The resigning Minister of National Education and Youth, Nicole Belloubet, held the traditional back-to-school press conference this Tuesday morning.
“Back to school is ready”
Although initiated in an “unprecedented context” due to the resigning government, “the return to school is ready” assures Nicole Belloubet, and will indeed take place on September 2. “850,000 teachers, 350,000 other staff and 12 million students” are concerned.
“The role of a minister is to carry out the mission entrusted to him to the end. The continuity of the State depends on it,” she said in the preamble to her speech. “The bells of the classes do not match those of the Palais Bourbon.”
New French and maths programs for the 2025 school year
The resigning minister stressed that the “French and mathematics programs for cycles 1 and 2 have been rewritten to be clearer, more detailed and readable.”
“These programs, which could be published at the end of the current affairs period, will only come into force for the start of the 2025 school year,” she explained.
The decree requiring the obtaining of the certificate to enter high school “frozen”
The decree which set the qualification for obtaining the certificate to enter high school is “frozen”, announced Nicole Belloubet.
New arrangements concerning the Diplôme national du brevet have however been adopted, confirming the change in assessment methods “from 50/50 to 40/60 to increase the share given to end-of-year tests” with 40% continuous assessment and 60% end-of-year tests. Also noteworthy is the change of “all 3rd year disciplines to continuous assessment” and the “establishment of harmonization committees”.
These texts “were postponed due to current affairs” but “are ready at the end of this period so that they come into force for the DNB 2025”, she confided.
The desire for a general ban on smartphones in schools and colleges “from January 2025”
This ban will go through an initial phase of “experimentation in nearly 200 colleges at the start of the school year”, with the hope of “generalization from January 2025”, declared Nicole Belloubet.
No major new reforms for high schools
“The high school will not experience any new major reforms because it has found its cruising speed since the Blanquer reform,” assured the resigning minister. However, it should be noted “the renewal of second-year internships in companies” and the experimentation of “second-year prep, offered to volunteer students who have not obtained the brevet.”
The desire for a “minimally protected” budget for National Education
Nicole Belloubet wanted to address: “a few hesitant words” for the 2025 budget, in the uncertainty of the future government. The latter notably asked that the budget of National Education be “at least protected”.
Before the start of the school year, “thousands of children” with disabilities have no solution, warns an association
According to the resigning minister, the ceilings addressed by Gabriel Attal to the ministry “would force us to be particularly budgetaryly rigorous”, judging that at this stage, this budgetary project “does not meet all of our needs”.
“I believe that consistency would require that the National Education budget be at least protected. The next government will have to be very attentive to this if it wishes to maintain real ambition for this national priority,” she noted.
Victor Delair
