• This year, there is no question of canceling the baccalaureate and patent exams by replacing them with continuous testing.

  • First of all because they did not all have the same volume of face-to-face lessons.

  • The conditions for the start of spring break could further complicate the situation, because the health protocol provides for the closure of classes as soon as a case of Covid-19 is detected.

The countdown begins. On June 17, high school students in Terminale will take the bac philosophy test, and those in 1st the anticipated French test. As for college students, the patent will take place on June 29 and 30. And this year, there is no question of canceling and replacing them, as announced by Jean-Michel Blanquer last Thursday.

A decision that is not unanimous among teachers, many of whom point to a breach of equality in the preparation of students for the tests. First of all because they did not all have the same volume of face-to-face lessons, as explained by Frédérique Rolet, secretary general of Snes-FSU. “From November, some high schools have organized distance courses for some of the students, while private high schools have preferred to maintain 100% face-to-face lessons. It was not until the end of March for this to be compulsory for all establishments ”. And from that moment on, the half-gauge was not implemented uniformly in high schools: “Some have implemented it on the scale of the establishment, which has enabled them to keep 100% face-to-face final year classes,and others have applied it to all classes, even those preparing for the bac ”, underlines Claire Krepper, national secretary for education of SE-Unsa.

"Some did not have enough white bins to train"

Result: “The students are not all at the same level of advancement in the program,” notes Frédérique Rolet.

An opinion shared by the National High School Movement, which considers that the students “are anxious at the idea of ​​taking their exams when they have missed many lessons.

Some only had four months of face-to-face ”.

“And some did not have enough white bins to train, which prevents them from situating their level.

In addition, the wealthiest parents were able to pay private lessons to their children to catch up, when others were unable to do so ”, adds Hubert Salaün,

spokesperson for the Federation of Parents of Public Education Students (Peep).

Without forgetting that 2021 will be the inaugural year of the grand oral of the bac: “The teachers did not seize it in a homogeneous way. At best, they started to really look into it in January, but sometimes it was in March, ”says Claire Krepper.

The conditions for the return to spring break, in a few days, could further complicate the situation, because the health protocol provides for the closure of a class as soon as a case of Covid-19 is detected. "We risk having cascading closures, which will lead to dotted schooling," says Claire Krepper. In addition, for their resumption on May 3, if high schools will observe a generalized system of half-gauges, in college, only 4th and 3rd year students from the most affected departments will be reduced in numbers. “For college students who will be in semi-gauges, their preparation for the patent will not be optimal. The teachers will run after the program and try to prepare the students for certain exam exercises that they are not used to doing in class, ”continues the trade unionist.

"The juries will show indulgence"

Faced with this situation, some unions, such as Se-Unsa, have advocated the cancellation of the tests in favor of the common core. "Especially since there will be students positive for Covid-19 at the time of the tests, which will inflate the number of candidates for the September session", anticipates Claire Krepper. But the Minister of Education is keen on holding exams. For the time being, the only concessions that have been made to take into account the heterogeneity of teaching are the reduction in the texts to be studied for the French baccalaureate (in the general stream, 14 instead of 20, and in the technological stream, 7 instead of 12) and in philosophy, the fact that there will be three subjects proposed instead of two. "We also asked for the abolition of the grand oral of the bac, the adjustment of the tests of maths, sciences and history-geography to the patent",reminds Frédérique Rolet. Requests that have remained dead letters for the time being.

But for Hubert Salaün, even if the students will not have the same cards in hand when it comes to exams, maintaining them is a good thing: “The patent, like the bac, are initiatory tests which are important.

Canceling them even though we are organizing regional elections would not have made sense.

And the juries will show leniency, so the success of the students will not be hampered ”.

If the success rate for the patent and the bac should not fall this year, the consequences of these inequalities in student preparation may be felt in the longer term, believes Claire Krepper: "This will accentuate the disparities in student levels. in higher education ”.

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