That's funny, because i have a different take on french education and airline business.
One of the many reasons that some few pilots had a bad habit of not always strictly following SOPs (besides having TOO MANY rules to follow, which is adressed now, and poor management,) is the focus on critical thinking in public education, which may be very good concerning philosophy and politics, but needs not be systematically applied to every procedure, especially when all the data leading to the establishment of this procedure is not known... ( huh, that may appear pedant... ).
Incidentally, one most welcome change in the company culture is the openness concerning incidents, which can be perceived as an avalanche by people outside the industry.
We, as pilots, were sometimes not even aware of incidents that occured within the company, only weeks later did we learn about it.
The communication is now improving, so is the unwanted publicity, but i believe the incident rate is on par with the industry.
Thanks for your support, everybody.