This April 22, Emmanuel Macron promised the great return of mathematics in the common core in high school from the start of the school year in September 2022.
Implemented at the start of the 2018 school year, the baccalaureate reform, led by the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, had abolished the S, ES and L streams in general education to replace them with a common core composed of several elective specialties, but not mathematics. Four years later, Emmanuel Macron recognizes that this much criticized absence was a mistake. “In view of the first evaluations, of what goes back, mathematics must be put back in the common core of the baccalaureate“, indeed, explained the re-elected president on April 24 on France Inter. Emmanuel Macron therefore promises their return at the start of the school year in September.
A call to save math
On March 30, 30 leaders of large French companies had launched an appeal for mathematics to find its place in the common core in high school in a column published in Challenges. Among the signatories are Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Jean-Laurent Bonnafé (BNP Paribas), Christel Heydemann (Orange), Maurice Lévy (Publicis), Patrice Caine (Thales) Patrick Pouyanné (TotalEnergies), Xavier Niel (Iliad) and Sébastien Missoff (Google). They claim “to support the will of the President of the Republic to reintroduce mathematics in the common core of high school” and ask the other presidential candidates to “commit to developing the place of mathematics teaching in primary courses, secondary and higher. These big bosses also recall that “the industrial power of a country cannot progress without scientific skills”, and that “mathematics is essential for a good understanding of the economy”. Finally, these leaders recommend that “the academic world combines mathematical training, a culture of rigor, with the necessary conversion of companies to digital and data”.
More maths in the common core and more girls
From the next back to school 2022-2023the Ministry of National Education should once again integrating mathematics into high school education. This is what the experts of the consultation committee on the teaching of mathematics in general high schools recommend, who on March 21 submitted their report on “The place of mathematics in the general course of the general and technological high school“. Indeed, with the baccalaureate reform, the L, ES and S series have been replaced since 2019 by a common core with a choice of specialist courses, including mathematics. It is therefore the pupils who decide whether or not to choose this subject, which is no longer compulsory from the Première. As a reminder, you can choose three specialties in Première and two in Terminale, with in particular the option “complementary mathematics”. But the teachers are worried: they notice a decrease in the number of high school students who opt for this scientific subject, particularly among girls. The other goal of this reform: a national objective of 10,000 more girls in the mathematics option terminale experts, from 2022, for a deadline at the start of the 2024 academic year.
Mathematics: what will change in high school?
In its report, the consultation committee on the teaching of mathematics in the general high school proposes develop this subject with all students “by reconsidering the current science education provided in first grade”. “It would suppose a requalification of this teaching in “science and mathematics education” (ESM), a reinforced articulation between the various disciplinary contents in this integrated teaching (associating the sciences of life and the Earth, physics-chemistry and mathematics), as well as an increase in the hourly quota devoted to this teaching to increase it by significantly the share of mathematical education” says the committee. The program could also be reviewed from the second class.
How many hours of math per week in high school?
Concretely, the “scientific and mathematical lessons” given in the Première class would go from two hours to 3h30 or 4h per week with the addition of 1h30 or 2h of mathematics, the teaching of which is followed by pupils who have not taken the mathematics specialty (from the start of the 2022 academic year). For Terminale students, on the other hand, the members of the committee suggest that science and mathematics teaching in Terminale remain at 2 hours per week.
Jean-Michel Blanquer must now refer to the Higher Council for Programs for additional consultations and the necessary changes, and will examine the possibilities of implementing these proposals according to a multi-annual calendar from the next school year 2022.