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Addressing inequities in education is a global imperative. The 2016 Education Commission Report highlights the inequities of educational access and learning outcomes, while the Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets require progress in reducing inequities across geographic units, gender, ability groups, and within crisis-affected settings. Beyond diagnosis and monitoring, what does research tell about effective strategies to enhance equity and equality of opportunity in education? IIEP's 2017 Strategic Debate series explore this question from several perspectives, pushing us to go beyond understanding the nature of the problem to explore what can be, and is being, done, particularly through education policy and planning.

In France, as in many countries, success in exams marking the end of secondary school is becoming increasingly generalised, reaching almost 80% of any given cohort. This undeniable quantitative progress nevertheless raises several questions which centre on the lack of equity access to higher education in France. Many national training systems fail to guarantee individual pathways to success that transcend students’ respective origins, be they social, cultural, territorial, or gender related.
Based on field work carried out since 2007 in French secondary schools as well as a survey conducted in 2016 as part of his ministerial mission, Pierre Mathiot will present essential principles and related actions that could form the basis of a public policy ensuring effective, not merely formal, equity between students.