GoStudent study on concentration, screens and AI in French schools, Digi Mart USA News: French high schools and universities are facing sharp tensions over their resources and methods. A broad European study published by GoStudent presents a critical assessment of the national education system, pointing to a marked decline in classroom concentration, weak family confidence in preparation for working life, and a significant lag in training teachers on artificial intelligence.
The future of the education system has become a central issue in public debate in France. The education platform GoStudent unveiled key findings from its international study, L’Éducation du Futur 2026.
Conducted by the research institute Censuswide among a representative sample of 3,001 families (parents and children aged 8 to 16) and 300 teachers in six European countries, the survey highlights specific weaknesses in the French school system.
Students’ ability to sustain attention during lessons is now one of the most pressing challenges identified in French classrooms. According to the GoStudent report, 72% of teachers surveyed in France observe a decline in their students’ concentration over the past five years.
Half of these teachers (50%) describe the decline as significant, while 22% cite a more moderate drop. This places France first among the European countries studied, tied with Germany (72%) and just ahead of Spain (70%) and Austria (68%).
The contrast is especially striking with the United Kingdom (52%) and Italy (46%), where teaching staff report a markedly smaller decline in attention.
This focus problem coincides with a rise in digital device use. Nationally, 56% of French parents believe their child spends too much time in front of screens.
Among the most direct negative consequences noted by families are reduced physical activity and time spent outdoors (29%), followed by reduced attention span (23%).
Beyond discipline and attention in class, the study examines whether schools are equipping students with the skills needed to navigate contemporary society. Parents’ responses reveal a clear deficit of confidence in the French model.
Only 39% of French parents believe schools adequately prepare their children for life after their studies, compared with an average of 45% across the six countries analyzed. France ranks second to last in Europe, ahead only of Austria (36%), and trails Italy (41%), Spain (44%) and Germany (47%).
The gap is particularly wide with the United Kingdom, where 66% of parents trust the education system to prepare their children’s future, 27 points more than in France.
This widespread skepticism raises questions about the balance of teaching methods and the format of assessments. In France, teachers continue to give priority to traditional methods such as timed written exams, long-term projects, and oral presentations and debates.
Yet half of French teachers (50%) acknowledge that traditional exams should now be supplemented by more diverse forms of assessment.
The rise of artificial intelligence represents one of the most complex technological and educational challenges for schools. While these tools are being adopted quickly in the field, institutional support for teachers reveals notable weaknesses.
In France, only 36% of teachers say they have received formal AI training, the lowest share among the six countries studied. By comparison, 74% of Spanish teachers have received AI training, more than double the French rate, as have 68% of British teachers and 62% of teachers in Germany, Italy and Austria.
Despite this shortfall in official training, actual use has already become widespread. In fact, 74% of French teachers say they use AI in their professional work, mainly to create teaching materials (44%), handle administrative tasks (28%) and prepare lessons (26%).
Among students, the uptake of AI tools is also massive, but it carries a risk to independent learning. Among French children who use AI for homework, 69% admit they have already presented content generated by these tools as their own work.
This situation causes deep concern among teachers: 70% of French teachers doubt that most of their students could write a complete essay without AI assistance, and 64% express similar reservations about their ability to summarize a text or course notes on their own.
Faced with the convergence of these issues, education stakeholders stress the urgency of a comprehensive and structured response. “Schools must now meet several challenges at once: preserving students’ capacity for concentration, teaching them the skills needed to build their future, and supporting them in using new technologies such as artificial intelligence,” said Felix Ohswald, CEO and co-founder of GoStudent.
“These transformations cannot rest solely on the individual initiatives of teachers. They require broader reflection on resources, training and teaching methods.
The goal is to let students benefit from technological change while developing their autonomy, critical thinking and ability to reason for themselves.”
Transforming the French school system will therefore require targeted investment in teacher training and a modernization of learning methods, in order to reconcile technological progress with the development of students’ independent judgment.
