“Final Year Students Already Check Out as Bac Exams Come to a Close: What’s Next?”

2023-04-19 04:00:00

Given that the baccalaureate is already almost over – there are only the philosophy test and the oral exam left – some final year students already have the impression that the year is over.

From now on, Divine chooses its materials. “There are classes where I don’t go,” confides to BFMTV.com this 17-year-old final year student. She particularly dries up sport and, since the tests took place at the end of March, specialty lessons.

“The bac exhausted me so much, I told myself that I deserved it,” she says.

If Divine is so relaxed, it is in particular because since last Wednesday, she already knows her main marks: 17/20 in her two specialty tests (economic and social sciences as well as history-geography, geopolitics and political sciences). What ensure him obtaining the baccalaureate.

Will she still continue to invest in class, work, do her homework? “No,” she assures. “Clearly, I’m less motivated,” she says. “I’m going to take time to do the things I love. Besides, we all feel (his classmates, editor’s note) on vacation.”

However, there are almost two months of classes left and the final year students will still have to work on philosophy on June 14 and then present the big oral between June 19 and 30. But while these last two tests only count for 18% of the final baccalaureate mark, do high school students already consider that the year is over?

“Getting them back to work is complicated”

“They have zero brain time available to work”, regrets for BFMTV.com Christine Guimonnet, general secretary of the Association of History and Geography Teachers. “It’s a disaster and it’s sad.” This teacher did not see some of her final year students during the common core history-geography course.

As for those present in class: “To put them back to work, it’s complicated. We have already lost our students.”

If the situations vary from one class or one establishment to another, Jérôme Fournier, history-geography teacher and national education secretary of the SE-Unsa, mentions classes where sometimes less than half of the pupils still come to course. “These are situations that remain in the minority, but it is clear that in the majority of classes, there are absent students,” he says for BFMTV.com.

Bruno Bobkiewicz, secretary general of the SNPDEN-Unsa headteachers’ union and headmaster of the Berlioz school complex in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne) says he has seen a doubling of absenteeism among terminal students.

“There is a third of the program left”

One of the objectives of the bac reform was however the “reconquest” of the month of June, had put forward Jean-Michel Blanquer, the former Minister of National Education. “It’s failed”, denounces Jérôme Fournier. “Now we will have to win back from March to June”, laments for BFMTV.com Pierre Priouret, professor of mathematics and secretary general of the Snes-FSU for the Toulouse academy.

“We forget that there is still a third of the program!”, the teacher is indignant. Following the example of specialty lessons: not all the chapters of the program are on the exam menu, so some have not yet been covered in class.

“We ran for five months, worked urgently on this very dense part, but the program for the year is not complete”, adds for BFMTV.com Marie-Thérèse Lehoucq, president of the Union of teachers of physics and chemistry. She also warns students: “There will still be assessments.”

This is confirmed by mathematics professor Pierre Priouret. “The class councils take place at the beginning of June, the third quarter will indeed be taken into account in the continuous control”, he insists.

“I can’t let go”

Gabriel, 18, is well aware of this. No question for this STI2D (science and technology of industry and sustainable development) student to slow down. In particular because in one of his specialty tests, he received a 2/20. “When I saw that, I broke down,” he testifies to BFMTV.com.

What worries him all the more in the perspective of his orientation in higher education: the high school student wishes to integrate an engineering school. “I had 16 and 17 in French last year, all my averages were above 10 in first. But this year, I had lower grades. In the second term, my average was 8/ 20. I can’t let go.”

Additional reason for him to stay the course: the prospect of not receiving any positive response to his wishes formulated on Parcoursup. “If I ever make wishes during the complementary phase (which will open on June 15, editor’s note) or reorient myself, I cannot afford to have a bad third trimester.”

In some establishments, however, the principals had to go into the classrooms to remind the high school students that the year was not over. “The students already know where they are, they know three quarters of their note, do their calculations”, points out Pierre Priouret, the representative of Snes-FSU.

“They know very well that the baccalaureate is already finished. At best, they will concentrate on the great oral.”

The third trimester = 6.6% of the note

Questioned by BFMTV.com, the ministry replied that “students must continue their efforts around the evaluations of the common core disciplines which account for 40% of the final results”.

As a reminder, the continuous assessment concerns all the disciplines of the common core which are not the subject of final tests. Either modern languages, history-geography, scientific education for the general route or mathematics for the technological route as well as moral and civic education in the first and final years, but also the abandoned specialty education in première and physical education and sports only in terminale.

To simplify, this last term of terminale represents regarding a sixth of the continuous assessment mark, or 6.6%.

The ministry adds that the assessments of the high school student’s school report “will report for the meetings of the July deliberation jury on attendance, work, progress and the ability to succeed throughout the year, third quarter. Understood”. And finally recalls that “attendance in class is compulsory, at any time of the year”.

Objective mention for some

Youna, with an overall average of 17.5 on her report card, already has a high school diploma. “I calculated my baccalaureate mark out of curiosity,” she confesses to BFMTV.com. Even without the notes of philosophy, the great oral and the third trimester, this high school student who calls herself “hardworking” and “serious” has room.

“I am currently at 17 or so. But having the baccalaureate does not mean that I no longer go to class.”

Because this final year student is aiming for the mention very well. “It’s from me to me, for my personal satisfaction since anyway it won’t count for Parcoursup. I worked a lot during the year, it would be the result of this work.” But she still recognizes a more relaxed atmosphere in the halls of the school. “There is less stress, like less weight,” she analyzes.

“Six months vacation”

Christine Guimonnet imagines a solution in the event of aggravated absenteeism: indicate in the student’s booklet that “the grade of the continuous assessment of the third quarter in such a discipline is not representative” and replace it with that of an assignment on the table imposed. “Continuous monitoring allows us this flexibility,” explains the history and geography teacher. “We are not obsessed with grades, but students must continue to work in class and at home.”

In particular because what is at stake, for the teaching body, is success in higher education. “The risk is that the step to be taken is too great”, is still alarmed by Christine Guimonnet, who fears a loss of automation. A concern shared by Jérôme Fournier, of SE-Unsa. “The entry into higher education is partly played out now.”

“In what state will our colleagues from higher education find our students following six months of vacation?” Asks Pierre Priouret.

As far as Divine is concerned, she still intends to return to some of her sports lessons – in particular because she will be evaluated. The high school student also fears that “something will be written on the report card” in the case of excessive absenteeism. But she is already planning to give herself another week of revisions before the philosophy test, scheduled for mid-June.

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