The absences of teachers and students reach a record level. The Ministry of Education could decide to postpone the specialty tests, scheduled for 14 to 16 March.
Le Monde with AFP
Will Covid once again jostle the tray calendar? While for several weeks the lessons have been disturbed by the absences of professors and infected pupils, the Ministry of Education may decide to postpone the specialty tests planned from 14 to 16 March. “The question is now arbitrate between March, May and June. March, that’s what was planned and it’s always better to do what was planned,” said the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, questioned about BFM-TV Wednesday, January 26th.
According to him, “Mars also allows students to have (…) a note at that time of the year, who will then count in Paressup,” he continued, pushing the “revaluation of the bac” . “But those who say May or June also have arguments when they say that the health crisis has created delays in students, that they have to give them time, you have to know how to hear that too,” he has nuanced .
32% of the final score
The Minister of National Education had assured Monday, June 24, when traveling to Tourcoing, a decision would be taken “within eight days”, the time to consult unions and representatives of parents and ‘students. These specialty tests – which concern the two “specialties” chosen by the high school students in the terminal – were born from the reform of the baccalaureate decided by M. Blanquer, and account for 32% of the final score of the examination. They have never been organized, because of the sanitary crisis. In 2021 (first year of the new tray), they had been canceled and replaced by continuous control.
In particular, high school students have proposed the maintenance of the tests in March, possibly postponed from one or two weeks to the maximum, with proofments, such as, for example, two subjects to choose from a test (instead of one).
Tests possibly shifted to May or June
Some teachers and heads of establishment are, on the other hand, favorable to a postponement. “Mars, it’s too early, because January and February were or will be very disturbed. June, it’s too late, because specialty teachers can not both correct the copies and pass the great oral. May seem to be best for students, “says AFP Claire KREPPER, National Secretary of the National Union of Autonomous Union Teachers (SE-UNSA).
Other unions, including the National Union of Second Degree Teachers (SNES, first among college and high school teachers), lean for a postponement in June. “A large part of the students are remote or sick. It’s impossible to finish the programs, and the idea is therefore to leave time to better prepare” students, says Sophie Venetiy, SNES-Fsu.
But a postponement would mean that the high school students of Terminale will set the two specialty tests, the philo, then the great oral – a test that leaves the ordinary for French students. And the corrective teachers of these tests will have, at the same time, to pass the great oral, the anticipated events of French and the tests of philosophy.