the Ministry of National Education specifies the terms of application

After the publication of a decree on Sunday, a text aimed at organizing French and mathematics teaching in reduced numbers is now available on the website of the Ministry of National Education.

A user manual for the flagship measure of the “shock of knowledge”. The Ministry of National Education published, Monday March 18, the note detailing the establishment, from the start of the school year in September 2024, of “groups” in order to raise the level of all students in mathematics and French at college. On Sunday, a decree was published in the Official Journal.

Addressed to heads of establishments and teachers, but also to rectors and inspectors, the text sets out the expectations and modalities of what the current Prime Minister and former Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, called for until very recently the “level groups”. But as in the decree, this formulation is not taken up by the note, which now mentions “groups to meet the needs of students”.

The text first gives the instructions for the workforce. “Groups which include a significant number of students in difficulty have reduced numbers, the number of around fifteen students being able, in this regard, to constitute a relevant objective., we can read there. However, no figures are given for the other two groups, namely those of “average” and “strong” students. On learning objectives, these groups can focus on “part of the program” or “more transversal skills” as “the ability to concentrate, memorize or organize one’s work”specifies the note.

School teachers in support

Regarding the composition of the groups, the ministry wants it to be based on “the analysis by the head of the establishment and the teaching teams of the specific needs of each student”. “Evaluations carried out in class, possible joint evaluations at different times of the year can also contribute to this analysis”it is stipulated.

As announced, students can also change groups during the year, “in order to take into account the progression and diversity of students’ needs, depending on the disciplines, but also, for example, the chapters of the programs”. While the students will be in whole class “over one to ten weeks in the year”this organization must allow, “especially at the start of the year, to take the time to form groups”. To allow recompositions, “the hours of these lessons are aligned in the timetable, in a manner common to several classes, over the entire weekly timetable”.

On the question of resources, few answers are provided by the note, while the unions have been warning about the lack of staff since the beginning of the year. Only teachers from schools that have signed the teaching pact are cited as potential talent pools. “He can intervene in co-teaching as part of French and mathematics teaching”explains the note.