New baccalaureate exams disrupted in several French high schools

The new baccalaureate started in a certain confusion, Monday January 20, professors reluctant to the reform having refused to supervise the tests. Numerous secondary school pupils were invited for the first continuous assessment tests.

Surveillance strikes, refusal to correct the copies or transmit the notes: the opponents envisioned the same modes of action as when the bac exams were corrected in June 2019, which had created confusion.

For several days, unions of teachers and professors have been calling for various actions on social networks to "block" this new bin, decided by Jean-Michel Blanquer.

$ In Bordeaux, at the Gustave-Eiffel high school, dozens of teachers and non-teaching staff from several high schools in the metropolitan area blocked the entrance. However, some students were able to enter through an annex door guarded by the police. In front of a gate installed to block an entrance at the back of the school, not far from a banner "Reform Blanquer, angry teachers", Vincent Sanchez, EPS teacher, explains: "We are against this new bac, it is the bin of inequalities ".

Lycée Fulbert in #chartres The teachers, the confidence, the # E3C. Yes there is a real distrust against #bacblanquer and #Blanquer pic.twitter.com/RxGC3KXEIY

In Lille, around fifty teachers gathered shortly before 9 a.m. in front of the Faidherbe high school to denounce the reform, delaying the start of the tests.

In Paris, at the Lycée Lavoisier, "the administration was obliged to requisition off the cuff personnel who did not intend to monitor, so we have laboratory staff who become supervisors, that is not their role (. ..) ", denounced Christian, professor of SVT. At the end of the tests, Hyppolite, a pupil of Première at this establishment, affirmed that "the content related to what (they) had (have) been revised". But "we were quite bothered by three fire alarms", he regretted, pointing to the fact of striking teachers.

Officially, the ministry has counted "5 blocked establishments" where the tests had to be postponed and "24 mobilization actions". But social networks gave, on Monday, the impression of a broader mobilization. Faced with threats of disturbance, the Minister of National Education wanted to reassure Sunday on France inter: "It will happen very well in the vast majority of cases," he said.

In front of the Faidherbe high school in #Lille, a hundred first-graders refused to take part in the anticipated bac exams, the famous # E3C. They join teachers who are conducting a surveillance strike. # Bac2020 #greve pic.twitter.com/7RdrkjyjSW

The "E3C", 30% of the final grade for the students

The practical details of this new baccalaureate raise a number of questions: "It’s fucked up, we didn’t have enough time. Even the way it is, we are all tight, everyone can copy", estimates Antoine Nevelestyn at the Faidherbe high school in Lille, even if he recognizes "a good reform on the bottom" because "it allows an opening on many other" subjects and themes.

The first continuous assessment tests, the "E3C" in jargon, must be spread over a month and a half depending on the high schools. They relate to history-geography, modern languages ​​as well as mathematics for students of the technological path.

Great innovations of the new bac, these tests spread over three sessions over the years of Première and Terminale account for 30% of the final mark.

The disruptions began this weekend. Saturday, the tests which were to be held at the Lycée Blaise-Pascal, in Clermont-Ferrand, were canceled after the intrusion of opponents in the corridors of the establishment.

On the parents' side, the main FCPE federation requests "an adjournment of the tests, due to this lack of preparation".

"Competition" between establishments

Since the return from the Christmas holidays, motions and petitions have been raining against the reform of the bac. Recently, almost all unions have asked the minister to "waive" this first session.

In the Orleans-Tours academy, an academy inspector, for example, guided the students' revisions by specifying the chapters and themes on which the subjects would relate. "Within the framework of a continuous control, the professors can give indications to their pupils", defended the rectorate.

"There is a logic of competition between establishments. Everyone has the pressure to say that their students have succeeded," criticizes Claire Guéville of the Snes-FSU union.

With AFP

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