Is this a temporary drop or a real trend? According to a note from National Education published on December 8, at the start of the 2021 school year, 37% of final year students chose the mathematics specialty, against 41% in 2020. The new baccalaureate in fact provides that students choose three specialties in 1st year. and that they abandon one in terminale in favor of the other two.
However, it is the maths specialty that they abandon the most. And girls are more likely to have dropped the discipline than boys, as well as students from more disadvantaged social categories. At issue: the program, deemed harder than the one followed in the (late) S stream. Some 1st year high school students, encountering difficulties, thus prefer to abandon the discipline in the final year for fear that it will penalize them for obtaining Tray. “Some have indeed the reflex to keep the two specialties in which they outperform, and it is not always math”, recognizes Pierre Mathiot, the inspiration for the reform of the bac.
A renunciation in the face of difficulty?
But according to him, this is not the only reason for abandoning maths in the final year: “Some high school students may have kept the complementary maths option, because their orientation project did not require them to do maths. in depth ”. This complementary mathematics option is in fact intended primarily for students who, having followed the mathematics specialty in 1st year and not wishing to continue it in final year, nevertheless need a certain background in the discipline. This is particularly the case for students who intend to study medicine or social or economic sciences. With the complementary mathematics option, students only have 3 hours of this discipline per week, compared to double for those who have chosen the specialty.
For Véronique Bonnet, vice-president of the association of teachers of economic and commercial preparatory classes, it is also on the side of the Covid-19 crisis that we must look for an explanation: “It was very difficult for the students to do maths at a distance during the whole period when they had lessons in half-gauges ”. The absence of guidance fairs at the height of the crisis could also have played a role, according to Emmanuel Perrin, member of the Conference of Directors of French Engineering Schools (CDEFI): “High school students had less information on sectors and have tended more to self-censor in their career choices ”.
Less popular economic prep classes
And this lesser success in high school math is starting to have consequences. According to the teachers of economic and commercial preparatory classes, the number of students fell by 9% in one year *. “The most affected preparations are those located on the outskirts of towns or in medium-sized towns. And we fear it will get worse next year. Moreover, four preparatory classes (Rodin in Paris, Montgazon in Angers, Camille Vernet in Valence and Dumont d’Urville in Toulon) will probably close their doors at the start of the 2022 school year ”, she underlines. Regarding the scientific prep classes, no data is available on registrations in 2021.
But according to Pierre Mathiot, this drop in enrollments in pre-school economic and commercial classes cannot be explained by the smallest contingent of mathematicians in terminal: “Their model has been in crisis for a few years. This generation, for example, prefers dual licenses to pre-school, because they do not necessarily want such intense training ”. Delphine Manceau, Director General of Neoma Business School and member of the Bureau of the Conférence des grandes écoles (GCE), adds that some high school students may have been disconcerted by the reform of preparatory classes, applied at the start of the 2021 school year. “Because of the Covid- 19, we were not able to organize open days to decipher the changes to them. And in particular, explain to them that final year students who take the complementary math option, but who have not kept the specialty, can very well join a management school ”.
A reduction in the pool for preparatory classes and grandes écoles?
If this decrease in mathematics in terminale is accentuated over the next few years, it could by ricochet “ultimately lead to a decline in the pool of candidates for engineering and management schools”, underlines Delphine Manceau. “However, France needs to train 50,000 engineers per year. And currently, we are at 43,000 ”, adds Emmanuel Perrin.
Concerned about these developments, the CGE intends to meet with the Ministries of Education and Higher Education. A file which will inevitably be approached soon by the follow-up committee of the reform of the general and technological high school and the bac. In the meantime, the association of professors of economic and commercial preparatory classes is asking for a moratorium to avoid the upcoming closure of preparatory classes. “We are also going to step up our communication with students to fight against their false representations with regard to maths and scientific fields”, adds Emmanuel Perrin.