Editing French Directory (section)

== Education and science ==
The education system of France was in a chaotic state at the beginning of the Directory. The [[College of Sorbonne]] and most other colleges of the [[University of Paris]], had been closed because of their close association with the Catholic Church, and did not reopen until 1808. The schools run by the Catholic Church had also been closed, and any kind of religious instruction forbidden. The government of Jacobins during the Convention created several new scientific institutions, but had concentrated on primary education, which it decreed should be obligatory and free for all young people, but there were few teachers available. By forbidding religious education, seizing the property of the Church and chasing out the clergy, they effectively closed the largest part of the educational system of the country.

At the beginning of the period, the Directory reversed the policy of obligatory and free education for all, largely because of the lack of money to pay teachers. The Directory began to create a system of central schools, with the goal of one in each department, which boys could attend from the age of twelve, with a full curriculum of sciences, history and literature. The state paid a part of the cost, while each student also paid the professor a fee. The new schools had libraries (mostly confiscated from the nobility), small botanical gardens, and museums of natural history. For the first time in French schools, French instead of Latin was the basis of education. Three of these schools were organized in Paris; two of them later became the famous [[Lycée Henri-IV]] and [[Lycée Charlemagne]]. But by the end of the Directory there were only 992 students in the three Paris schools.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|pp=561–562}}

For primary education, each ''arrondissement'' in Paris had one school for boys and another for girls, and each [[Communes of France|commune]] in the country was supposed to have the same. Since the state lacked money, teachers were paid by the commune or by the students. Students would graduate after learning to read, write and count. In villages, the school was often located in the former church, and teachers were expected, as part of their duties, to carry water, clean the church, ring the bells, and, when needed, dig graves in the churchyard cemetery.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|p=564}}

The choices were greater for the children of the middle and upper middle class, as these families had tutors, or sent their children to private schools, but for much of the population, schooling was minimal. There were 56 public schools in the Seine department, which by the population should have had at least 20,000 students; but they had only between 1100 and 1200.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|p=564}}

The continual wars during the Directory also had their effect on education. Beginning in October 1797, boys in public schools were required to take part in periodic military exercises, and the Directory established five military schools, called ''Écoles de Mars'', for a total of 15,000 students. Attendance was a requirement for entry into the higher schools of engineering and public works.

The Directory focused its attention on secondary education and especially on creating specialized higher schools for training managers, judges, doctors and engineers, for which there was an immediate and pressing need. The {{Lang|fr|[[École Polytechnique]]}} had been founded by a member of the Directory, [[Lazare Carnot]] and the mathematician [[Gaspard Monge]], in 1794. The school became the most prestigious engineering and public works school in France. However, by the end of the Directory there were still no law schools, and only two schools of medicine outside of Paris.

The ''{{Lang|fr|[[Institut de France]]|italic=no}}'' was also founded in 1795 by [[Lazare Carnot]] and [[Monge]], to bring together the scientists and researchers, who previously had worked in separate academies, to share knowledge and ideas. It was divided into three large sections: physical sciences and mathematics; moral and political science; and literature and the fine arts. It organized the large party of scientists and scholars who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, which discovered such treasures as the [[Rosetta Stone]], which allowed the deciphering of [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]. One of the {{Lang|fr|Institut de France}} first members and speakers was Napoléon Bonaparte, who took the place of Carnot after the latter had been removed from the Directory and left France.