Why it will heat up this week in high schools on the question of the bac and BTS

The week may be complicated for Jean-Michel Blanquer. The National Union of High School Students (UNL) calls for blockades in high schools from Monday to request that the bac be fully validated via continuous monitoring for all sectors (general, technological, professional). And this, even as Emmanuel Macron repeated Thursday in Provencethat the philosophy test and the grand oral would be maintained. The union is also calling for the establishment of continuous assessment for the validation of end-of-year BTS exams.

For Mathieu Devlaminck, president of the National Union of High School Students (UNL), the school year did not go well. “Many high school students have taken distance education since November. When they met face-to-face, teachers would rush to organize assessments. This did not allow them to come back to badly understood concepts or working methods, ”he explains to 20 minutes. The grand oral that the high school students must inaugurate this year is another worrying factor: “We should have prepared for it from the 1st class, but that was not possible last year, just like this year. And the instructions for this event are not clear, ”he explains. Another concern according to him: “The inequalities induced by the situation: some students have been in face-to-face all the time, others much less. Some philosophy teachers have been on sick leave for a long time, which prevented them from moving the program forward ”.

The anger of BTS students does not abate

For several weeks, BTS students have also stepped up to demand the cancellation of their exams in favor of continuous assessment, believing that the health situation does not allow them to prepare or pass them in good conditions. The Council of State rejected Friday the request brought by 300 students, asking it to authorize the validation of the diploma thanks to the marks obtained in continuous assessment. But the distressed BTS collective does not disarm. On Twitter, their lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, declared that he would not stop there: “We are considering international remedies to hope for greater independence in the control of the government’s decision. We will not give up, ”he posted.

It remains to be seen whether the movement will take: “It will be a blockade, but also filter barriers in front of high schools, rallies, actions on social networks. These actions will take place in the first place in the 25 departments where the UNL is established, but we hope that they will stain the others in the following days ”indicates Mathieu Devlaminck. The union reports an online petition calling for the cancellation of the end-of-year tests, which has raised almost 211,000 signatures in less than a week.

“It’s a shame to make the bac sacred so much”

In their fight, high school students can count on the support of certain teachers’ unions. “There is an urgent need to neutralize the great oral this year, to bring back a little serenity,” said Sophie Vénétitay, deputy general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union. “We can see that nobody is ready,” also squeals the president of Snalc (secondary), Jean-Rémi Girard. The Se-Unsa advocates the cancellation of the tests in favor of the common core.

If even if the deadlines are approaching, with a written philosophy set for June 17, the UNL thinks that high school students can still put pressure on the Minister of Education: “We are used to Jean-Michel Blanquer taking decisions at the last minute, so we don’t see why we couldn’t get a turnaround. It’s a shame to make the baccalaureate sacred, when it would be necessary to act in a pragmatic way, ”he believes.