it throughout high school and higher education.  

In Venezuela when you get to high school there are three branches of education which include sciences, humanities (languages, history, philosophies), and a professional or technical. The technical branch allows students to graduate from high school straight into the workforce with technical skills. This includes professions such as mechanics, electricians, or cooks. If a student does choose to take the technical path or the liberal arts path, these degrees alone are insufficient to continue on to higher education and the world requires supplemental courses from the scientific branch.

Maira Jordan followed the liberal arts paths, which is the least common path found in highschools. The majority of schools have the scientific branch where you get everything including English and mathematics, which allows you to go on to a university even if it's not scientifically related. The other two branches are more limited. For example, liberal arts would not allow you to become a doctor. The most scientific jobs you can pursue with a liberal arts education are psychology or architecture.

In Maria’s high school in Venezuela, her liberal arts courses included d Latin, Philosophy, Modern Greek, French, Sociology, English, history, Venezuela history, art history. While she had math courses they were limited and much more introductory than would be found in the scientific branch.

In France, there are a lot more branches: scientific, liberal arts, economical, and a more basic and practical skills focus. This practical route saves a lot of time because if you are going to become a chef you don't really need to attend university and learn applied mathematics. Other career paths from this branch include working as a barber, carpenter, or in the tourism industry.  Everyone gets the basic math but beyond that, it is a choice depending on the career path you plan to take. Maria expresses some concerns about this approach. She feels that this type of education is a little lacking because while this allows for individuals to be more specialized in a trait, they will be more lacking in other areas and less cultured. She believes we should go through an education that is long enough for students to know a little bit of everything.  

Once in France, she received the question from a high school student “Is Venezuela in Africa?”. She was extremely surprised, even though Venezuela was not so spoken about, that a high school level student had no idea where Venezuela was located. Her French student did not know what language is spoken or what life is like in Venezuela. Most people in France she has found know very minimal about Latin American cultures or Latin America at all. Among the French, it is common to know a lot about European history or American history. There is an entire subject in a middle school devoted to contemporary history and they teach you everything from the renaissance, middle ages to the industrial time. The history is so vast that they lack world information and globalization and are much less globally aware. French education focuses more heavily on countries they have been more consequential throughout French history.  

One practical difference between highschools in both countries is dress codes.  In Venezuela all of the schools have uniforms. Each school has its own uniform but they are all very similar because they have to follow certain rules. Most of the schools are private, which is the norm for the middle class, as there is often a distrust for public schools.  

Conversely, in France, there are no strict uniforms. Students are free to wear their hair any color and have polish on their nails, while this is not the case in Venezuela. School dress codes are much more strict in Venezuela and student

In regards to scheduling, day lengths and vacation days are different. 

In France, there are a lot of holidays! They get one or two weeks of vacation every 6 weeks and they have long days of school. Additionally, you get schedules as if you were in university. You begin at about 7a, and leave at 6 and you have “no-class” periods for breaks.  

In Venezuela, the longest students stay in school up until around 3 pm on the longest days, starting the day at 7 am. Most days end around 12:30 or 1:30 with no break periods. 

As students continue on to higher education neurofeedback can be helpful in dealing with the many stresses of balancing classes, extracurriculars, and meaningful social lives.