A heavy blow fell on all the students who were preparing to sit, on April 24, the common entrance examination to the Institutes of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Lyon, Rennes, Saint -Germain-en-Laye, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
Tuesday evening, while walking on the website of the Sciences Po Network, the students had the unpleasant surprise to discover that the entry procedures for the first year had been changed.
Instead of the three written tests of language, history and contemporary question (a dissertation combining several disciplines) which should normally take place on site, admission will be based this year on a test of contemporary question to be done at a distance, on the observation of '' a copy of the current or previous course and, above all, on the first and terminal school records.
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The news spread like wildfire between the students concerned, on social networks but also in the preparatory classes dedicated to this competition.
This Wednesday noon, the information took an even more formal turn since the students received an email from the Parcoursup platform.
Letter opened in February
At the end of 2020, Sciences Po Grenoble had announced that its entry would be without a written test and only on file.
Worried that this modality would also apply to the joint competition of the seven IEPs, more than 100 students from different preparatory classes had then signed an open letter, addressed to the government in early February, asking for the written tests to be maintained.
"We had no response," explains Fatna, a student in preparatory class in Avignon.
The only return to the question took the form of a video by Olivier Brossard, the director of Sciences Po Toulouse in charge of the organization of the 2021 joint competition. In these images, released in early February, he said that at this time date, the written tests were maintained, but that in the event of a change, he would not be authorized to communicate "until March 10".
Finally, as Sciences Po Toulouse explains, the decision to change the terms was taken a few days ago.
"Forced by Parcoursup to make a decision before March 5, and in view of the health restrictions that continue to apply in France and abroad, which would not have allowed a number of candidates to pass the The competition tests, we had to adapt the written tests for the competition ”, we are told.
And to enumerate several anticipated problems: “The international candidates would not all have been able to go to their examination center because of the closed borders;
contact cases, even asymptomatic, could not have passed the tests, for example;
fragile people should have come out of self-isolation and put themselves in danger ... "
This Wednesday, amazement reigned among the students questioned.
“We are all shocked, as are our teachers.
It falls on us one month before the competition, ”regrets Fatna, 18, who has been preparing since the first class.
"We do not understand", adds Solène, a student at the CUPGE (preparatory university cycle for the grandes écoles) in Rouen.
“The students even believed that the site had been hacked!
», Relates Véronique, mother of a young girl currently in preparatory class in Lyon.
"Our teachers share the same feeling of disarray, we hardly did any lessons today," adds Avesta, a student in preparatory class for entry into the first year of IEP in Marseille.
Time and money
If desolation reigns, it is because, for many, preparing for this competition involves a very large investment of time, work, but also money.
"We prepared for three tests, there will only be one ... we revised for nothing," Fatna notes bitterly.
Same feeling on the side of Solène: "We have the impression of having done a year of preparation for nothing".
"We have worked hard to progress, to be at the required level and finally the entry is mainly made on a file which will not even take into account this year", deplores Avesta.
For Aleyna, a final year student in Thann (Haut-Rhin), despair is total.
For two years, she has been preparing for the competition in addition to her high school lessons.
"If I had known, I would have devoted my time only to improve my average and therefore have a better record," regrets the 17-year-old girl.
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Like her, many began to prepare for the competition in high school.
With, sometimes, courses at very high prices.
“It's quite expensive,” confirms Aleyna.
“My family is not rich, I am a scholarship holder, I had to work to pay for my studies,” Ilies explains to us.
At 19, this preparatory class student in Toulouse also enrolled in the Tremplin training course, which is subject to fees and is a partner of the Sciences Po network.
The misunderstanding is all the stronger “since the organizers had a year to prepare a back-up plan,” notes Ilies, who had already been affected by the cancellation of the 2020 competition. “For last year, we can understand, they were taken by course ”, but this time the pill does not pass.
"We really have the feeling that nothing has changed compared to last year and that the requests made after the cancellation of the competition in 2020 have not been heard," says Avesta.
More inequalities?
Besides the impression of having lost energy and money, some fear the consequences of this change of modality.
Instead of a competition based on their work of the year, it is their first and final grades that will be viewed the most.
"This speech which consists in saying that work is valued ... We no longer believe in it, since our high school grades will count more than our current efforts", regrets Ilies.
"I no longer feel in my place," said even the young adult, aged 19.
“In my class, we all come from a working-class background, and for us Sciences Po, it was ideal because it works normally for meritocracy.
We thought that thanks to our work, we had the level ”, abounds for her part Fatna.
A feeling shared by Aleyna: "I do not come from a major high school, I do not imagine at all being able to be accepted with these new conditions".
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And the only test that will be held at a distance does not reassure them much more than the study of the file.
"We know that we are going to be in competition with people who can cheat", worries Fatna.
"We do not understand at all, this format will absolutely not be representative of the real competition", adds Solène.
But they do not intend to give up so far.
Students are already getting organized in class and on social networks.
"We would like to take action in front of Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence, and see if it is possible to organize a national mobilization," says Fatna.
On the Marseille side, the students wrote an open letter.
But they don't have too much hope.
"We do not want to let this go, but we think it will not change the situation," fears Fatna.
So everyone plans to fall back on their plan B. “I'm going to focus on my other wishes,” Ilies informs us.
“I always had a back-up plan but I didn't think I had to bring it out,” regrets Avesta.
The late change of modality does not leave much time to turn around, however, since the phase of Parcoursup wishes comes to an end just this Thursday.