Mathematics has become an optional specialty in high school since the Blanquer reform. In view of the mixed results of this change, the eponymous minister announced his intention to backpedal this Sunday.
Jean-Michel Blanquer affirmed that it would “probably” be necessary to add mathematics to the common core of the Première and Terminale class, so that “all the students” have more “mathematical culture”.
Fewer and fewer girls in math
The Minister of National Education was questioned, on CNews, on the fact that teachers are alarmed by the drop in the number of young people in Première and Terminale who follow this subject, especially among girls.
Since the high school reform, which put an end to the traditional series (L, ES and S) in 2019, maths has been taught as a specialty, outside of the common core. They are no longer compulsory from Première, and can be followed as a specialty (there are three of them in Première, two in Terminale) or with the “complementary mathematics” option in Terminale.
A minister “open to proposals”
“I’m not saying it’s a non-issue. It’s a serious subject, and I’m very open to suggestions for improvement,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer. “We put in the common core of Première and Terminale a scientific teaching of two hours” weekly. “It probably needs to evolve so that there is more mathematics within it, for the mathematical culture of all students,” he added.
He also invited “to compare the mathematics program of (the old) Terminale S and that of today (for a student who has taken the specialty). It is much more demanding, some complain about it, ”according to him.