The idea for them[1] came from the Committee of Public Instruction and their main instigators were Joseph Lakanal and Pierre Daunou, though Jean Henri Bancal des Issarts came up with the name for them.
The écoles centrales were secondayr schools created in Nicolas de Condorcet's plan for public instruction.
The Committee of Public Instruction reviewed Bancal des Issarts proposition after 9 Thermidor but including the "instituts" asked for by Condorcet.
Écoles centrales were created by a decree of 25 February 1795, subsequently modified by Title II of the Daunou law of 3 Brumaire year IV (25 October 1795) on the organization of public education.
Article 4 required each école centrale to have a public library, a garden, a natural history exhibit and science laboratory.
[5] In 1802, there was an école central in the following ninety-five towns:[6] Agen, Aix, Ajaccio,[7] Alby, Alençon, Amiens, Angoulême (now lycée Guez-de-Balzac), Angers, Anvers, Arras, Aubusson, Auch, Autun, Auxerre, Avranches, Bayeux, Beauvais, Besançon, Bordeaux, Bourg,[8] Bourges, Bruge, Bruxelles, Caen, Cahors, Carcassonne, Carpentras, Chalons, Chambéry, Charleville, Chartres, Chateauroux, Chaumont, Clermont-Ferrant, Colmar, Cologne, Dijon, Dole, Epinal, Evreux, Fontainebleau, Gand, Gap, Grenoble, Laval, Le Puy, Liege, Lille, Limoges, Luçon (now Lycée Atlantique), Luxembourg, Lyon, Maestricht, Mans, Mayence, Mende, Metz, Montélimart, Mons, Montpellier,[9] Moulins, Namur, Nancy, Nantes, Nevers, Nice, Niort, Nîmes, Pau, Périgeux, Perpignan, Poitiers, Quimper, Rennes, Rhodez, Roanne, Rouen, Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Flour, Saint-Girons, Saint-Severtes, Saintes, Soissons, Strasbourg, Tarbes, Toulon, Toulouse, Tournon, Tours, Troyes, Tulle, Vannes, Verdun, Versailles, Vesoul.
The main criticisms expressed were poor coordination with primary schooling, lack of moral and religious education, and excessive freedom given to pupils.
The law of 11 floréal year X (1 May 1802) abolished the écoles entrales and replaced them, for the most important ones, by lycées maintained by the state and for the others, by secondary schools or colleges, financed by the communes or privately (i.e. by families).