Implementation of “needs groups” in 6th and 5th grades
Among the main new features of this school year is the establishment of “needs groups” in French and mathematics in sixth and fifth grade.
Announced by Gabriel Attal, then Minister of National Education, but strongly criticized by a large part of the educational world, the level groups, renamed “needs groups” by Nicole Belloubet, will be implemented “with flexibility and pragmatism”, promised the minister. This controversial measure should be evaluated in parallel with its implementation, they emphasize at the ministry.
The uniform
The experiment of the “single outfit” at school, announced last fall and planned this year in a hundred schools on a voluntary basis, with a view to a possible generalization in 2026, “is underway”, recalled Nicole Belloubet. “There are 90 establishments (including 70 schools) that have embarked on this experiment”, she specified.
Patent reform
Gabriel Attal had announced his desire to reform the brevet to strengthen its “requirement”, with an increased share given to the final exams, which would represent 60% of the final verdict. Above all, he had announced that obtaining the brevet would “condition”, from 2025, “direct access to high school”.
The new assessment methods for the 2025 brevet session will concern “the change from 50/50 to 40/60 to increase the share given to end-of-year exams” and “the consideration of all third-year disciplines for the 40% of continuous assessment”, indicated Nicole Belloubet. Due to the political context, the texts on these new methods “had to be postponed”.
On the other hand, the reform providing that obtaining the brevet is compulsory for moving on to the second year of secondary school should not be ratified, “the decree provided for this purpose being frozen at this stage”, she said.
Experimenting with the “secondary prep”
Gabriel Attal had announced the creation of a “prep-second” class for students who failed their brevet, tested from this fall on a voluntary basis in a hundred high schools, at least one per department. “Currently I don’t have enough students, I have less than a thousand,” said the minister. But “I think that at the start of the school year we will have a few more.”
