2023-12-06 06:30:12
Gabriel Attal, Minister of Education, at the National Assembly, in Paris, December 5, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
It was from a college in the 19th arrondissement of Paris that Gabriel Attal decided to present what he has been calling for several months now his “shock of knowledge”. A symbolic choice of location for the Minister of National Education whose plan, unveiled Tuesday December 5, has all the makings of a major upheaval for this level of schooling, the only one which had not seen any reform since the arrival of Emmanuel Macron to power in 2017.
Based among other things on the results of French students in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), published a few minutes before he unveiled his reform, the successor of Jean-Michel Blanquer and Pap Ndiaye detailed the changes he intends to make to “raise the level” students in the name of a “national emergency”.
If the announcements provide for an overhaul of primary school programs or the creation at the end of first grade of an anticipated mathematics and scientific culture test at the baccalaureate, it is indeed middle school that Gabriel Attal has done “the heart of electroshock” that he aspires to. “There will be a before and an after”promised the minister, presenting two measures changing the face of the college: the creation of level groups and the overhaul of the patent examination.
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The project is clear: “We must today leave the uniform college”, launched the minister bluntly. From the start of the 2024 school year, 6th and 5th grade students will be divided into three groups according to their level in French and mathematics, i.e. in a third of the lessons taught at the college. The 4th and 3rd grade classes will be affected from the start of the 2025 school year. The national assessments for the 6th and 4th grades should give guidance to teachers on how to form groups, the minister’s entourage said.
For those at a lower level, the number should not exceed ” fifteen “ of students. To make the device « flexible »middle school students will be able to move from one group to another depending on the progress made, according to the assessment of the teaching teams.
The minister goes even further in differentiating courses by also providing that students in very great difficulty can have an adapted schooling with more hours of French and mathematics and fewer lessons in other subjects during a postponement at the level.
“Fix what no longer works”
“After decades of a shift towards a college that is more uniform than unique, I take responsibility for correcting what no longer works”affirms Mr. Attal who, referring to the national 4th grade assessments – for which a third of students have difficulty in mathematics and French – believes that “this college produces too many failures and not enough success”.
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