CRPE

Overview

The Concours de Recrutement de Professeurs des Écoles (CRPE) is the competitive examination for becoming a permanent teacher in a public nursery or primary school in France. Passing it, then completing initial training and being confirmed, makes you a professeur des écoles and a state civil servant. The competition is run by académie. Once admitted you are posted to a département of the académie where you were recruited, depending on the preferences you gave when registering and on your rank. The number of posts per académie is published in the Journal Officiel by the day before the first written test.

There are three types of concours: external concours (for holders of certain qualifications), third concours (for people with a set period of private-sector professional activity) and internal concours (for civil servants and some non-permanent staff with a set period of public or teaching service and the required diploma).

Who can apply

From the 2026 session the external CRPE is open at bac+3 level. The bac+5 external concours continues during the two years of the reform's phase-in, in 2026 and 2027, so that students already in a master's degree or preparing for it can take it. According to the ministry, every licence gives access to the concours, but a licence aimed at primary teaching, or one with a teaching pathway or concours preparation module, is recommended. The exact requirements for the third and internal concours are set by their regulations and are not detailed on the pages read.

Exam pattern

Every concours has two stages: written admissibility tests, then oral admission tests for candidates who pass the first stage. The number of tests varies by concours.

• External concours bac+3, third concours and second internal concours: two written tests and two oral tests. The special external bac+3 concours and the special second internal concours add regional-language tests.

• External concours bac+5: three written admissibility tests (French, mathematics and an application test), two oral admission tests and one optional oral test. The special bac+5 concours adds two regional-language tests.

In the 2026 session the written tests for the external bac+3 concours were: first test (French and mathematics) on 1 April 2026, 13:00 to 17:00, and second test (other domains) on 2 April 2026, 09:00 to 13:00. For the external bac+5, second internal and third concours in the Créteil, Paris and Versailles académies, the French test was on 30 March 2026 (3 hours), mathematics on 31 March (3 hours) and the application test on 31 March (3 hours). These dates are from the SIEC, which runs the exam for those three académies.

Marking and results

The jury of each concours is chaired by the rector of the académie or a representative. After marking the papers it draws up the list of admissible candidates, who are called to the oral tests. After the orals it ranks candidates by the total points from both series of tests, within the number of posts, and may draw up a supplementary list. Results are published on Cyclades.

Important dates

For the 2027 session, registration for the teacher recruitment concours is open until Wednesday 25 November 2026 at 12:00 Paris time. The ministry's concours calendar gives the dates of the tests and results.

How to apply

Register online through the ministry's concours registration page on devenirenseignant.gouv.fr, choosing the académie in which you want to sit the concours. The choice matters, since it decides where you are posted if admitted.

After the exam

Admitted candidates receive initial training and must then be confirmed (titularisation) to become professeurs des écoles. The ministry says that from the start of the 2026 school year, laureates of bac+3 teacher concours follow a new two-year master's, the master enseignement et éducation (M2E).

Preparation tips

The ministry publishes the syllabuses, previous written papers and jury reports. The bac+3 concours has its own syllabus, the bac+5 concours has separate syllabuses for 2026 and 2027, and the third and second internal concours share another. Preparation at a university or with the Cned is recommended but not required.