To cool off in these scorching times, the Minister of Education offers a cold shower to high school students.

The baccalaureate exams "will take place according to the methods and times that have been planned" despite the heat wave in the country, swept away this Wednesday Pap Ndiaye.

“We are completely vigilant with regard to what is happening and what will happen tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,” declared Pap Ndiaye, after a visit to the Elisa Lemonnier high school, in the south-east of Paris, for the baccalaureate exams.

“For the moment, we have no worrying reports, and therefore the tests will take place according to the methods and times which have been planned”, he added.

Call for “vigilance”

Some 520,000 high school students worked on the baccalaureate philosophy test on Wednesday morning, before the first class French written test on Thursday.

This year, the baccalaureate exams are taking place in a context of high heat in the country, with temperatures that will often exceed 30 degrees in most regions on Wednesday afternoon, while the mercury should still panic when crossing the 40°C threshold on Friday.

The Ministry of Education has called on rectors and examination centers to be “vigilant”.

"We are monitoring the situation carefully at the ministry, in the various rectorates, which are mobilized on these issues," said the minister.

Ventilation and water bottles

“I had the opportunity yesterday to meet the rectors by videoconference to take stock of this heat episode and the measures that should be taken.

This is the case in every establishment today,” he added.

“Bottles of water are available for students, we were able to check it today.

We pay attention to the ventilation in the morning and in the evening, we close the windows during times of great heat.

All of this should allow us to spend this week in good conditions,” he explained.

In 2019, due to very high heat, the Minister of Education at the time, Jean-Michel Blanquer, had postponed the college patent tests three days before the deadline.

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