Pending resit, the results of the baccalaureate exam are not yet final but a trend is emerging: the success rate is down. The overall success is 86%, down 4.5 points compared to 2021. Catch-ups should not fill the gap: this is in any case what the Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, anticipated. . On the sidelines of a trip to the Marx-Dormoy high school in Champigny-sur-Marne, in Val-de-Marne, he spoke of a “decrease compared to previous years” before delivering his analysis: “It thwarts those who said that continuous assessment would yield extraordinary results. The new baccalaureate remains an important examination.”
The year 2022 marks a break in the success rate which, until then, was only improving overall. For nearly three decades, the baccalaureate pass rate has been climbing. From 1995 to 2020, it gained 17 points, going from 74.9% to 91.5%. Above all, the regressions in the success rate from one year to the next had never exceeded the point of difference. This drop of 4.5% in 2022 is therefore significant.
It can partly be explained by a return to normal in the halls of high school after two school years, 2020 and 2021, greatly disrupted by the health crisis and turned upside down by the reform of the baccalaureate. This drop could simply be cyclical since after the catch-ups, it is likely that the success rate will approach the rate before Covid. In 2019, 88.1% of high school graduates who sat for the exam had obtained the diploma.
This dropout could also be a lasting consequence of the baccalaureate reform. The decline can be seen in all sectors: it is 4.5 points in the general sector, 8.4 points in the technological sector and 3.3 points in the vocational sector. The success rate in the vocational sector has returned to its 2013 level, while that of the technological sector is close to its percentage of 2009.
Has the baccalaureate become more difficult? The more severe rating? Is the system of continuous assessment not less favorable to pupils? The questions are many. The members of the Ministry of Education will have to floor to answer them.
