“Assignment in high school is not intended to be a competition,” said Christophe Kerrero, the rector of the Paris Academy. However, many parents of Parisian high school students want their children to go to school in a reputable establishment. The old version of Affelnet, the high school assignment system, hadn’t managed to stir up enough students. This resulted in a very contrasting landscape, with elite establishments on one side and relegation high schools on the other.
The Affenet reform implemented in 2021 aims to eliminate this ghetto effect, by inviting each student to apply as a priority to five establishments in their sector, located at a maximum of 25 minutes by transport from their home. A number of points are allocated to him, allowing him to access or not a particular high school. A bonus is granted to him according to the proximity of the establishment to his domicile, another if he has a scholarship, another according to the social profile of his college (known as the IPS bonus). If the student has completed his schooling in a very disadvantaged college, he will therefore have more points.
Lamartine and Voltaire more in demand
Two later, it’s time to take stock and it’s rather positive. It must be said that after the first year of implementation of the reform, several adjustments were made: the IPS bonus allocated to each college was updated and certain sectors were modified. Result of the races: in the space of two years, the reform has led to a 39% decrease in social segregation between public high schools compared to 2019 and a decrease in social segregation by 30%.
“By promoting access for middle school IPS middle school students [600 points] or weak [1.200 points] in the most popular high schools, the IPS bonus has helped to diversify the social and academic profile of students admitted to these establishments”, explains Julien Grenet, associate professor at the Paris School of Economics and chairman of the reform monitoring committee. Afflenet in Paris. Example with Duruy (7th arrondissement), Charlemagne (4th) or Fénelon (6th), where the sociology of the students is now more varied.
“The change of sector for certain very popular high schools like Condorcet [9e] or Chaptal [8e], has also reduced the number of wishes expressed by students in favor of these establishments”, continues the economist. Conversely, the Lamartine (9th) or Voltaire (11th) high schools, which were not in high demand, now welcome more efficient and more socially advantaged students than before the reform. More importantly, the reform of Affelnet does not seem for the time being to have accelerated the “flight” to the private sector, knowing that 41% of Parisian high school students are already educated there.
Henri-IV and Louis-le-Grand on Affelnet!
Another big symbol of a greater social openness of certain establishments: since the start of the 2022 school year, the Henri-IV (5th) and Louis-le-Grand (5th) high schools no longer recruit their Parisian second-year students on file and have joined the Affelnet platform. The places are allocated there according to the school results of 3e, the status of scholarship holder and the social composition of the college of origin of the candidates.
Result: social diversity has already made significant progress in the two high schools. The rate of scholarship holders has doubled compared to the start of the 2021 academic year (they are now 17% at Henri-IV and 24% at Louis-le-Grand). Between 2021 and 2022, the share of students from socially advantaged colleges has increased from 54% to 44%. These two high schools even saw the number of applications jump by 30%. “A pool of excellent scholarship students felt more justified in applying. The media coverage played a role,” underlines Julien Grenet. A mix “which did not lead to a leveling down”, as some parents in the neighborhood feared! The performances in the written examinations of the patent of the entrants of the 2022 school year were even slightly higher than those of the previous cohort.
“New students are sometimes afraid of not being up to the job, because they only find themselves with students who were at the top of their 3rd class. But only about twenty are in difficulty at school during the year. Teachers have learned to manage a greater heterogeneity of students,” comments Stéphanie Motta-Garcia, principal of Lycée Henri-IV.
Still progress to make
However, there are still obstacles to the progress of diversity in Parisian high schools. “Starting with the absence of integration into Affelnet of private establishments under contract”, underlines Julien Grenet. “There are still high-level high schools, in the west of Paris in particular [exemple à Janson-de-Sailly, 16e, ou à Montaigne, 6e], where gender diversity is not progressing much,” he adds. In addition, some socially disadvantaged high schools are still struggling to attract people, such as Emile-Dubois (14th), François-Villon (14th), François-Rabelais (18th), Elisa-Lemmonnier (12th) or Henri-Bergson (19th).
The fact that training courses with specific recruitments (international sections, classes with flexible hours, etc.) have their own selection criteria, also constitutes a brake on diversity, underlines the economist.
Avenues for further progress
To change the situation, it would be necessary to offer these courses in less rated high schools. “This is what will be done at the start of the 2023 school year with the transfer of the double dance-music course from Brassens [19e] in Bergson and the health and social facilities in Monod [5e] in Villon. The rectorate has also decided to close certain high schools in 2023, or to abolish the general route in others. To improve the social and academic mix of high schools, it is also necessary that the most elitist keep their less good students after the second class, because some of them had the annoying tendency to get rid of them. But according to Claire Mazeron, academic director of the national education services, this is less the case now. “We have made 4,000 additional hours permanent to finance tutoring courses in establishments welcoming heterogeneous audiences. »
The majority of establishments offering at least seven specialties at the baccalaureate, they can no longer use the argument that they do not have the sector corresponding to the student’s profile. “We have also better distributed the 1st STMG classes in the high schools so that some students do not have to leave their establishment if they want to take the technological path. At the start of the 2023 school year, Henri-IV, Hélène-Boucher (20th) and Victor-Hugo will thus offer this route. And according to Christophe Kerrero, Affelnet will still move in the coming years: “It is a reform that is done over time and which requires readjustment each year to ensure that it is fairer. »