Baccalaureate: specialty tests are abolished

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It is a decision that reflects the “concerns” of teachers and professors. Last November, Jean-Michel Blanquer had already announced the cancellation of the common assessment tests for the new baccalaureate, normally organized for the first and final classes, for the benefit of continuous assessment. This time, it is the specialty tests which follow the same path. In a letter sent to teachers on Thursday evening, the Minister of Education announced that the first specialty tests of the new baccalaureate, which count for a third of the final grade, are canceled in favor of continuous assessment due to the health crisis . The teachings of these specialties “will not be evaluated through tests in March but on the basis of the averages of the three terms of Terminale of these lessons”, indicates this letter of which Agence France-Presse has obtained a copy. The Minister of Education explains that he had to “take into account the effects of the health crisis”.

“In the words of the students, I heard the concerns expressed in the face of the difficulties of preparing for the tests of the specialty courses” and “in those of the teachers, I was sensitive to the expression of a fatigue experienced in what is experienced as a race against time, ”he describes. For several weeks, teachers, students, parents and unions have been asking for the cancellation or postponement of these tests scheduled for March, while 70% of high schools have implemented hybrid education for nine weeks.

Mixed reactions

For Philippe Vincent, the general secretary of SNPDEN, the first union of school leaders, the cancellation of the specialty tests is “a reasonable and pragmatic decision in the current context”. Sophie Vénétitay, from Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union, was more mixed. “We note the fact that the Minister heard that the tests could not decently be held in March, this will help to lower the pressure, but it raises the problem of continuous monitoring which can be a factor of inequality”, a- she regretted.

In a press release, the SE-Unsa for its part welcomed “the choice of recourse to continuous assessment, the only one which allows subjects to be adapted to real progress and the only one which guarantees that the pupils will be well evaluated”. The (secondary) Snalc wrote in another press release that this decision “does not correspond to the expectations of the majority of [its] members, who asked for a postponement in June”.

Regarding the Parcoursup platform – which was to integrate the marks of the March exams – Jean-Michel Blanquer specified that it “will take into account the averages which are given in the reports for the first two quarters, as well as the assessments of the teachers”. In his letter, the minister also announced “the adaptation made to the final tests of philosophy [choice between three subjects instead of two subjects] and French [tightening of the number of oral texts]”.

Related Articles:

• The specialty exams of the baccalaureate are abolished, announces Jean-Michel Blanquer (Le Monde)
• Bac 2021: “We have no idea what awaits us” (Le Point)
• Cancellation of the final specialty teaching exams in March (France Minister of Education)
• New bac exams in France cut over Covid-19 (The Connexion)