A discount Bac?
This is the fear of many high school students, this Friday, the day after the announcement by Jean-Michel Blanquer of the passage to continuous testing for the written exams of the Bac, originally scheduled in March.
These specialty courses, a pillar of the reform carried out by the Minister of National Education, will finally be assessed on the basis of the marks obtained over the three terms.
And this, in order to avoid gatherings conducive to contamination.
Only the philosophy tests and the “grand oral” remain - for the moment - maintained in June.
In addition to the feeling of "wiping the plaster" since the launch of the Bac Blanquer version, two years ago, teenagers are mixed on the use of continuous monitoring: if some welcome the cancellation of a "stressful test" , most tackle "a diploma which is not worth much".
"I worked to prepare for exams"
Alice, a high school student in Paris, who admits to "difficulties" in certain subjects, says she is "relieved" by this announcement.
"It is not worse that it passes to the continuous assessment: I have a panic fear of the exams and I know that I would have had a lower mark during a test", she explains.
His fear was also to be evaluated on subjects only covered.
“Because of this crisis, we know we are hours late,” says the schoolgirl.
And I was afraid of falling on a subject seen too quickly in class.
"
Radically different opinion from Anouk, 17 years old.
“There will be zero personal pride in having this bac.
Me, I worked to prepare written tests, real exams.
We know that teachers are going to note those who have worked less.
Suddenly, the end result will not be worth much, ”the teenager despairs.
Moreover, for many, continuous assessment is not very good news for entry into higher education.
In his letter sent Thursday evening to the staff of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer specifies that the post-bac Parcoursup admission procedure "will take into account the averages given in the reports for the first two quarters as well as the assessments of the teachers [ …] ”.
"There is some relief"
A little light, for some teachers who have already expressed their reservations to their flock.
“From the first hour, Friday, our main teacher told us that the continuous assessment was a pitfall for those who want to do a selective course after the baccalaureate, explains a terminal student.
According to him, like last year, teachers will inflate the marks and there will be an incredible success rate.
So, no doubt that the big schools will be wary of it.
"
A Bac at a discount, it is also the concern of Louise, in terminal at Sophie-Germain, a Parisian high school on the side.
“Ok, there is some relief not to have a big 4 hour event in March,” she admits.
But hey, what value for this diploma, which we have been preparing for twelve years?
I would have it, I think, but….
like everyone else, in fact.
Not sure it's worth anything.
For Mathieu Devlaminck, spokesperson for the Union Nationale Lycéenne (UNL), continuous monitoring is a source of inequalities.
"Depending on whether you come from a favored high school or a popular establishment, autonomy at work at home is not the same, nor the need for support," he points out.
An "evaluation guide" for teachers
In this context, the Ministry of National Education specified, during a press point this Friday morning, that two tools aimed at erasing possible inequalities would be deployed as part of this redesigned tray.
On the menu: an “evaluation guide” intended for teachers, on which the General Inspectorate of Education works.
As well as a "common working framework" aimed at helping the harmonization committees in their analysis of the continuous monitoring feedback from establishments.
Still, for the students born in 2003, the announcement of Thursday evening is only "the icing on the cake" of a high school course during which they have the regular feeling of being "laboratory rats", Quitterie squeaks, in the final year of a seventeenth-century high school.
“To this reform, contested by many of us, has been added the Covid crisis.
It started with the cancellation of the Bac de français in premiere and, there, we are sugared off the writings of specialties a month and a half from the scheduled date, "she continues," tired "of these announcements.
Same story with parents, who support their flock as best they can.
Like Aurélie, Alice's mother: “Her last two years in high school, it's a bit of a yo-yo of emotions!
So we have to transform ourselves into a wellness coach, constantly, to tell him not to be discouraged.
"
Bac in continuous control: how will it work?
After the announcement of the recourse to continuous assessment for the terminal specialty exams scheduled for March, the rest of the diploma is impacted.
And this, says the ministry, "so that the special learning conditions of students since March 2020 [...]" are taken into account.
First information: for the terminales, the calendar of the philosophy exams and the grand oral is kept as it is, that is to say respectively on June 17, and from June 21 to July 2.
Regarding philosophy, the ministry specifies that three essay subjects will be on the menu, instead of two, "and will relate to distinct concepts in order to widely cover the program [...]".
A measure decided in view of the delay accumulated because of the semi-distancing.
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In first, the dates for the French test do not change either: June 17 for the written, and from June 21 to July 2 for the oral.
But here again, the ministry has adapted the oral.
There is a choice of fourteen texts on the day of the test for the general route, instead of twenty.
For the technological sector, it will be seven texts instead of sixteen.
The writing remains "unchanged".