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French teenagers surviving the compulsory philosophy paper in this summer's baccalaureate exams will soon be able to immerse themselves in a discipline that is less widely taught: economics.
A new "Council for the Diffusion of Economic Culture" will start work this autumn, Thierry Breton, the French finance minister, said recently. Its mission will be to spread economic knowhow as widely as possible through online games, publications and TV programmes.
The emphasis on economics tuition reflects a new focus in the French finance ministry on raising public awareness of economic realities, following Mr Breton's warning last year that France was living beyond its means.
It also comes as the French government has struggled to convince voters of the necessity of economic reforms, facing protests, strikes and a wave of demonstrations over the controversial CPE first job contract.
Furthermore, critics of French economics teaching say the school syllabus in the economics and social sciences, branch tends to focus more on the role of the state in correcting market imperfections, than on the mechanisms of a market economy.
A survey commissioned by Mr Breton's ministry earlier this year showed that a large majority of respondents could not identify concepts such as gross domestic product or public debt.
The council will be headed by Claude Perdriel, a 79-year-old media veteran who ran Nouvel Observateur, the French current affairs magazine, and once worked on François Mitterand's presidential compaign team.
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