In college, flexible level groups and heterogeneous classes, says Nicole Belloubet

Europe 1 with AFP 3:53 p.m., February 18, 2024

The Minister of Education Nicole Belloubet defended on Sunday the establishment of level groups in middle school, which are opposed by the teachers' unions, explaining that these groups will be flexible and that the classes will remain heterogeneous.

>> READ ALSO -

 Education: Nicole Belloubet endorses the fight against harassment for her first highly monitored trip

Each establishment “will have the possibility of taking care of students in groups, the importance is there,” declared the new Minister of Education on BFMTV. "As I said when I took office, I will refuse any system of social sorting, by working precisely with the teaching teams who will be able, at different stages during the year, to check how the students in a group who were in weak skills” in a given subject, have acquired these skills and “can change level”.

At the beginning of December, his predecessor on rue de Grenelle, Gabriel Attal, since appointed to Matignon, announced the creation of level groups from the start of the 2024 school year in 6th and 5th grade for French and mathematics, and from September 2025 in 4th and 3rd.

“There will not be ‘the group of bad people’” and “the group of good people”

The announcement aroused the ire of teaching unions who point to a risk of stigmatization and “sorting” of students, and a lack of resources to put them in place. “There will be groups, but these groups will be flexible, and the mixing will remain in the entire classes, it is essential,” said Nicole Belloubet on Sunday, insisting on the maintenance of “heterogeneous classes”. Asked about the risks of stigmatization, she replied that such a risk existed if children were always kept in “the weakest group”.

But they will be “at certain times in another group”, according to the minister. “A student can be in difficulty in one skill, and be better in another. There will not be ‘the bad group’” and “the good group,” she said. It will be up to the "heads of establishment, with their teaching team" to work on the establishment of these level groups, due to the specificities of each college, with different situations depending on whether you are "in Saint-Denis (east of Paris) or in Naucelle, in Aveyron.

However, the question of means remains. According to the ministry's calculations, the implementation of the system requires 1,150 additional French teachers and as many mathematics teachers, while the teaching profession has been experiencing a serious crisis of attractiveness for several years. “We are working both on the recruitment of new teachers, some of whom will be contract workers” and “on training”, simply indicated Nicole Belloubet.