Strikes, blockades and programs ended just in time. High school students have reason to be worried before the start of the 2023 baccalaureate, from Monday March 20, and the written specialty tests which are held for three days. Created by the baccalaureate reform decided in 2019 by Jean-Michel Blanquer, then Minister of National Education, they only took place once last year (in May), Covid-19 obliges. In accordance with the initial timetable for the reform, they are therefore taking place this year in March.
The 536,081 candidates (390,710 in the general route and 145,371 in the technological route) will work on two tests, which together account for a third of the results of the baccalaureate, calculated on 100 points. Their grades, known from April 12, will be taken into account in Parcoursup, the assignment procedure in higher education which delivers its first responses to the wishes of high school students in early June. This is the first time that the marks of the specialty tests must be taken into account by Parcoursup.
The “surveillance strike where possible”
However, the tests could be disrupted. The use of article 49.3 to pass the pension reform has indeed increased the anger of the teachers’ unions, more staff could thus join the strike movement. In a press release released Friday evening, several teachers’ unions recall that they have filed a strike notice which covers the period of the specialty tests.
“In the event that the government has not withdrawn its pension reform project, (the unions) call on all colleagues to decide on the continuation of the action and to continue the mobilization during the specialty tests, including by the surveillance strike where possible”, indicate several organizations such as the Snes-FSU (first union in high school), Sud Education, the Fnec-FP FO or the CGT Educ’action. The unions attached to the CFDT or Unsa centrals are not, however, signatories.
“It’s a difficult decision, which will not necessarily be a majority, but the use of 49.3 to have the reform adopted is incredibly violent”, considers near Release Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU. For their part, the high school union organizations support the mobilized teachers but do not call for the blocking of establishments. “We are opposed to the reform but we do not want to disrupt the tests which are already held in complicated conditions”, explains to Release Colin Champion, President of the High School Voice.
Additional supervisors mobilized
To deal with any eventuality, the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye will mobilize “additional supervisors” during the baccalaureate exams, he said Friday evening in a press release. “In the event of delay of the candidates due to transport strikes, adjustments to the test time will be organized so that they can benefit from the entire duration of the tests”, he added.
The Ministry of Education specifies that “in the event of difficulties, the necessary arrangements will be made to allow candidates access to examination centers in conjunction with the departmental prefectures”. As for the copies, “all digitized”, they “will benefit from a follow-up throughout the correction process”.
According to Franceinfo, during his videoconference with the prefects on Friday March 17, Gérald Darmanin asked them to pay particular attention to the baccalaureate days scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In a press release sent the same day, the FCPE asks for “benevolence and understanding on the part of the heads of establishments and the educational teams on the possible delays of the pupils or other organizational difficulties in taking the tests”.
Programs treated in “emergency”
In addition to the pension reform, the teachers’ unions are protesting against the holding of specialty tests from March. They believe that these tests can therefore only relate to part of the program. The Ministry of Education ensures that the March exams only cover 60% of the annual program but this is not enough to alleviate the fears of students and teachers, who denounce the lack of time to finish the programs properly.
“It doesn’t make too much sense to put tests in the middle of the school year,” said AFP Léonore, 16, in Terminale in a Parisian high school. “It’s fewer revisions because the program is lighter than in June but it’s too much racing, so we’re doing it badly.” She says she has just finished “the program in her specialty history-geography, geopolitics and political science (HGGSP) and will not finish it until Friday for the specialty economics and social sciences (SES)”.
Several associations of specialty teachers alerted the ministry in September 2022, denouncing an “absurd schedule” which requires “dealing with the programs in” urgency “. For Marie-Thérèse Lehoucq, president of the Union of Physics Teachers and of chemistry, “the pressure on the teachers is enormous and never seen, it’s even a little delusional”. pension reform”, she quips.
“In many establishments, despite the commitment of the teachers and an often hellish pace for the students, the programs could not be completed given the schedule of the anticipated control tests. This situation adds stress to the stress because Parcoursup him, will not wait”, denounces the FCPE.
In order to ensure “equality between the candidates”, Pap Ndiaye had asked on Tuesday March 14 “that in all high schools, Friday or Saturday days be devoted for Terminale students to revisions of specialty tests, under form of review sessions or time off”.