Bac 2023: why do the tests start so early this year?
Malika decided to test her knowledge one last time. On Friday, she went to a retired professor of economics and social sciences (SES) to ask her questions and correct exercises. “We have just finished the chapter on social mobility and I haven’t had time to go deeper,” says this 17-year-old high school student, in her final year in Caen (Calvados). She is part of the half a million students who will sit, between Monday and Wednesday, and for the first time in March, the written tests specialty lessons.
These two dominants — out of the three chosen first among the thirteen existing ones — will count for one third (32%) of the final grade. For Malika, it will therefore be SES and foreign languages, literatures and cultures (LLCE). Others will compose in mathematics, history-geography (HGGSP), sciences and life of the Earth (SVT) or digital and computer sciences (NSI).
Philosophy and the great oral in June
Many acronyms and acronyms for a new formula baccalaureate that values continuous assessment: grades obtained throughout the year in class in the other subjects will count for 40% of the final result. The reports and the two specialty tests are also important for orientation, since they will be taken into account in the files submitted on Parcoursup, the Internet platform for admission to higher education.
The establishments requested (universities, schools, preparatory schools, etc.) will have access to it to select their students. “This allows the baccalaureate to become, in the literal sense of the term, the sesame for entry into higher education”, comments Édouard Geffray, the director general of school education, number 2 of the Ministry of National Education. Once the specialty tests have been passed, it will still be up to general and technological students to pass philosophy on June 14, and the big oral between June 19 and 30, two events which will count in total for 18%.
The threat of strikes and blockades
The first two editions of the new baccalaureate could not take place normally due to the health crisis. In 2021, the specialty tests were canceled and replaced by continuous assessment, while last year they were postponed to May. This time, it is the social movement against pensions that could disrupt the progress of the exam.
Several teachers’ unions, including the Snes-FSU, which has a majority in secondary education, called for a boycott and the supervisory strike, after the government used section 49.3 to push through the reform without a vote. In response, the teams of Pap Ndiaye, the Minister of National Education, announced that a contingent of additional supervisors and correctors has been planned to compensate for defections in the 2,600 high schools examination centers. In the event of a blockade, “the necessary arrangements will be made to allow access for candidates (…), in conjunction with the department prefectures”, indicates Rue de Grenelle.
Maëlle, a student at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris (6th), does not want not believe that teachers will “let go” of students. On the contrary, she praises their accompanying qualities. “For the past few weeks, the teachers have been understanding and even help us revise. For example, in recent days, we looked at the subjects who fell in Polynesia, where the tests began on March 13, and we thought together about the corrections, says the teenager. This is an asset because the strikes of recent weeks have caused prices to jump. I lost six hours in life and earth sciences, one of my specialties, and I must admit that it stressed me out quite a bit. »
