FRANCE FACING THE DESCRIPTION OF STUDENTS

IN THE PISA RANKING

GABRIEL ATTAL DRAWS OUT HIS SHOCKING PLAN

The OECD's findings are clear: "Overall, the 2022 results are among the lowest ever measured by the Pisa survey in the three subjects in France." The report covers, in each edition, mathematics, reading comprehension and science, each time with a focus on one of these disciplines. This year it's about math.

France maintains its place in the OECD average in all three disciplines, alongside countries such as Hungary, Portugal and Lithuania. She ranks between 15th and 29th place in maths and between 11th and 29th in reading comprehension and science. In the leading group, we find Singapore, Japan, Korea, Estonia, Denmark, Canada and New Zealand.

France has even recorded a “historic” drop of 21 points in the math level of its 15-year-old students since 2018 as assessed by the OECD. compared to -15 points on average in the OECD. This is the “largest decline observed since the first Pisa study”, more than twenty years ago.

And the decline also continues in reading comprehension: the results decrease by 19 points in France compared to 10 points in the OECD. Since 2012, it is 32 points less, compared to 16 on average in the OECD, while the results were stable between 2000 and 2012. In science, finally, the drop is 6 points in France (2 points in the OECD).

A shock plan and demands at school

For the Minister of Education, "it is high time to stop the losing machine" without indulging in self-flagellation. Gabriel Attal unveiled yesterday his shock plan to "restore standards" to schools to eliminate the weaknesses of the French education system.

The tenant of rue de Grenelle plans to create “several thousand positions” over the five-year term to set up level groups at college .

Gabriel Attal also mentioned the conditioning of the transition to high school to obtaining the certificate or even the reopening of the debate on repeating a year, which has become "a taboo" according to him. Gabriel Attal affirms that he will publish, in the first quarter of 2024, a decree allowing the teaching team, and no longer the families, to have the last word in deciding whether to repeat a student.

The Minister of Education had already mentioned at the end of November his desire to “revisit the taboo of repeating a year”.

“By resolving this debate, I want to fight against forced failure” of students who would move to the next class despite having too many gaps, he noted at a press conference on Tuesday. It also provides that teachers can prescribe success courses to certain students during the holidays, which would be a condition for not repeating a year.

From the next school year, 6th and 5th grade students “will be divided into three groups according to their level in French and maths,” explains the minister. “We will create positions so that there are only around fifteen students” in the group of those who present the most difficulties, he added. This organization must extend to 4th and 3rd grade classes at the start of the 2025 school year.

“From the start of the 2024 school year, France will adopt the Singapore method , which has proven itself throughout the world,” he announced. For example, he wants to anticipate the learning of fractions and decimal numbers from CE1 class. The level groups will also serve, according to him, to raise the level in mathematics.

In high school, from the 2025-2026 school year, a new “anticipated mathematical and scientific culture test” will be added to the baccalaureate program, for general and technological first year students. It will be scheduled at the end of the year, as is already the anticipated French test.

In addition, the Minister of Education announces that he wants to focus on artificial intelligence in high schools. “All students entering high school will now be accompanied, at home, by an AI tool for remediation or improvement in French and mathematics,” writes Gabriel Attal in his message to teachers.

During his press conference, he confirmed that this software would be made available free of charge to 200,000 second-year students in the coming months, before being generalized to all in September. “I hope that AI can be used to raise the level. I prefer to choose rather than suffer,” he explained to journalists.

If he is popular with the French, he still has to convince his own troops - the 859,000 teachers - to play the reform game...

Finally, a courageous Minister of National Education who claims high standards and hard work as the key to student success !