Nursery school
French education is centralized and divided into three stages: Primary, secondary, and higher education. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranked France's education as below OECD average in 2018. Primary and secondary education are predominantly public, run by the Ministry of National Education. While training and remuneration of teachers and the curriculum are the responsibility of the state centrally, the management of primary and secondary schools is overseen by local authorities. Primary education comprises two phases, nursery school ("école maternelle") and elementary school ("école élémentaire"). Nursery school aims to stimulate the minds of very young children and promote their socialization and development of a basic grasp of language and number. Around the age of six, children transfer to elementary school, whose primary objectives are learning about writing, arithmetic and citizenship. Secondary education also consists of two phases. The first is delivered through colleges ("collège") and leads to the national certificate (Diplôme national du brevet). The second is offered in high schools ("lycée") and finishes in national exams leading to a baccalaureate ("baccalauréat", available in professional, technical or general flavors) or certificate of professional competence ("certificat d'aptitude professionelle").