CRPE vs IRA: Two Very Different French Concours Compared

The CRPE and the IRA concours are both national French competitive exams that lead to a public-sector career, and both run in the same two-stage pattern of ecrits then oraux, but they lead to entirely different jobs. The CRPE recruits primary school teachers; the IRA concours recruits generalist cadre A administrators. Confusing the two because they are both called “concours” leads candidates to prepare for the wrong thing.

What each concours is actually for

The CRPE, the Concours de Recrutement de Professeurs des Ecoles, recruits teachers for maternelle and elementaire classes under the Ministere de l’Education nationale. Passing it, plus a training year, leads to a post as professeur des ecoles. Full details are in what the CRPE is.

The IRA concours recruits into cadre A of the civil service through the grade of attache d’administration de l’Etat, training at one of five Instituts Regionaux d’Administration in Bastia, Lille, Lyon, Metz or Nantes. Graduates run projects, budgets, human resources or legal functions across ministries and public services, not classrooms. Full details are in what the IRA concours is.

How eligibility compares

Both concours run three tracks, externe, interne (or second concours interne for the CRPE) and troisieme concours, built on a similar logic: fresh graduates through the externe, existing public servants through the interne, and outside professional experience through the troisieme concours. The CRPE externe is being repositioned from bac+5 to bac+3 under an ongoing reform, covered in the CRPE reform explained, while the IRA externe requires a licence (bac+3) or equivalent and has not undergone the same qualification shift.

How the written tests compare

The CRPE ecrits test disciplinary knowledge directly: a French test, a mathematics test, and an application test in a chosen subject area, each central to what a primary teacher actually teaches. The IRA ecrit tests something closer to administrative reasoning: a cas pratique on a public policy issue, a sixty-question QCM on general knowledge and institutions, and two short answer questions on writing and reasoning. Someone strong in a specific academic discipline is not automatically well prepared for the IRA’s policy-reasoning format, and vice versa.

How the oral tests compare

The CRPE oral centres on an expose, effectively a lesson demonstration, followed by an entretien on professional posture and understanding of the education system. The IRA oral centres on an interview built around professional simulations and public-policy questions, with formal recognition of prior experience for interne and troisieme concours candidates. Both are demanding interviews, but they are testing different things: pedagogical judgement in one case, administrative judgement in the other.

How the outcomes compare

A CRPE laureate becomes a fonctionnaire stagiaire, spends a training year in a classroom, and is confirmed as a titulaire professeur des ecoles, posted by academie according to rank and voeux, as explained in after the CRPE: academie assignment. An IRA laureate becomes an eleve-attache, trains at an institute, moves to attache-stagiaire, and is confirmed as attache d’administration, a category A generalist grade described alongside other public-sector categories in categories A, B and C in the French civil service.

Can I sit both?

Nothing prevents a candidate from registering for both concours across different sessions, since they are run by different bodies on different calendars, but preparing seriously for both at once is demanding, given how different the test content is. Most candidates commit to one pathway based on which career they actually want, teaching or generalist public administration, rather than treating the two as interchangeable options.

Frequently asked questions

Is the IRA concours harder than the CRPE? Difficulty depends on the ratio of candidates to places in a given session for each track, which changes yearly; neither concours is structurally harder than the other, they test different skills.

Do both concours lead to fonctionnaire status? Yes, both lead to fonctionnaire status after a training and stagiaire period, though the grade, the training format and the eventual job are entirely different.

Which concours pays more to start? Pay scales differ by grade and echelon; see attache d’administration salary for IRA figures, and check the current session’s notice for CRPE starting pay, since teacher salary scales are set separately.

Can prior teaching experience help with the IRA concours or vice versa? Only indirectly, through the general skills of writing, reasoning and public-sector familiarity; the two concours do not share a formal experience-recognition pathway between them.

Where do I register for each concours? CRPE registration runs through Cyclades; IRA registration runs through the central IRA portal.