Should the Baccalaureate exams be postponed? The question will be decided by next week, assured the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer. He is currently talking with the unions of the teaching world and the national council for high school life.
For now, the specialty tests are scheduled for March 14-16. They concern all terminale students, and relate to the two specialty courses they chose at the end of the first year. These exams, which account for 32% of the final Baccalaureate mark, are the result of the high school reform and have never been organized before because of the health crisis. This year, the education unions are not asking for their abolition, but rather their postponement until June.
“We have to referee between March, May and June. March is what was planned, and it’s always better to do what was planned,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer on January 26. “But those who say May or June also have arguments when they say that the health crisis has created delays among students, that we must give them time, we must know how to hear that too.”
The postponement of exams is one of the main demands of the National Education strike started on January 13 and supported by the federations of parents of students. Various professions (teachers, inspectors, heads of establishments, etc.) are planning a new mobilization on January 27. In question: “untenable protocols” and “a shortage of replacements” which puts students in great difficulty, denounced eleven organizations in a joint press release.
More than 18,000 classes closed
Currently, 30,774 staff and 463,197 students are positive for Covid-19, according to the latest data from the ministry published on January 21. Since National Education is facing a lack of substitutes, classes close as soon as the teacher is sick with Covid-19. As a result, more than 18,000 classes are closed (3.6% of total French classes), as well as 152 schools (0.2% of French establishments).
These figures are a record since the start of the pandemic. For comparison, the previous peak was in April 2021, with 11,272 classes closed. It should be noted that at this time, classes closed as soon as a student tested positive, which is no longer the case.
Today, “the conditions are not met for Terminale students to pass their specialty tests,” said CNEWS Christophe Lalande, secretary general of Fnec FP-FO, which brings together the Force Ouvrière education unions. . “The minister continues to implement reforms, like that of the baccalaureate, while we are in a situation of total chaos”.
Like the Fnec FP-FO, many unions are in any case opposed to the reform of the baccalaureate, which gives pride of place to continuous monitoring. They believe that it creates disparities between pupils and that it increases the pressure on teachers.