The results of assessments in French and mathematics, organized for the first time in CP and CE1 in September 2018, are "encouraging, especially in priority education" where classes have been split, reports Friday the Ministry of Education.
Difficulties on mathematical problems and on the alphabet
In CP, the 790,000 students evaluated have "the highest level of fluency" in listening and the "lowest" in the knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, according to a note from the DEPP, the statistical agency of the Ministry . In mathematics, they have the most difficulty in solving problems.
On the CE1 side, reading and dictating words were the two French exercises that posed the most problems for the 780.00 CE1 students evaluated. In mathematics, schoolchildren have stumbled upon problem solving and "online calculus" (different from "column computing").
In CP as in CE1, "significant" level differences are observed between students in the public and private sectors. In the public sector, schoolchildren in priority education (REP and REP +) are "more often in difficulty", adds the DEPP.
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The good results of the duplication of classes
The second CP evaluation salvage, organized in January to "measure progress in learning", showed progress in reading, including a drop of 20 points (from 23% to 3%) in the number of students in difficulty on the knowledge of letters and sounds, and progress in the control of numbers. Above all, "between early CP and mid-CP, the gaps are narrowed between priority education students and those out of priority education," notes the ministry in a statement, attributing it to the "split classes" set up in REP + to the autumn of 2017, then in REP at the beginning of the year 2018. Thus, the difference is almost divided by 3 (from 9 to 3.4 points) for the knowledge of letters and sounds, and by almost 2 (12.8 to 7.6) for the comparison of numbers, the statement said.
Emmanuel Macron's campaign promise, the split of the classes will affect all the CE1 of REP + and REP at the start of the school year and will thus benefit 300,000 students, ie 20% of an age group. The idea is to reduce the number of classes with the students most in difficulty to a dozen or more to allow a more progressive and personalized teaching.
A previous DEPP study, released in January, concluded that the doubling of CP classes had led to a "drop in the proportion of students in very great difficulty of 7.8% for French and 12.5% in French. mathematics".