Stress factory or pragmatic selection tool? The debate between Annabelle Allouch and Pierre Mathiot

Interview
Why does the higher education access platform generate so much anxiety among families? How much ideology does it convey? “Le Nouvel Obs” brought together two of its best experts to debate.

Annabelle Allouch and Pierre Mathiot agree on at least one point: Parcoursup, by carrying out a generalized classification of final year students, contributes to the latent stress of young French people… and their families. Between the committed sociologist, co-author of “Contester Parcoursup” (Presses de Sciences-Po, 2024), and the “reformist” political scientist »who has worked extensively on the connection between secondary and higher education (and on the high school reform of Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education from May 2017 to May 2022), the points of convergence however stop there. The first sees in Parcoursup a mechanism for acculturating youth to the competitive logic of liberalism. The second, the opportunity to bring more transparency and therefore equity to an education system which is largely devoid of it. Cross-interview, while the platform is open for registrations this Wednesday, January 15, the day after a general policy speech where François Bayrou declared that Parcoursup was “a question”, evoking the hypothesis of“open the doors” and“invent the period of the year for articulation between secondary education and higher education”.

Parcoursup has become a French passion, the subject of tireless controversy. How do you explain it?

Annabelle Allouch It is linked, I think, to the organization of our education system. Orientation in the so-called sectors of excellence occurs very early after leaving the baccalaureate and, among many people, the idea prevails that there will be no second chance. This creates very strong pressure, particularly within wealthy families, among…