Louise Sallé 10:31 a.m., February 22, 2022

Since the reform of the baccalaureate, the number of hours of science and life of the Earth has fallen by 18%.

SVT teachers have thus lost 50% of their students.

The lack of skills in biology among graduates worries medical and agronomy training.

A committee of experts must look into the place of the subject in high school.

It's not just math that gets neglected in high school.

Since the reform of the baccalaureate, which came into force in September 2019, the sciences and life of the Earth (or SVT) are too.

The subject lost 50% of its students, against 37% for mathematics and 36% for physics and chemistry.

For three years therefore, the SVT have lost 18% of the hours devoted to them in high school.

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This reduction in hours results, on the one hand, from the scientific teaching of the "common core", which all high school students must follow and which gives little place to the subject.

And on the other hand, the fact that the "SVT" specialty is neglected in Terminale in favor of maths and physics-chemistry, since the three disciplines cannot be combined.

"Having SVT skills gives access to 650,000 jobs"

Biologist Marc-André Selosse, professor at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, chairs the BioGée federation, which campaigns for a greater place for life and earth sciences in high school.

"Future managers of agriculture and health are postponing the idea of ​​doing biology," he laments at the microphone of Europe 1, "while having skills in SVT gives access to 650,000 positions to be filled each year!"

Marc-André Selosse also regrets the lack of training for health students.

A problem that was already felt before the reform of the baccalaureate: "We have seen that a whole bunch of medical and paramedical personnel had a problem with vaccination, it illustrates that their biology bases are not sufficient."

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The disappointment of no longer seeing qualified students in maths, physics and SVT

The Agro Paris Tech school, which trains agricultural engineers, is sorry to no longer have students who are qualified in maths, physics-chemistry, and SVT.

Sébastien Saint-Jean is a lecturer there in environmental physics.

"Mastering these three disciplines is really the wealth that engineers could bring to the life sciences", he regrets on Europe 1. "With the reform, we will have to prepare for an upgrade, and there is concern in higher education, that's for sure." He continues: "The agri-food sector nevertheless represents, in France, the 1st sector of industrial employment, i.e. between 350,000 and 450,000 jobs", supports-t- he, "the demand is strong."

The Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer instructed, on Friday February 18, a committee of experts to look at how scientific education in the common core in high school can be strengthened.

The hope that SVTs will be included in the reflection was expressed.

But the mission letter written by the minister is clear: it is only the place of maths that will be rethought.