There would be fewer and fewer girls “in all math courses”. In any case, this is what Mélanie Guenais, teacher-researcher at Paris Saclay University and vice-president of the Mathematical Society of France, said, in an interview on franceinfo.
Even if it is “too early” to “make an initial assessment” of this reform in higher education, she notes at the high school level, “a very significant drop in mathematics training in 1st and final class” .
“It’s almost one in two students who no longer do math in the final year, compared to 85% who did before the reform,” said Mélanie Guenais. According to her, “the increased demand for programs” which are “more dense” “perhaps” also helps to explain “why there is self-censorship of certain girls and disadvantaged backgrounds”. “It accentuates this elitist vision of the discipline,” she concluded.
Jean-Michel Blanquer rightly said this Sunday that it would “probably” be necessary to add mathematics to the common core of the 1st and final class, so that “all the students” have more “mathematical culture”.