It is the baccalaureate that we talk about less, and yet: the vocational stream represents 205,000 high school students this year, the second most popular baccalaureate - behind the general, but ahead of technology.
Vocational high schools also welcome 250,000 CAP students, who also take exams at the end of the year.
Like their comrades in the general bac, graduation will be adjusted to adapt to the impact of the health crisis, in particular the hybrid operation implemented six months ago in most establishments.
First, the final exams - validating general education (history-geography, French, prevention, eco-law, eco-management, etc.) are maintained in June for the vocational baccalaureate, as well as for the CAP.
But only the two best marks, out of four or five written tests, will be retained in the award of the diploma.
The rest of the baccalaureate will be graded on the basis of the "CCF" (for control during training, homework completed throughout the year), the equivalent of continuous assessment.
If the compulsory number of these checks has been limited to one to validate the score, it will not weigh more in the end.
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In summary: unlike the general stream, whose specialty teaching tests have been canceled and will be assessed on the basis of school reports, obtaining the baccalaureate pro and the CAP remains seriously suspended on the result of the final tests. .
Concretely, if today, the continuous control represents 82% of the general bac, in the pro, it remains at about 50-50.
"92 different training courses"
"Comparison is not right", answers Édouard Geffray, director general of school education (Dgesco). He recalls that the professional stream includes “92 different training courses” and that, to preserve a “collective response” on the diploma, it was decided to make adjustments to the common part - namely, general education. The Dgesco also recalls that unlike the written exams for the general bac, these "are shorter, around two hours and not four". “It is also on these general lessons, more academic and less practical, that the students have the most difficulty. This decision favors them, ”adds Rue de Grenelle.
Not at all satisfactory, according to Sigrid Gerardin, eco-management teacher in Seine-Saint-Denis and spokesperson for Snuep-FSU, the union of teachers in professional high schools.
“While their year was heckled like all the others, the pro bac students cannot fail during the final exams.
Anger is mounting, the sector has been forgotten in the arrangements promised by the Minister, ”she proclaims.
For Édouard Geffray, the ministry's response is precisely in the direction of taking into account the difficulties related to Covid-19.
“By keeping only the two best marks, we erase the possible effect linked to learning difficulties during the health crisis,” he explains.
Read alsoBac 2021: should we maintain the great oral?
In addition, Sigrid Gerardin regrets that the "masterpiece" - the equivalent of the grand oral in CAP, is also maintained without adjustment. "These are 200,000 students with very great academic difficulty, not comfortable speaking, who have not had satisfactory preparation for the test because of distance courses, who will have to stick to it" , she annoys. Nicolas, a CAP student in the Paris region, confirms: “Very concretely, since the beginning of the year, because of the distance, I have never worked on this oral test, which is not my strong point…” At the ministry, it is assumed: this masterpiece "embodies the specificity of the professional path with the association of general and professional subjects, and allows candidates to present the fruit of their work […]".
Another problem: why maintain the four face-to-face tests… if only two marks are retained? "We simply neutralize three years of work on two disciplines, not to mention that examiners will be mobilized for tests passed by 205,000 students ... but half of the corrected copies will end up in the trash, regrets the unionist. We could have given more points at continuous control! ”Édouard Geffray refutes the argument. “We don't cross any notes. We take the two best to compose the note, and thus, take into account the complicated preparation. But on the transcript, the four or five marks of all the tests will appear well. "