reforms, ministers and colleges that must adapt

Monday morning. Tom, a pupil in sixth at the Pierre-Brossolette college in Perreux-sur-Marne, in the Paris region, goes to the board to tell, in a few sentences, the beginning of the adventures of Bilbo Le Hobbit. He is part of a group of need for 21 students – two thirds of a class – made up last year by the management team at the request of the Ministry of National Education. In this downtown establishment with few scholarship students, the initiative is widely acclaimed; Improve profile brewing and school climate. She strengthened teamwork for teachers in mathematics and French; Favored with the development of students, particularly those in difficulty who feel less isolated and derive the benefits of a differentiated pedagogy. Only downside: the educational staff had to go quickly to translate it on the ground. While the level groups had been mentioned in December 2023 by Gabriel Attal, the minister of the time, as part of his reform of the “shock of knowledge”, the official texts only released until April 2024.

“It is true that the deadlines being short, it limited the concertation times of the teams who did not have much time to think about their organization to make it as effective as possible. If we had had more time, we could have organized to delete less hours on already existing devices, ”observes the principal, Wilfried Chapelain, from his large circular office placed not far from the entrance hall. The team has not been able to provide common programming, nor to reflect on students’ level changes during the year. The design of time jobs was more complicated than usual, the 150 5th graders before taking French and math lessons at the same time. “We realized that the fifth sports sessions had to be wedged on the same niche,” explains the thirty -something. In order to release hours for these need groups, the college also had to cut on those devoted to sessions in small groups in science or languages. According to an SNES*survey, only 26 % of them set up level groups as they were thought.

A consequence, among others, of the parade at the head of the Ministry of National Education. In 2024, Nicole Belloubet softens the application of “levels of levels”, leaving the school heads to decide. She also postpones the reform of the initial training of teachers, whose Prime Minister François Bayrou has just announced the restart. In early 2025, Elisabeth Borne, newly named, speaks of a reorientation of the “shock of knowledge”, without precision, and returned to the compulsory patent to enter high school. What about the next school year? Suspense.

Lack of evaluations

At the Pierre-Brossolette college, the following year was prepared the following year. However, it happens more and more often that the official texts containing the directives for the next school year are communicated very late. Wilfried Chapelain, the principal, would also like to have a return to previous reforms. For his part, Hugues Poirier, principal of a college in disadvantaged zone and union representative, notes: “Each government wants to leave its mark; Ministers often deconstruct the reforms of their predecessor ”. Not to mention the glaring lack of evaluation culture in France.

Autonomy request

Rather than new measures to become precarious, the heads of school continues to claim more autonomy, to act according to their environment and their situation. Over the years, the few overtime hours allocated in a differentiated way to each college and high school to set up specific projects have been nibbled. “As part of a national reform, it is often difficult to give the same means everywhere in France, it is necessary to provide an adaptation to each establishment,” judges Wilfried Chapelain. In her class, Catherine Delisle, a French professor, stands out from the tumult. For this teacher close to retirement, it does not matter that the discourse of national education varies from year to year, she has always done “in her sauce”. “I never wanted to mix language lessons and those of literature as we were asked,” she says. Sometimes grammar and combination are not acquired in the third class. That day, his students must tell the story of Roland and his uncle Charlemagne, using the sustained vocabulary of this 12th century text. Patience and passion: two qualities that the teaching world more than ever needs in the face of political adversity.

* Launched in November 2024 with teachers.