Louise Sallé 10:49 a.m., January 09, 2023

They lost many students at the start of the 2021 school year, whom they did not regain at the start of the 2022 school year: the trend continues to be downward for the economic and commercial preparatory classes, which attract fewer and fewer students. students.

Europe 1 explains why these classes are losing ground.

The "economic and commercial" preparatory classes are no longer full.

Already for the start of the 2021 school year, they had lost nearly 14% of their workforce.

For the start of the 2022 school year, the decline continues even if it is less significant: it is estimated at around 1% compared to the previous year which was already in deficit.

The preparatory classes that lose the most students are those in the provinces, outside the big cities and prestigious establishments.

This decrease can be explained by various factors.

Thus, to the question “does the preparation attract you?”, the answer is very often negative, as for Raphaël, met this Friday at the “Postbac” orientation fair.

The competition of "BUT", former "IUT"

“Working intensely for two years scares a lot of people these days,” he explains.

"And the fact that there is a ranking, that we are in constant competition, it is quite stressful for the students who cannot manage all that," he adds.

"There are post-baccalaureate schools or competitive schools which are also very good, and which attract a lot of people", observes the high school student.

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This is the case of BUT bachelors, formerly IUT, which have multiplied in recent years.

They allow access to the Grandes Ecoles for a master's degree, after three years of study at the university, which can partly be done on a work-study basis.

"We have a lot of applications", confirms at the microphone of Europe 1 Damien Thoret teacher in eco-management in one of these GOALS, in Créteil-Vitry, in the Paris region.

"It can go up to 7,500 candidates for a course that only has 90 or 120 places".

“We lack students who have done math in high school”

The disaffection of "economic and commercial" preparatory classes affects more the less prestigious high schools, such as Saint-Cloud, where Grégory Martinez is an economics teacher.

“We have recruitment difficulties at the moment,” says the teacher.

"We are actually carrying out communication operations with high school students, simply to inform them, and to break some stereotypes about hyper competitive preparation", he adds.

"And there, with the high school reform, we have a little recruitment problem because we lack students who have done math in high school, who are put off by the amount of math in prep," laments Grégory Martinez.

The government would even consider halving the hourly volume of mathematics in trade preparation.