Terminale students, who have been able to estimate their final baccalaureate mark since mid-April, massively skipped classes in the third quarter. But it is not without consequence.
Many students have been boycotting the high school benches since mid-April, they who already know 70% of their final baccalaureate mark. The results of the specialty tests, which took place last March and are now part of the final tests, were indeed communicated several months before the end of the school year. And these marks alone count for a third of the baccalaureate mark (calculated out of 100 points). The verdict of the continuous assessment (40% of the baccalaureate mark) is also widely known.
The anticipated tests push the teachers to close the program prematurely so that the pupils are sufficiently prepared on D-Day. The surges of absenteeism are therefore more and more frequent in recent weeks, and the testimonies of pupils now in dilettante flow.
In the class of Lou, 17, surveyed by Point at the end of April in front of the Lycée Louis Armand (15th arrondissement of Paris), more than half of the students were already no longer coming to class. “Out of a class of 25, there are only 10 or 12 left to come to class,” she breathed. His comrade Moussa even continued: “I know someone who has more than 120 hours of absence”. “Since the baccalaureate, we don’t do much in class. It’s not motivating and, inevitably, some don’t come anymore”, admitted Salomé, still with the Point.
No bin for wall regulars?
It should also be noted that third trimester grades are no longer taken into account on the Parcoursup platform, which can increase the feeling of students wasting their time by continuing to go to high school. Following the baccalaureate reform, in 2019, the time to complete the program (from September to March) is greatly shortened. From March to June, by contrast, it stretches in relation to what the students have to do, some of them point out.
Faced with these resigning students, some teachers try to be firm: too high a rate of absenteeism could thus lead to an unfavorable mention, some even imply that the sanctions can lead to… failure to obtain the baccalaureate .
Alas, these warnings do not seem to particularly impress the students concerned and undoubtedly well informed. Obtaining the baccalaureate is not conditional on the presence in class of the students, no candidate will be deprived of a baccalaureate for having skipped too many lessons. But beware, penalties are well provided for in the event of absenteeism and this can be significant.
Penalties that can be heavy
First, the headteacher, who ensures that there are no school dropouts, generally summons the parents whose pupils have more than 2 days of unjustified absence in the month to remind them of the commitments. and individual responsibilities. The academic director of the national education services (Dasen) can also intervene with the parents of the student concerned and send them a warning, or even launch a procedure leading to the seizure of the public prosecutor.
The law provides for a fine of 135 euros (article R 624-7 of the penal code) for inactive parents and even a penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros (article 227-17) in the case where these absences fall within the framework of a major defect in education. However, these procedures are very rare.
The Ministry of National Education, for its part, insisted on the importance of remaining diligent in class until the end of the school year, with students in the final year, for pedagogical reasons: “Students must now continue their efforts around the evaluations of the common core disciplines, which account for 40% of the final baccalaureate results, maintain their investment in specialty lessons with the aim of preparing for their oral examination and their entry into higher education”, added he recalled in a press release dated April.