The Minister of Education wanted a solution that was both "benevolent and pragmatic".
Invited to 20 hours of France 2 this Wednesday evening, Jean-Michel Blanquer decided in favor of maintaining the two symbolic tests of the baccalaureate, philosophy and the grand oral.
He thus rejects the demands of many unions of teachers and high school students who pleaded for a full transition to continuous assessment, already constituting 82% of the final mark of the bac, or even the idea of seeing the coefficients of certain tests decrease for the 'Graduation.
However, arrangements are made to allow candidates to take the tests in a less stressful way and to pass them more easily.
For philosophy, only the best score obtained between the one gleaned over the year in continuous assessment and the one obtained after 4 hours at the examination floor will count.
One way, for the minister, to spare the goat and the cabbage but also to take into account the consequences of the health crisis.
"There are a lot of students who have bad grades in continuous assessment and some need the test to catch up, it's a chance," said Jean-Michel Blanquer.
"It is a very insufficient answer which does not suit us"
Elie Saget, vice-president of the UNL high school union mobilized against the holding of the tests, analyzes this choice in a totally opposite way. “This is a very insufficient response that does not suit us. It is, on the contrary, the admission that the marks of the final test will be bad, for many students, and that it is for the minister not to sink his reform of the baccalaureate of which it is the baptism by fire. "Stéphane Crochet, spokesperson for the teachers' union SE-Unsa, is more understanding:" The solution improves things a little and this possibility of taking into account the average mark obtained throughout the year acts as a welcome safety net. This will secure the students who fear the
ax
sanction
a single test on a subject, philosophy, discovered at the start of the year and which has not been taught in the normal way since the start of the school year.
"
The grand oral, a new baccalaureate test after the reform initiated by Jean-Michel Blanquer, will also benefit from more flexibility.
"The student will come with a written note from his teacher indicating the points that could not be studied during the year," explained the Minister of Education.
He will also have the right to keep and consult, during his oral performance, the written notes during the twenty minutes of preparation.
"
"Tinkering and more disappointing announcements, not up to the reality on the ground and which do not solve the problem of preparation for oral expression, absent during the year," said Sophie Vénétitay, Deputy Secretary General of Snes-FSU, the main secondary teachers' union.
As for the choice made for the philosophy test, we have an impression of obstinacy, of improvisation on the part of a minister who favors the political agenda to push through his reform of the baccalaureate at all costs.
"
Blocked high schools
Same story with the UNL. “It will be pointless for a student to come before a jury with a word of apology from his teacher since he arrives with two specific questions that he will have chosen on these two specialties of study, observes Elie Saget. Jean-Michel Blanquer said he wanted to
preserve the value of the diploma
by making these choices. Not only does he not do it, but this position is very contemptuous for the graduates of last year who obtained their baccalaureate without final exams and entirely on the basis of their continuous assessment marks. "
The pro bac students will also have to take their exams on June 16, 17 and 18 but, as for philosophy in general, "only the two best marks will be retained for these exams for the issuance of the diploma". The first year students, who take the French baccalaureate at the end of the year, will have the choice between two subjects and not just one between dissertation and comments on two separate subjects of study.
High schools were blocked on Wednesday at the call of the two high school unions, the UNL and the MNL, to demand the cancellation of the symbolic tests of this 2021 bac, philosophy and the grand oral. The FCPE, the main federation of parents of students, also called for the cancellation of the final exams and the taking into account, as for the 2020 bac, of the only marks obtained in continuous assessment, "the only way to ensure that children are not penalized by the schooling they have undergone ”.
