For this start of the 2023 school year, the government is playing havoc with everything: baccalaureate specialty tests moved to June, return of maths in the common core in first, replacements for absent teachers, ban on abayas… The executive is making its share of changes on school benches.
End of staggered bac exams
Coaster. The holding in March of the baccalaureate specialty tests had been accused of causing absenteeism and demotivation of certain students in the last quarter. The baccalaureate calendar will therefore change. From 2024, the specialty tests will be organized in June.
Emmanuel Macron estimated in an interview with Point, published on August 24, that the baccalaureate exams, which started for the first time in 2023 in March, could not be held “so early in the year”. The “new baccalaureate” as imagined in 2018 by the then Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, was only fully implemented this year.
In addition, concerning the oral examination at the baccalaureate, the new tenant of Rue de Grenelle, Gabriel Attal, announced on Monday August 28 the elimination of the five minutes devoted to the student orientation project, to spend more time on “knowledge”. For the French baccalaureate, the number of texts on the program for the oral tests will be reduced from 20 to 16 to “better deepen them and better prepare them”.
Maths in the common core in first
This start of the school year will see the reintroduction of compulsory mathematics education for all high school students in the general section of first year. From September, those who have not taken the mathematics specialty will have an additional hour and a half of lessons per week devoted to this discipline.
Hour of support and “homework done” compulsory in sixth grade
This year, one hour per week of reinforcement or deepening in French or mathematics will be set up in sixth grade, provided in particular by elementary school teachers. All students will benefit. In college, French and mathematics will be at the “heart of the new sixth”, recalled Gabriel Attal. To allow the introduction of this hour of support, the hour of technology in sixth grade is removed. In addition, the “homework done” system, which allows students to do their homework in college, will be made compulsory in sixth grade.
Increase in remuneration, pact and replacements
The increase in teachers’ salaries, presented in April by Emmanuel Macron, comes into force this start of the school year, with an unconditional part (the “base”), so that all teachers earn more than 2,000 euros net per month, and a conditioned part to the acceptance of new missions (the “pact”).
This pact should allow in particular “the systematic replacement of absent teachers” for short periods in colleges and high schools, a priority mission for the ministry. Gabriel Attal reaffirmed on Monday that there would be “a teacher in front of each class” at the start of the school year, in particular thanks to the pact.
Reinforced fundamental knowledge and new assessments
Emphasis will be placed on strengthening basic knowledge from primary school onwards. In CP, each day, “two hours will be devoted to learning and practicing reading,” said the minister. In CM2, students must produce at least one written text each week. In CM1, those who have reading difficulties will benefit from reinforced daily practice, in particular with the reading of long texts. In addition, new national assessments will be organized in French and mathematics this year for pupils in CM1 and fourth, to better identify pupils in difficulty.
Abaya ban
Wearing the abaya, a long traditional dress worn by some Muslim students, will be banned in schools in France in the name of secularism. Students arriving at school in abaya will not be able to enter class, but “will be welcomed” by schools, which will have to “explain to them the meaning” of this ban from the start of the school year, said Thursday, August 31, the education Minister.
“[Dans certains collèges et lycées]you can have several tens of people who are concerned [et les chefs d’établissement doivent être] accompanied to do this work of mediation”, specified the minister, assuring that the management staff were going to receive “a set of texts”, including a letter, signed by the Minister of National Education, which they “could send to the families concerned”.
Reform of the professional high school and discovery of professions in college
From this start of the school year, vocational high school students will earn a little money during the periods in the company, so far unpaid. The amount of the bonus varies according to the type of training and the level of education. The calculation is made according to the number of days of training that the student has actually completed. It will be multiplied by a daily rate corresponding to the diploma and the year of training. In college, time to discover trades will be set up in fifth, fourth or third. A job discovery referent will coordinate these actions in the establishments.
A plan against bullying
School harassment has been made a national priority for this start of the school year, after the suicide in May of a teenager. It must be the subject of an interministerial plan. A student responsible for school bullying can now be transferred to another school, avoiding imposing this change on the victim. A perpetrator of cyberbullying against a student from another establishment may also be sanctioned.
“When the intentional and repeated behavior of a pupil poses a characterized risk to the safety or health of another pupil of the school, the school principal, after having brought together the educational team, implements, by associating the parents of the pupil whose behavior is in question, any educational measure likely to put an end to this behavior”, indicates the ministry.