Favor options such as the Balguegue and European sections in establishments known to be difficult to attract more privileged families: this was one of the proposals put forward by the former Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye at the time of the presentation of his plan for promote school diversity, last May. Tuesday September 12, the Institute of Public Policies (IPP) released a critical note on the effects of such a measure within establishments: the document reveals that in France, when there are balance-sheet and European sections, “the level of social segregation between sixth grade classes in the same college exceeds by 29% the value that would be observed if students were allocated randomly between classes. A form of advocacy against these classes where students are brought together to intensively practice a foreign language.
At the start of the 2016 school year, the elimination of the bilingual sections applied as part of the college reform orchestrated by the minister at the time, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, led to a 53% reduction in this surplus of “segregation” in the 2016 school year. sixth in the establishments concerned. The elimination of the European sections led to a 33% reduction in social gaps in fourth grade. But these averages must be put into perspective. “These differences only concern some of the establishments. Many make sure to distribute the students affected by these options in different classes,” explains CNRS researcher Youssef Souidi, author of the study. “All that for this !” exclaims high school classics teacher and essayist Loys Bonod, for whom looking into the potential discriminatory nature of these options is a bad idea. The teacher sees this as an illusion leading to the real obstacles to social diversity at school being silenced.
L’Express: Do you believe, like the Institute of Public Policies, that it is high time to take an interest in the factors of “intra-establishment segregation” generated, in particular, by the Belgian and European sections?
Loys Bonod: I don’t have the impression that this study tells us much given that we have already had figures on this subject in the past. I remember in particular a study by Cnesco [Centre national d’étude des systèmes scolaires] released in 2015 on these famous balance sections which allegedly participate in a form of intra-establishment segregation. But who exactly are we talking about? Only 15% of students in the balance section (who are already few in number) participate in intra-establishment segregation. Eight years ago, the debate also focused on Latin chosen more by families from privileged backgrounds. But we realized that the effect of segregation was very relative since most establishments which offered these options attempted to distribute students into different classes to avoid this pitfall. It should also be noted that many establishments classified as priority education networks also offer this type of option. At equivalent school level, there are even more Latin sections in Sarcelles, in Val-d’Oise, than in the 16th arrondissement of Paris! But, in the case of Sarcelles, we are not talking about “segregation” since the students all come from more or less the same background. In short, this type of study serves no purpose, except to once again accuse the school, to deliver it to popular vindictiveness, as if it were alone responsible for the inequalities which continue to increase. But we know that this is a way of looking away from the real problems.
What are the real problems you are referring to?
If we really want to study the factors of this school segregation, we must turn to the private sector under contract. Instead, we are interested in microphenomena, such as that of the Bilguegue classes or the Latin option, which would represent “evil”. It’s as if we were making headlines about the municipal swimming pool which would have 5 centimeters of water more than the authorized level in a municipality where there are 1,000 private swimming pools. A way of focusing attention on a tiny excess and silencing other, much more important ones. The Institute of Public Policies, which is releasing this study, would do better to focus on unfair competition from the private sector, financed largely by public money, and which greatly contributes to widening inequalities, as the Court of Justice recently revealed. accounts. Instead, public schools are always asked to justify themselves, to respond to lots of constraints, to put in place all kinds of new measures in the name of diversity. All of this has very concrete consequences: in my Parisian establishment, my German colleague who had managed to open a language section at college, ended up resigning because people were putting obstacles in her way. However, I had never met a teacher as dynamic, invested and enthusiastic as her.
Former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had, however, reestablished the possibility of creating balance sections upon his arrival in 2017. His successor, Pap Ndiaye, had also highlighted it during the presentation of his plan to fight for more diversity at school…
Even Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who, at the time of the college reform in 2015, had wanted to remove them, later came back on them! When school diversity policies were implemented in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, one of the first measures taken was to open a balance section in an establishment that we precisely wanted to promote. We realized that if we wanted to attract families from the 18th arrondissement to public establishments, it was better to offer various additional options and ensure that we had an attractive school offer in order to compensate for the other enormous pitfalls of weakness. level, school climate problems, catastrophic results.
“It is the drop in the general level which should attract all the attention”
This is one of the key arguments of defenders of the Balguegue classes or the Latin option. Do you think, like them, that these measures make it possible to avoid the flight of the middle or privileged classes towards the private sector?
Quite frankly, I don’t think these are decisive criteria, even if it’s obviously a plus to be able to do German or Latin. What parents look at and check above all is whether their child is not at risk of being harassed or upset, whether he will be able to study in good conditions, whether he has a chance of getting a grade in the bac… It must unfortunately be recognized that the private sector meets all these criteria more today. It is not for nothing that it arouses growing enthusiasm. I recently embarked on a comparative investigation of the written results of the patent in Paris – much more objective than the “skills” evaluated during the year and whose results are biased to say the least: I noticed that certain establishments topped out at 7 on average. While others had an average of 16 or 17… It turns out that these are all private establishments under contract. In the capital, it’s very simple, the best public college, which is Henri-IV, barely reaches the private average! We thus arrive at enormous differences in level. And besides that, we are going to quibble about a minority of colleges which would participate in a form of segregation by grouping students from the balance section in 6ᵉ A, instead of distributing them between classes B, C and D.
The study carried out by the IPP does not cast shame on all establishments which offer assessment and international sections. She salutes those who ensure that the students concerned are distributed into different classes and highlights this solution in her conclusion. A good idea ?
Obviously. This is also what is already done in most establishments, despite the enormous time constraints that this can cause. We know very well that it is better to avoid having entire classes of Latinists and Germanists and that it is preferable to distribute them to have more balanced classes. The “good” news is that there are fewer and fewer of them! If I take the example of my high school, today there are only 11 of them who have retained Latin. We chose to divide them into two classes – 9 in one and 2 in the other – but, because of this, everyone finds themselves with very restrictive schedules: like those who finish on Wednesday at noon, but who have to come back at the end of the day just to take their Latin class. A funny way to reward those who make the effort to study more. And during this time, certain private establishments under contract, such as Stanislas, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, make the Latin option compulsory from the 5th grade. But, once again, let’s not waste our time deciphering what looks like epiphenomena. I am waiting for studies on the reasons which explain the dramatic drop in standards over the last few decades despite record exam results. The real emergency is here!