High school students will only have to cram a "tightened" part of the program.

The baccalaureate specialty tests, born of the Blanquer reform of the high school, will be held on March 20, 21 and 22 for final year students, National Education announced on Thursday.

For the general and technological baccalaureate, the written tests for specialty lessons are scheduled for March 20, 21 and 22, 2023, "so that the marks obtained can be taken into account in the Parcoursup files", writes the Ministry of Education in a press release, published Thursday in the Official Bulletin.

This is the first time that the marks of these tests will be taken into account by the controversial platform for access to higher education.

Specialties taught until June

The Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye "requested that the written tests for specialty lessons relate to a narrow part of the final year program", adds the same source.

"So that your teachers and yourselves have more time to deepen the concepts studied, I have decided in a sustainable way to tighten" the examination programs for the specialty tests, said Pap Ndiaye in a letter to the students of terminal.

“Your teachers will know next week of the changes made.

Specialty lessons will continue until June, in order to prepare you for further studies in higher education as well as for the Grand Oral test,” he added.

The specter of absenteeism

The philosophy test as well as the grand oral will take place as usual at the end of the school year.

“This choice of the month of March (…) is too early, it risks disrupting the functioning of high schools”, denounced Olivier Beaufrère, national secretary at SNPDEN-Unsa, the first union of school heads.

In a recent survey, the SNPDEN revealed “a massive absenteeism of final year students” last May, after the specialty tests (with a high coefficient).

“We risk seeing absenteeism among final year students from the end of March, the consequence would therefore be much more negative than the interest of integrating the notes into Parcoursup”, commented Olivier Beaufrère.

Fourth year of reform

"We see that Pap Ndiaye wants to stay the course of high school reform and not go back", regrets Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the first secondary union, the Snes-FSU.

Canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19, postponed and arranged in 2022 for the same reason, the specialty tests never took place in mid-March, as provided for by the reform of Jean-Michel Blanquer, which enters its fourth year of application.

A third of the baccalaureate mark

Candidates each take two specialty tests (from a choice of 13 subjects in the general stream).

They both count for a third of the baccalaureate results, calculated out of 100 points.

Among the most chosen specialties for the general baccalaureate last year are mathematics, economics and social sciences or even history-geography, geopolitics and political science.

Since the baccalaureate reform in 2019, the results are based 40% on continuous assessment and 60% on final tests.

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