Groups in maths and French in middle school, repeating a year now decided by teachers in primary school, setting up a specific class for students who failed the certificate… The texts published in the Official Journal this Sunday March 17 detail these measures announced by Gabriel Attal when he was Minister of Education.
The creation of “groups” in mathematics and French, for students in 6th and 5th grade at the start of the 2024 school year, and 4th and 3rd grades a year later, is the most controversial measure. It has been strongly criticized by some teachers for several weeks: they fear a “sorting” of students and also wonder about the means available for this implementation, due to the lack of teachers.
The wording in the Official Journal does not include the term “level group”. “The groups are formed according to the needs of the students identified by the teachers” and “the groups of students in greatest difficulty benefit from reduced numbers”, indicates the decree. These “group” lessons for French and maths concern “the entire timetable” dedicated to these subjects. But, “by derogation and in order to guarantee the coherence of the educational progressions of the different groups”, students can be “grouped in accordance with their reference class for these lessons” over one or more periods ranging from “one to ten weeks” at total over the year.
The composition of the groups will be “re-examined during the school year, particularly during regroupings, in order to take into account the progress and needs of the students”. In December, Gabriel Attal, then Minister of Education, announced the creation of these groups, described as “level groups”, as part of the “shock of knowledge”, a set of measures aimed at raising the level of students .
The Minister of Education Nicole Belloubet, in her post since February, spoke last week of a “certain flexibility” in the establishment of these groups, which she prefers to describe as “need groups”. “What does the name matter, as long as there is the measure,” Gabriel Attal told AFP on Wednesday.
Repetition and special class
Texts on other measures of the “shock of knowledge” were also published this Sunday, including a decree on repeating a year. He notes the change in rules announced in December by Gabriel Attal: it is the teachers – and not the families – who now have the last word. In primary education (nursery and elementary schools), “a repeat year can be decided by the teachers’ council” (and no longer “proposed”), and parents “have a period of fifteen days to lodge an appeal” (but no longer have fifteen days to “give their response”, as was the case before).
In middle and high school, repeating a year can, as before, “be decided by the head of the establishment”, following a “dialogue phase” with the student and his parents, and “after the council of class has spoken.” It is no longer mentioned that this decision is taken “exceptionally”. This decree also indicates that students can participate “in success courses organized during school holidays for a maximum of three weeks per year” – courses for students in difficulty and which are provided by volunteer teachers in schools.
Finally, the texts mention the new “preparatory class for the second class”, for students who will not have had their certificate at the end of third year, obtaining which will now condition their passage to second year. At the start of the next school year, “in each department, one or more high schools” will be “identified by the rector of the academy to set up” one of these classes, as part of a “pilot phase”, indicates a decree.
A decree specifies that this class “aims to consolidate the acquired knowledge of the cycle of in-depth studies”, and “to confirm the orientation of the students and to prepare them for the continuation of their education in a second class under school status”.