2023-09-15 18:00:00
DISPATCH — For Gabriel Attal, improving students’ mastery of writing is a “republican emergency”. Friday September 15, traveling to a primary school in Eure-et-Loir, he presented the measures he wishes to put in place: abolition of “blank texts”, writing test upon entry into 6th grade, competition writing…
On the occasion of the beginning of year evaluations in classes, it was in Tremblay-les-Villages that the Minister of Education went to share his plans: “I believe in the importance of writing, and I go further, writing, including creative writing,” he began.
At the beginning of September, “I was challenged in a column by artists and intellectuals”, published in the newspaper Le Monde, calling to “restore the written word” to its “letter of nobility”. “It was important for me to respond,” he explained. According to him, it is a “duty of rigor and excellence” to raise the level of writing, particularly because today, “nearly one in three students cannot read or write properly when entering 6th grade.
To do this, here is what he proposed:
“abolish blank texts in middle school and college learning”; ensure that “national assessments” at entry into year 6 involve a “writing test” in addition to reading; “put the emphasis on fundamental knowledge”, in particular by increasing the time spent reading in CP and the time spent writing in CM2; create a “double major national writing competition”, for students and teachers.
On the union side, we believe that the minister is possibly taking the wrong path. Questioned by AFP, Guislaine David, general secretary of FSU-SNUipp, estimated that before “giving injunctions to teachers, we must understand what is an obstacle to writing”. According to her, it is not so much reading that poses a problem, but understanding texts. But “to write, you have to understand,” she assures.
“Then, we must ask ourselves the question of the teaching conditions which are an obstacle: learning conditions are degraded by busy staff,” she observed elsewhere.
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