The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

"I left after an hour": at the philosophy baccalaureate, the continuous control relaxed the candidates

2021-06-20T22:09:32.337Z


The baccalaureate started this Thursday morning for the general and technological sectors, with philosophy - the only test kept in writing because of


Nine sharp, Romain leaves the test room.

“I stayed for 1 hour, but I've been twiddling my thumbs for ten minutes.

I was not inspired and, besides, I have something to do afterwards.

This Thursday morning, at the Montesquieu high school, in Herblay (Val-d'Oise), many people did not wait for the end of the philo test - four hours - to return their copy.

70% of the students in the technological sector, 15% of the general route, deserted the place after an hour and a half!

And a handful held until noon.

"Never seen before", slips the management of the establishment.

And for good reason: all were counting on the main development of the 2021 baccalaureate: in philosophy - the only final test maintained (with French for the first) since the passage to the continuous control of specialties - it is the best mark that will be kept, between that report card and the written exam.

Read also Beginning of the baccalaureate exams: but what is philosophy for?

However, "philosophy is the queen test in the writing of the baccalaureate", repeated Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of National Education, on France Inter, a few minutes before the start of the test. Coefficient 8 in general, 4 in technology. A queen who did not - apparently - scare many people. “We come because if we are absent, it is eliminatory. But in real life, with my 14.5 average, I am wide, I can miss and not worry about it, ”smiles Alicia just before rushing into the hall of this big high school of 1300 students, including 380 terminal. were called for the test.

“I will see depending on the subjects.

If I like one, I'll play the game for trying to get a mention.

But I calculated that I already had my baccalaureate, on condition of not missing the grand oral on Monday, ”adds Romain, 17 years old.

"Me, I'm going to write

Happy Holidays

on my copy and take a nap," Niels laughs again, not really in a hurry to get to his examination room.

Stress anyway

But when it comes to distributing the subjects, the stress takes all the same.

Optionally, for the general stream: “Discussing, is it renouncing violence?

"," Does the unconscious escape all form of knowledge?

"," Are we responsible for the future?

», Or a composition based on a text by Émile Durkheim.

In overheated rooms, the thighs are seized with an unmanageable nervous tic, we wipe our foreheads, we grimace, we close our eyes or we abuse our pen.

"They are less clever than in front of the gate earlier," laughs a teacher.

If the majority of the pupils were not stressed by the test, a slight tension was felt at the time of the distribution of the subjects.

LP / Philippe Lavieille

In the corridors too, it is the commotion of combat. Stéphane Boucher, the deputy headmaster responsible for piloting the event for the establishment, goes from room to room, discreetly. This is his first bac at the helm… and he came across the one organized during a pandemic. “We have reduced the number of students per room, they are only 18, barely more than the equivalent of the half-gauge. And their tables are widely spaced, the windows and doors are open for ventilation, and obviously, the mask is mandatory, ”he says.

The establishment had also taken care to send the candidates home a week before D-Day, "a form of tacit quarantine", says Stéphane Boucher, for lack of national instructions on isolation.

The other big novelty to manage will be the way of correcting the copies: for the first time, they will be fully scanned and digitized, in all high schools examination centers, before being dispatched to teachers and corrected on screen.

Read alsoBac 2021: the answers to the philosophy test

For her part, Djamila Soufi, the principal, manages the usual latecomers. "Go breathe, walk slowly, it's over there", she points out, in the direction of a breathless teenager, victim of a "train problem". Another will even arrive… five minutes before 9 am, the deadline for leaving the room and therefore no longer being able to enter. "Within minutes, it was eliminatory," whispered the assistant principal.

The latecomer almost meets Paul-Edouard, 17, one of the first to leave.

Good student, scholar, but not really "held" by the stake.

“I have an average of 15 in philosophy, so I know it would have been difficult to get better with this essay.

I have not revised anything or almost, I focus on the great oral ”, details the young man.

His friend Jérôme adds: "I don't understand why they did not make this test optional: that those who have a good average do without it, free to the less good ones to submit to it!"

"

A "pasteboard" test

By noon, a handful had remained until the end. More than half of the rooms empty, the rest sparse. Like Sohan, 16. “I'm only 11 on average, so to secure the shot, I decided to apply myself. If I miss the grand oral, it would have been a disaster to botch the philosophy… ”In front of the gate, some retake the test. “I chose topic three:

Are we responsible for our future?

In part one, I spoke about ecology, which allows us to influence the future, but in part two, I said that we were not responsible for dying, for example. And in conclusion, I qualified the whole thing, develops a teenager in Bermuda shorts, still sweating after three hours spent in front of his copy.

"It will not be a bad memory for sure, I was able to let go a little, I was relaxed," adds another, joining her daddy's car.

A relaxation which greatly reduced the interest of the test, judge philosophy teachers.

Contacted, Sébastien, teacher in Seine-Saint-Denis, exempted from supervising the tests, is a little bitter during the day.

“I have a lot of feedback saying that the students took this test a little lightly, which is nevertheless important.

It was necessary to maintain it!

But the choice to keep only the best mark with the continuous control makes it a bit… cardboard, just there to say:

We have organized the bin, we have not lost face

.

"

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-06-20

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.