Within two years after the enactment of the Law of 1802 there had been created in France 46 Lycées, 378 secondary schools of various degrees of completeness, and 361 private schools of secondary grade had been opened. A number of these disappeared later, in the reorganization of 1808. For the supervision of all these institutions the Director General of Public Instruction appointed three Superintendents of Secondary Studies; and for the work of the schools he outlined the courses of instruction in detail, laid down the rules of administration, prepared and selected the textbooks, and appointed the "professors."
SPECIAL OR HIGHER SCHOOLS. The chapter of the Law of 1802 on Special Schools made provision for the creation of the following special "faculties" or schools for higher education for France:
3 medical schools, to replace the Schools of Health of 1794 (p.
518).
10 law schools; increased to 12 in 1804 (Date of Code Napoléon,
p. 518).
4 schools of natural history, natural philosophy, and chemistry.
2 schools of mechanical and chemical arts,
1 mathematical school,
1 school of geography, history, and political economy.
A fourth school of art and design.
Professors of astronomy for the observatories.
In 1803 the School of Arts and Trades was added (R. 282), and in 1804, after Napoleon had signed the Concordat with the Pope, thus restoring the Catholic religion (abolished 1791), schools of theology were added to the above list.
We have here, clearly outlined, the main paths along which French state educational organization had been tending and was in future to follow. The State had definitely dispossessed the Church as the controlling agency in education, and had definitely taken over the school as an instrument for its own ends. Though primary education had been temporarily left to the communes, and was soon to be turned over in large part to be handled by the Church for a generation longer, the supervision was to remain with the State. The middle-class elements were well provided for in the new secondary schools, and these were now subject to complete supervision by the State. For higher education groups of Special Schools, or Teaching Faculties, replaced the older universities, which were not re-created until after the coming of the Third Republic (1871). The dominant characteristics of the state educational system thus created, aside from its emphasis on secondary and higher education, were its uniformity and centralized control. These characteristics were further stressed in the reorganization of 1808, and have remained prominent in French educational organization ever since.
CREATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE. By 1806 Napoleon was ready for a further and more complete organization of the public instruction of the State, and to this end the following law was now enacted (May 10, 1806):
Sec. 1. There will be formed, under the name of Imperial University, a body exclusively commissioned with teaching and public education throughout the Empire.
Sec. 2. The members of this corporation can contract civil, special,
and temporary obligations.
Sec. 3. The organization of this corps will be given in the form of a
law to the legislative body in the session of 1810.
In 1808, without the formality of further legislation, Napoleon issued an Imperial Decree creating the University of France. This was not only Napoleon's most remarkable educational creation, but it was an administrative and governing organization for education so in harmony with French spirit and French governmental ideas that it has persisted ever since, though changed somewhat in form with time.