► “This measure clashes with the realities of national education”
Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the National Union of High Schools and Colleges (Snalc)
If this reform takes place, it would be a big change in the functioning of the national patent diploma. Until now, the brevet had never had this role of “toll gate” before entering high school. I do not disagree with the minister when she says that it is important to upgrade this exam to restore meaning behind this diploma. I also think that making the direct transition to second grade conditional on passing the certificate could have positive effects on the work done by third grade students and even from previous classes.
On paper, this measure is interesting, but it clashes with the realities of national education. Today, second grade assignments are discussed in January and February. However, by suspending the allocation of several tens of thousands of students to the results of the certificate which fall in July, this reform would only leave a very short period of time to organize. The risk would therefore be to work on an organization in February which will not at all correspond to the needs highlighted by the results of the examination in July. In this matter, we do not believe in the capacity of anticipation of the ministry and the rectorates.
Furthermore, the idea of giving an additional year to students who have failed the patent exam with the “prep-secondary classes” seems relevant to me. But it is necessary to generalize these classes. Currently, only one class has been set up per department.
The ministry explains that they would have to be multiplied by ten to extend them to the entire territory in 2027. Beyond the fact that we wonder if it is not slightly underestimating the number of classes necessary, this measure does not help us. does not seem feasible. This will require mobilizing additional teachers and making them work more hours at a time when national education is experiencing its most serious recruitment crisis under the Fifth Republic. We should first take care of human resources before launching educational systems which would go to the wall due to lack of capacity to implement them.
Otherwise, we risk ending up with poorly calibrated prep-secondary classes and not necessarily located in the right place in the territories. The other risk that we point out is witnessing school dropout phenomena. For example, prep-secondary students who would be sent to establishments far from home and poorly served or who would not be able to continue in second year in the same high school where they completed their prep. We fear that we have not been heard by the ministry on this practical aspect.
► “The government seeks to return to old logic”
Alain Boissinot, former director general of school education
This announcement has first of all a symbolic value. France is very attached to the symbol of exams which it has difficulty considering other than as a sort of competition. When the success rates are too high, we conclude that the diploma has no value. This is true for the baccalaureate. And this has also been the case for some time for the national patent diploma.
Wanting to make the secondary school certificate compulsory reflects a questionable interpretation of its role. The certificate is not a real exam, in the traditional sense of the term, but a sort of certificate of completion of studies, which certifies mastery of the common core. It is therefore not necessarily abnormal that a large majority of students – around 90% – obtain it.
Reforming the certificate exposes you to difficulties in managing formidable student flows. If we want to make it compulsory for the pursuit of studies and if, at the same time, we reduce success rates, by removing “academic corrections”, which made it possible to harmonize grades, as Gabriel Attal announced last year, we will find ourselves with a significant number of failing students.
Some will repeat their third year or will be directed towards CAP, like today. But the government plans to send as many as possible to “prep-secondary classes”, which allow them to prepare for entry into high school. And in this case, it will be necessary to open a considerable number of them, which will modify the balance of training at the level of the third and the second. In addition to these flow management difficulties, this reform will devalue the orientations towards CAPs, which already suffer from a bad image.
When we want to block students at the end of middle school, we return to a logic that disappeared in the 1980s. Until then, a good number of students were oriented at the end of fifth or third grade. towards professional training. But as the job market has evolved and French society has undergone significant transformation, almost an entire generation continued their studies until third grade, then moved on to high school level training and, little by little, , we saw college outings disappear.
Today, no business leader wants to hire young people at the end of fifth grade or even those who have failed their certificate. They especially seek to hire young people who have sufficient mastery of basic learning, which is what the common training base is supposed to guarantee.
By making the secondary school certificate compulsory, the government is giving up giving an entire generation mastery of this base in order to seek, basically, to return to the old logic. The weakness of this reasoning is that professional circles will not follow.
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