The coronavirus continues to turn our lives upside down. It is the turn of the more than bicentennial institution of the baccalaureate to effect a revolution. Even faster than the reform of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer wanted, the bac went to continuous monitoring. This year, it will skip the final exams with the exception, and it still depends on the uncertain calendar of the epidemic, the oral of the anticipated French test and the oral exams. Never since 1968 has the sacrosanct examination known such a upheaval.
For very different reasons, the 1968 school year had experienced serious disruptions, the high school students having quickly joined the protesting students.
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Far from being confined, it is in the street and in general assemblies that young French people spend a good part of the spring. The baccalaureate then quickly seems impossible to organize under normal conditions. Some ask that it be postponed, others that it take the unique form of an oral. After procrastination and the resignation of the Minister of Education Alain Peyrefitte, the decision is taken by his successor. It will be an examination of the school record and the oral exams gathered in a single day. The note is communicated the same evening. The September catch-up is maintained.
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How are the tests? On June 27, a journalist from Le Figaro goes on a report to the courtyard of the Janson-de-Sailly high school in the 16th arrondissement in Paris. The interrogation time is 20 minutes she reports but it can be " reduced according to the value of the candidate ". Test takers can choose between two or three questions. In mathematics, natural sciences or physics this happens on the blackboard, " under the anguished eye of one who prepares another question ". The other tests are held next to or in front of the teacher. In history, "some are lucky:" tell me what you want ". But sometimes, if the candidate chooses the 1929 crisis, we ask him about the war of 1939-1945 ... "Finally several boys" probably young revolutionaries "speak with passion of Trotsky and hope to be asked" about what they know thoroughly ”.
Report on the Janson-de-Sailly high school in Le Figaro from June 28, 1968. Le Figaro
Few parents are present, we learn. Except for a " lady who asks their subjects to everyone who goes out and runs to tell them to her" big son ", who turns pale when he doesn't know. "
The success rate will be exceptional, with 81.3% success against 62% in 1967. Hence this reputation as a "discount bin" that Jean-Michel Blanquer wants to avoid at all costs in 2020.