“Jean-Michel Blanquer signs the end of the bac” – Release
The terminals are not yet done with their grand oral test that already, the Ministry of National Education announces changes for the next general and technological baccalaureate. Jean-Michel Blanquer presented this Monday to trade union organizations adjustments to his own reform. Objective: to reinforce the continuous control and therefore to abandon the common tests as of the next school year.
Explanations: the Blanquer sauce tray it is, apart from the Covid-19 epidemic, 60% of terminal tests and 40% of continuous monitoring. Nothing will change for the final exams: there will always be the anticipated exams for French in première, the grand oral, philosophy, and the two specialties chosen. On the other hand, the big upheaval is within the 40% continuous monitoring. In these 40%, there are today 30% of joint evaluations (the old E3Cs today called EC): the pupils must pass two in first and one in terminal. Because of the health crisis, they did not finally take place until January 2020. And there is also 10% of school report which includes the average of all disciplines.
“Get involved all year round”
What is the ministry planning? To replace the school report by full continuous assessment. Goodbye, therefore, to the joint assessments in first and final year, from the start of the next school year. The idea of this “More flexible continuous monitoring” is “To encourage each student to get involved throughout the year in their learning”, explains the Ministry of Education in a press release.
The ministry also plans to review the coefficients of all the subjects of the common core which are not the subject of final exams: modern languages A and B, history-geography, physical and sports education, scientific education for the general route, mathematics. for the technological path. They all receive a coefficient of 6 (instead of 5), 8 for the specialty abandoned in and 2 for moral and civic education. The ministry is also planning a change in the counting of options: an option followed in first and final year will benefit from a coefficient of 4, ie the double ratio to an option followed only in terminal.
“Blanquer instrumentalizes the health crisis”
These proposals from the ministry will be studied by the trade unions within the framework of a Higher Education Council (CSE) on July 8. And already, the Snes-FSU, the main secondary school union, is stepping up to the plate through the voice of its general secretary Sophie Vénétitay: “Jean-Michel Blanquer instrumentalizes the health crisis [qui a donné la part belle au contrôle continu, ndlr] by going further in its reform, to the detriment of the terminal and national tests, which are much more egalitarian than the continuous assessment. He signs the end of the bac. ”
The continuous assessment, experienced for two years because of the Covid, has, according to its detractors, shown its limits: many teachers denounce the permanent race for grades, essential for Parcoursup but which inflicts great pressure on teachers and students. “This simplification of the organization of the bac is a measure of reason, judge for his part Alexis Torchet, national secretary of Sgen-CFDT. The operation of the high schools was uninterrupted by assessments from January to June. This change will simplify high school life. “