The 'bac' : a pass for students' future

Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle - Le Bateau amiral de l'éducation française

By Clara Augereau
07/07/2011

Exceptional results for the Baccalaureate 2011 session at le Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, when at the same time in France, a reform of the exam is now beeing brought up in reaction to cheating scandals.

On Friday 1st July, the French Ambassador received all 60 pupils from the Lycée Français who had achieved a 'Mention Tres Bien' for their Baccalaureat.

 This year, over 30% of the 195 students taking the Baccalaureat secured a mention Très Bien and in total over 87.5% received a mention. This is, it has to be said, quite extraordinary when it is also known that 99% of students passed. Only two pupils failed.

Results of the students of the Lycée Charles de Gaulle (London)- Baccalaureat 2011

During his speech, the ambassador congratulated the pupils but also the teaching staff and described the Lycée Charles de Gaulle as the Admiral Ship of the French Education System.

Adrien Mallevay, who last year secured a 20/20 in all the subjects he took, was particularly commended for getting an average of 19.89, the highest score, achieved this year at Charles de Gaulle. Adrien will now be continuing his educational journey to Oxford to study classics.

The Lycée Charles de Gaulle’s impressive results can easily be compared to those of the Lycées Henri IV and Louis Le Grand, known as the most prestigious French lycées.

In France, the results of the exam were announced later, on Monday 5th July. This year, candidates are more numerous because of the increase of + 36 % students from the ‘Baccalaureat professionel’.

At the end of the first turn of examinations, the success rate of the ‘Baccalaureat general’ is of 76,8%, with an increase by 2 points compared to last year and that of the ‘Baccalaureat technologique’ is of 67,9%, with an increase of 0,8 points. The only type of Baccalaureat which has a decreasing success rate is the ‘Baccalaureat professionel’ with a decrease of 3,8 points from last year, and a 74,1 % of success.

 Results of the French candidates- Baccalaureat 2011

Unfortunately, the success of the 2011 French session was spoiled somewhat by issues of fraud. After the big controversy of the picture of a mathematics exercise for the scientific baccalaureate which had been posted on a forum on the web the day before the exam, a new one now appears with a possibility of another cheat for the English exam.

In reaction to these frauds, the idea of a reform of the national exam is now being brought up by the minister of Education, Luc Chatel who is thinking of a possible new system that evaluates students throughout the year, and give less weight to one final pass or fail baccalaureat. But this kind of system also has its detractors: “It’s a standard that would not at all be the same with continuous controls,” explained Simon Perrier, a high-school philosophy teacher in the city of Chartres. “A system where each school decides its own standards would easily gloss over inequalities.”