Last year, concern was at the rendezvous. The closure of schools during confinement had penalized the learning of students of CP and CE1, but not those of 6th, as the national evaluations of 2020 had shown. But this bad patch is behind us, according to the results of the 2021 evaluations , made public this Tuesday.
“The drop in the level of CP students observed between 2019 and 2020 is absorbed at the start of the 2021 school year, whether in French or in mathematics. In some areas, their level is even higher than before the health crisis, ”observes Fabienne Rosenwald, Director of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance (Depp). Example: in 2019, 59% of students were able to recognize letters well at the beginning of CP, while this year they are 64% to do so. Two years ago, 76% of students could compare numbers, while in 2021, they are 79% to master this skill. “The investment of teachers made it possible to offset the effect of the health crisis”, comments Édouard Geffray, director general of school education.
CE1 students have a pre-crisis level, or even better
For CE1 students, the news is also good. By 2020, their reading and writing skills had taken a hit. “They had been affected by the closure of schools, because learning to read at a distance, for example, is more complicated. But at the start of the 2021 school year, they have regained at least the level of their elders in 2019, particularly in reading comprehension, knowledge of numbers and problem solving, ”observes Fabienne Rosenwald. In some areas, the level has even improved. If 72% of CE1 students knew how to write whole numbers in 2019 for example, they are now 76% to do so. Ditto in problem solving use whole numbers and requiring calculation: if 46% succeeded in 2019, they are 48% to do it in 2021.
The improvement in results in CP and CE1 is observable in all types of establishment, knowing that the students of Rep + even progress more. “The differences in level between priority education students and others have narrowed compared to 2020 and are comparable to those observed at the start of the 2019 school year”, underlines Fabienne Rosenwald. “The duplication of the major section, CP and CE1 classes in priority education has made it possible to overcome the negative effects of the crisis”, analyzes Édouard Geffray, director general of school education. The fact remains that these differences in levels do exist and that France remains the champion of educational inequalities, as the Pisa study regularly shows.
The level of the 6th continues to progress
As for the 6th grade students, we remember that their level had not been affected by the confinement. The 2020 evaluations had even shown that they had progressed in French compared to their classmates evaluated in 2019 (+ 4.8 points) and in math (+ 2.9 points). And this year again, the 2021 promotion is doing a bit better than the previous one. The students of Rep + have better results than their classmates in 2020: + 4, 8 points in French and +3.8 points in math. This does not mean that the picture is idyllic, since only 35.8% of Rep + students can read 120 words per minute, against 52% of non-Rep students.
These results will be returned to the parents, which can be anxious if the child does not have a satisfactory level. But this year, the ministry wants to be more educational: an evaluation presentation sheet will be distributed to parents, as well as a positioning sheet for their child by discipline, with advice so that they can better help them progress.