teachers inflate grades so as not to penalize students

For high school graduates and future high school graduates, the Parcoursup platform opens this Wednesday. A platform that is causing debate in the ranks of National Education. Many teachers regret that higher education courses rely on continuous assessment grading to select their students. The result is often inflated grades.

It is this Wednesday that registrations open on the Parcoursup platform which allows all high school graduates and future high school graduates to apply for training in higher education.

François Bayrou also declared Tuesday in his general policy speech that “Parcoursup raises questions”. Which many teachers also confess. Higher education courses are mainly based on continuous assessment scores to select students. With the result of grades, often inflated.

No question of rating drier than the high school next door for fear of penalizing its students. Each teacher therefore aligns himself with the one who gives the highest marks and this is how even very demanding high schools have started to distribute generous marks.

But these grades do not always reflect reality, says Félix, a French and philosophy teacher in a public high school in Oise until last year.

“Clearly, the grades I gave were inflated. For example, in philosophy, I systematically placed above the average. So when I handed in my papers, I had to explain to the students that the grades were not necessarily representative of what they would have in the baccalaureate. But it was so as not to penalize them,” he says.

Overvalued files?

Two or three more points on an assignment and then presentation notes to catch up if necessary, he explains. Inflated notes, but also necessarily benevolent comments. “The comments are all rave,” assures Clément de Seguins Pazzis, preparatory mathematics teacher at the prestigious Hoche de Versailles high school. He quickly realized that selecting his prep students on file was becoming impossible.

“There were more and more students who had excellent records and who turned out to be average, or even mediocre,” he judges.

And he is not sure that the new baccalaureate mathematics test announced for June 2026 will change the situation.