A child at his home during the confinement period.

Credit: Stephane ALLAMAN / SIPA -

Stephane ALLAMAN / SIPA

  • The Ministry of Education unveiled on Monday the results of national assessments in CP, CE1 and 6e, which took place from September and which make it possible to measure the effect of confinement on the level of students.

  • They reveal a negative effect on the pupils of CP and CE1.

    But not on the 6th.

  • The differences in levels between pupils in priority education and others have widened.

Teachers had a presentiment of it, a study confirms it: the confinement of March had an impact on the learning of the students.

Based on the results of national assessments in CP, CE1 and 6, which took place from September, the ministry first shows the effects of homeschooling on the little ones.

“We are seeing a drop in the number of CP students with a satisfactory mastery regardless of the field,” observes Fabienne Rosenwald, director of evaluation, foresight and performance (Depp).

Thus, concerning the manipulation of syllables, the drop in level of students who experienced confinement is of the order of 2 points compared to those who were assessed in 2019. They were thus 79.3% to manage to distinguish sounds in 2020, against 81.3% in 2019. The drop in level is 1.2 points concerning the comprehension of words read by the teacher: 69.1% of students have mastered this skill this year, against 70.3% the last year.

In math too, first grade students are a little less good.

Their level dropped by 0.7 points for writing whole numbers and 1.7 points for solving problems.

A drop in results that can be observed among students in the public, private and priority education sectors.

Even if the latter are more likely to experience difficulties.

"The lower computer equipment of disadvantaged families is one of the explanations for their results in evaluations", emphasizes Fabienne Rosenwald.

68.3% can read aloud, compared to 72.6% last year

In CE1 too, the picture is hardly encouraging.

In 2019, national assessments had shown an improvement in students' skills and a reduction in the differences in levels between those of priority education and others, in particular due to the establishment of duplicate CPs in priority education. .

But the health crisis has had repercussions on students enrolled in CE1 this year.

Their ability to read aloud drops by 4.3 points from 2019 (68.3% succeed, compared to 72.6% last year), and their ability to write words drops by 4.5 points ( 72.6% have mastered this skill, compared to 77.1% last year).

This explains Édouard Geffray, director general of school education: “Between February and June, CE1 students generally switch from reading words to reading sentences.

And this is precisely the moment when they were confined ”.

In contrast, their math skills remain stable.

For his part, Jean-Michel Blanquer advances other explanations.

In a letter addressed to teachers on Monday, he indicates that “part of the skills acquired in mathematics was already installed before the end of confinement, unlike that of French;

Parents were undoubtedly able to support their children more in mathematics and comprehension than in reading and writing ”.

The difference in level between the pupils of priority education and the others is also increasing noticeably.

"Pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds have been the most affected by the changes, or even the distancing from school resulting from confinement", comments Jean-Michel Blanquer.

The surprise from the 6th grade students

But surprise.

While one would have thought that the 6th grade students were also going to suffer the impact of confinement, this is not the case.

They even improve in French compared to their classmates assessed in 2019 (+ 4.8 points) and in math (+ 2.9 points).

And the fluency test, added to assessments this year, shows 53% of students read more than 120 words per minute and only 15% are below.

Good performances which can be explained in particular by the measures put in place by the National Education to support pupils in difficulty, according to Édouard Geffray: "The pupils of CM2 were numerous to benefit from successful internships during the school holidays".

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

Results which will be "like a photo of their class for the teachers", according to Édouard Geffray, and which will serve them to differentiate their teaching approach according to the difficulties of the pupils.

But these findings could also be used by the Minister of Education to argue on the need to keep schools 100% open, even despite the sharp rise in the epidemic and the call for a "health strike". 'an inter-union this Tuesday.

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