Self-satisfaction exercise by Jean-Michel Blanquer, on the occasion of the publication, Tuesday, of the results of the mid-CP evaluations, carried out in January with 800,000 students.
"The advantages of leaving schools open are far greater than the disadvantages"
, welcomed the Minister of Education in an interview with
Le Monde
, he who has been fighting for many months to maintain the school in person, despite the pandemic and the virulent criticisms of the unions.
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After initial assessments showing, in September,
"an inevitable regression due to confinement"
results at the beginning of CP, the pupils are, six months later,
"in clear progress"
.
"In mathematics as in French, the return to school has, on the whole, made it possible to erase the decline linked to the period of confinement," he
says.
The September assessments had clearly shown a Covid and confinement effect, with slightly lower results at the start of CP and a widening of inequalities between students in priority education and others.
Today, the school delays linked to the epidemic have
"disappeared"
, estimates the ministry.
However, the results remain worrying.
By mid-grade, 10% of students have not entered reading at all, 8% cannot compose and transcribe syllables, and 34% misunderstand sentences when reading on their own.
In mathematics, the going gets tough: only 56% have a satisfactory mastery of problem solving and more than 20% fail to pass four of the 10 subtractions offered in the exercise.
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Compared to the assessments carried out in 2020 at the same period, these results are
"significantly
higher
"
in all the items, with the exception of oral comprehension.
It is moreover in this area that the gaps widen the most between the pupils of the priority education and the others.
They are also sharper in subtraction and problem solving exercises.
"The catching up is not as homogeneous as one would like it"
, concedes the minister.
"A form of cramming"
"The differences with priority education have increased even though the classes have been split in these areas in CP and CE1"
, notes Guislaine David, at Snuipp, the first primary school union,
"proof"
according to her that the desired device by Emmanuel Macron
"does not solve all the problems"
.
The teachers' union has always opposed the very principle of Blanquer assessments, implemented since 2017.
“For us, reading is understanding.
For the minister, it's decoding, ”
explains Guislaine David, while the battle around reading methods is still fierce within the school.
“You have to take the results of these evaluations
,” she adds.
The improvement is partly linked to the fact that teachers, now familiar with this system and its items, are in a form of cramming
.
”
She specifies that these evaluations
“ concern only the pupils of CP and only French and mathematics ”
.
“We should not conclude from this that the crisis has improved things.
The Covid had psychological effects on the students, on their social skills.
And that has not been evaluated to date, ”
concludes Snuipp.
