This was certainly not the objective of the reform of the baccalaureate wanted by Jean-Michel Blanquer, but it is clear that since the start of the 2019 school year, the date of the entry into force of the said reform, high school girls are becoming rarer in science classes. Especially in math class. “The general dropout is very important, since, in first general, nearly 45% of girls no longer take math lessons, while in 2018, they were only 17% not taking any”, can we read in the written question posed Monday, January 31 by Senator Françoise Dumont to the Minister of National Education.
A 25-year perspective
The Var parliamentarian from the Les Républicains (LR) party does not pull these statistics out of her hat, but from a press release of January 25 in which professors of mathematics and scientists denounce “a worsening of gender inequalities in mathematics in high school, brutally wiping out more than 25 years of effort”.
denouncing “the vertiginous fall in the percentage of high school girls present in the framework of scientific options, what was agreed to be called the S sector”, Françoise Dumont goes further in the analysis of figures. “In the space of just two years, the rate of high school girls in these specialties fell from nearly 47.5% to 39.8%, a drop of 7.7 points. Unheard of since 1994”.
The doors are closing
Behind these alarming statistics, the senator from Var sees the “disastrous consequences” of this baccalaureate reform on the younger generations. “Some of the most valued training and careers will be closed to many young girls”, she worries. And to illustrate his remarks with the example of “the daughter of a friend who has abandoned mathematics and is now denied access to the aeronautical professions towards which she now wants to move”.
If there is undoubtedly a lack of information for high school students – girls and boys – on the consequences of their choice of options in first and final year, Jean-Michel Blanquer’s baccalaureate reform is not satisfactory. “Obviously, this reform is not good. We must not be afraid to admit it”, says Françoise Dumont. While asking the government “what he intends to do to bring young girls back to scientific specialties, from high school and more generally the young generations towards these sectors which train for professions of excellence, which our country needs so much”, the senator from Var wishes “the return of mathematics – which is part of the fundamentals – until the final year for the general baccalaureate”. And this, from the next school year!
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