This Tuesday morning, some 718,723 final year students were able to discover their baccalaureate results. This year, “we are 84.9% admitted to the baccalaureate all series combined”, “against 86.1% last year”, indicated the same day the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye. A figure that should be slightly increased after the catch-up sessions. “The baccalaureate honestly, in this generation, it is much easier to have it than in the 1980s or 1990s”, tells an AFP journalist Manon, 17, a freshly graduated student at the Tournefeuille high school, in outskirts of Toulouse came with two friends to see her results. “We knew we were going to get it. I hesitated between mentioning Good or Very Good. In the end, we all did very well, ”added Maella, 17, in front of the same high school. Because yes, what could be better than going home with the baccalaureate and a mention in your pocket.
Since 1997, the number of baccalaureate holders obtaining a mention has risen sharply. That year, 24.3% of those admitted received a mention compared to 64.1% in 2021. The sharp increase in the mention rate is even more impressive when comparing the awards between 1997 and 2021 of the mentions Bien and Très Bien at general stream baccalaureate holders. At the time, 5.5% of graduates received the mention Bien and 1.1% the mention Très Bien. Today, they are 25.9% to have received the first and 13.6% the second.
As a reminder, the mention Assez Bien is awarded to those who have obtained an average higher than 12, the mention Bien to those who have had more than 14, and the mention TB to those who have had more than 16. .
New scoring criteria
Who has never heard this famous phrase “today National Education gives the baccalaureate”? Impliedly, the level required of students is lower and allows more young people to have their diplomas and therefore to have mentions.
“This increase in the number of attributions of mention can be explained by several phenomena”, launches to 20 minutes Claude Lelièvre, education historian. If obtaining a baccalaureate is “less difficult” for the researcher than a few decades ago, the boom in the mention rate is not a direct consequence of a drop in requirements.
Firstly, the increase in the number of Good and Very Good mentions is linked to a change in the rating philosophy. “For a long time, teachers graded literary subjects more harshly than science subjects. Even when we were very good in philosophy, we barely reached 16. So to rehabilitate the literary subjects, the teachers began to put better marks, which therefore raised the mention rate, ”explains the historian.
Winning options
The increase in the number of mentions, in particular Very Good, is also linked to the introduction of options, where only points above the average are counted in the final calculation. “In addition, these optional subjects are generally taken by students who already had a high basic level,” explains Claude Lelièvre. This rule has notably enabled several students to have marks above 20, such as this young person from Coubertin high school in Calais (Pas-de-Calais) who in 2013 had obtained an average of 21.18 thanks to her Chinese, Latin and European English or Raphaël Becques, from Fénelon high school in Cambrai who had 21.19 thanks to his Latin and history-geography options.
Others believe that the reform of the bac – and therefore the personalized choice of specialties – has enabled students to be more motivated and better prepared. Cramming is excluded from the reasons for the current increase in mention awards, with the introduction of continuous monitoring since the Blanquer formula.
Finally, little pointed but potentially motivating factors: the carrot. Many banking establishments – CIC, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, etc. -, local authorities or the State offer holders of the baccalaureate with a distinction to receive a scholarship. What a way to finish high school in style.