lycée

lycée, in France, an upper-level secondary school preparing pupils for the baccalauréat (the degree required for university admission). The first lycée was established in 1801, under the educational reforms of Napoleon Bonaparte. Lycées formerly enrolled the nation’s most talented students in a course of instruction lasting seven years. These lycées were divided into three types having different areas of specialization: classical studies, modern studies, and scientific-technological studies.

In the late 20th century, however, the lycée system was reorganized; lycées became three-year courses for students aged 15 to 18, and these lycées were divided into just two curricular types. The more common of the two is the general and technological upper-secondary school (LEGT; lycée d’enseignement général et technologique); this is the successor to the traditional academic upper-secondary school. Students entering the LEGT choose one of three basic streams (humanities, science, or technology) their first year and then concentrate on somewhat more specialized fields of learning (e.g., literary-philosophical, or mathematical and physical sciences) for the last two years. There is a common core of subjects in the first two years of the LEGT, however, aside from the student’s major area of study.

The second type of lycée is the vocational upper-secondary school (LEP; lycée d’enseignement professionel), which offers a range of technical-vocational studies that give access to corresponding studies in higher education. Students entering the LEP choose courses of study leading to one of 30 or so technical baccalauréats.