The Baccalauréat Général in France: a case study of teacher and pupil responses to compulsory breath

K M Higham

Given current debate in England regarding the proposed 14 - 19 reforms and the Tomlinson Report, this study will investigate the French pupils' and teachers' views on the various routes to the Baccalauréat général and the relative balance of specialisation and compulsion within them.

Spending a full term at the Lycée Jean Rostand in Chantilly (Oise) as part of the teacher exchange programme, organised through the British Council, provided an ideal opportunity to become familiar with the latest reforms to the French baccalauréat and to check out the opinions of those most directly involved, namely the pupils and teachers.

The first baccalauréat dates back to 1808 and was introduced by Napoleon as a common examination to give entry to university. There were 31 students who took the first examination in 1809 which comprised a viva voce on classical authors, history, geography, philosophy and rhetoric. However, far from being an examination sat by a very small number of students, over the last few decades in particular, it has increased rapidly both in participation and pass rates, in response to governmental policy objectives. The following chart, produced by the Académie d'Amiens to celebrate its 40th year, illustrates this. In this time the number of young people in Picardy passing the baccalaureate has increased from 1% to more than 56% (slightly below the national average of over 60%).

| |1964 |1974 |1984 |1994 |2004 |

|
|Number of pupils entered |3,417 |8,007 |11,150 |20,621 |18,471 |

|
|Number of passes |2,272 |5,003 |6,597 |14,550 |13,894 |

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|Pass rate