From September 2023, first year high school students will again take compulsory mathematics courses. The scientific subject had been excluded from the program by the former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.
Bad news for math phobics, but good news for those who consider that maths is not studied in its proper measure: the subject will be taught again from the start of the 2023 school year “for all students who have not chosen the specialty mathematics” said the Ministry of National Education on Monday, November 14. A major change in strategy following the reform led by the former Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, putting aside mathematics. In effect, APMEP (Association of Mathematics Teachers in Public Education) sounded the alarm in February 2022; the Association noted that before the 2019 baccalaureate reform, there were 50,574 final year students who did not do mathematics at all; against almost 170,000 in 2021, i.e. a percentage of 45.3% of final year students who no longer take science subjects at all.
To make matter attractive again, 2023 will be a year placed under the signs of scientific calculations, warned in a communicated the Minister of National Education and Youth, Pap Ndiaye. In high school first of all, each week the pupils of first will have an hour and a half of compulsory mathematics lessons. Another measure has also been announced: in second class will be set up “a module of reconciliation with mathematics” whether in general or professional high school.
The upgrading of education will begin in primary and secondary school. Indeed, primary and even kindergarten teachers will continue to be trained in mathematics, the ministry announced. In college also the “reconciliation” with the subject will begin early, from the sixth grade, small groups will be set up to help students who need it progress.
France, bad student in mathematics
The press release from the ministry also recalls that the situation in France is “paradoxical” because recognized for the quality of its mathematical researchers, the school level is poor. According to figures from the ministry, a quarter of ninth graders do not have the level expected at the end of middle school. A percentage that climbs in vocational high schools with 70% of students having difficulty in mathematics.