2024-03-01 09:06:49
In a joint press release, the Academies of Medicine and Pharmacy, and the Association of Biology and Geology Teachers (APBG) warn of the disaffection of baccalaureate graduates towards health studies, and in particular pharmacy. They make two proposals aimed at upgrading the place of science teaching, human biology and health in middle and high school and better informing high school students regarding its student sectors.
For several years, there has been a steady decline in the number of baccalaureate graduates wishing to pursue scientific studies, particularly health training and more specifically pharmacy.
The implementation of the reform of entry into health studies, and the contemporary reform of scientific education in high school, have worsened the situation: more than 1,100 places were vacant in the second year of pharmacy in 2022 and 500 in 2023, accentuating the forecast of “pharmaceutical deserts” in the next decade. It is also essential to safeguard the national pharmaceutical industry, a strategic area for France and Europe. LOne of the causes of the disaffection of baccalaureate graduates for these professions is the increasingly glaring observation of knowledge gaps in scientific subjects in general before the baccalaureate and in particular those related to health. There is also an obvious lack of appropriate information for the guidance of students in both middle and high school. Concerning medicine, the very selective entrance “competition” leads to the major problem of the number of young people leaving to study abroad.
Faced with these challenges for the national health system, teachers, and more especially SVT (Life and Earth Sciences) teachers, have a major role to play within the education system. It is the only scientific discipline which integrates and which must explain through its know-how, its methods and its knowledge, the complexity of the relationships between Man and his environment with a stated and essential objective of prevention in human health. environment and humans. Physics, chemistry, but also biochemistry taught by SVT teachers, complete this training, particularly for pharmacy and medical care.
Paradoxically, there is a systemic impoverishment of science teaching in general and SVT in particular in its experimental aspects since the middle school reform in 2015, then that of high school in 2019, at odds with the needs in the aforementioned areas and issues for the future of France. A student will only receive on average 1h30 of SVT per week until the end of second year, or a total of 270 hours.
Another of the causes of the disaffection of high school students for the health sector results from the baccalaureate reform in 2019, which eliminated the S series, which constituted the main pool of students in the medicine and pharmacy sectors. In first grade, students must choose 3 preferred specialties of 6 hours from a large offer (12) and only keep 2 in final year. For some young people without information, this leads to a disengagement from scientific specialties because the combinations chosen sometimes appear to make little sense for following health science courses, which high school students realize when they choose their direction in higher education. .
The public authorities have demonstrated their desire “to increase the level of students in fundamental knowledge. » It is essential to integrate the “health” dimensions into this fundamental knowledge and thus include, in addition to mathematics and French, knowledge of the human body and the prevention of multiple health risks. This results in the related professions.
Faced with these observations :
– in-depth reflection is essential, led by the ministries concerned (National Education, Higher Education and Health) to revalorize the place of science teaching, human biology and health in middle and high school, with in particular the strengthening of guided teaching and practical work.
– iIt is essential and urgent to better inform young people at least from the first on the diversity of health professions and their values thanks to the assistance of health professionals, research and guidance, in order to explain the different possible paths.
• Find out more on the National Academy of Medicine website.
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