Lawyer Patrick Klugman explained that the Yabné high school “found a bias in grading to the detriment of 15 of its students”. According to an investigation opened by the Ministry of Education, the evidence collected does not, however, “allow us to conclude” that the students “suffered any discrimination”.
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Were baccalaureate candidates penalized because of their religion, in a context of increasing anti-Semitic acts in France? Such accusations arose after complaints about grades “abnormally low” that students from a Jewish high school would have received at the end of the major oral exam for the 2024 baccalaureate that they took in a public high school in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Education Minister Nicole Belloubet has called for an administrative inquiry to be opened. The results of the inquiry, released Thursday evening by the ministry, show that the examination modalities have been “compliant” and that the elements collected “do not allow us to conclude” that the high school students have “suffered any discrimination on the basis of their supposed religion or place of origin”. Here’s what we know about the case.
Personalities report a problem with the grades of about fifteen Jewish students
The case emerged on social media on Wednesday evening following messages posted by personalities. “Students taking the oral exams for the baccalaureate at the Yabné high school (a Jewish religious educational institution under contract with the State) are surprised by abnormally low grades (including for students who were close to excellence)”reported Amine El-Khatmi, co-founder of Printemps républicain, on the X network.
Further details were relayed on Thursday morning. Lawyer Patrick Klugman explained on X that the Yabné high school “found a bias in the grading of 15 of its students who took the oral baccalaureate specialty exam in front of two juries from the same examination center in Paris”. “We are talking about a difference of 9 points out of 20 on average compared to the 123 other candidates from the high school who appeared before other juries”he explains. According to him, this gap is not “explainable neither statistically nor pedagogically”.
Franceinfo was able to contact the father of a baccalaureate candidate from this high school in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, who wishes to remain anonymous. According to him, 15 to 18 students are concerned, all of whom took the exam with the same jury composed of two examiners. He claims that all the students got between 3 and 8 in the oral exam, while his daughter got “a grade close to 0” during the major oral examination in mathematics.
The lawyer and president of the European Jewish Organization (EJO), Muriel Ouaknine, who had access to the grades of these students, assured on franceinfo that “The marks that were awarded in these scientific subjects obviously do not correspond at all to the reality of the level of these students. This is something that is unacceptable and must be denounced.”
Accusations of anti-Semitism
Students’ families and their representatives fear that the difference in treatment they accuse examiners of is motivated by anti-Semitism. The gap in grades that students say they have suffered “founds a suspicion of discrimination”according to lawyer Patrick Klugman.
In a press release, the Yabné high school explains that it has “was also alerted by parents of a particularly aggressive attitude of the jury during their child’s examination”. “Our students have Jewish surnames and the cards that the students present to the jury are stamped by Yabné”he said. The establishment also mentioned other reports: one of its “teachers, present on the day of the exams at the examination establishment, informed the management of the high school of discussions in the teachers’ room stigmatizing Yabné as a ‘school outside the contract'”.
Several Jewish institutions have responded. “Any possible breach of the principle of equality in academic examinations and any discrimination against students on the basis of their religious affiliation, if confirmed, would be an extremely serious attack on the values of the Republic.”warns the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
“There is no doubt that they were discriminated against.”assures franceinfo the president of the OJE, Muriel Ouaknine. “Given the number of catastrophic grades awarded by this jury alone, given the other grades that have been awarded to other students at this school, there is no room for doubt.”
Many elected officials react
Several elected officials from different political sides have called for light to be shed on these accusations. “If the facts and the anti-Semitism are proven, it is extremely serious. If it is a rumor, it must be put to an end.”wrote PS senator Laurence Rossignol on X on Thursday morning.
“I dare not believe that examiners from Paris 18 engaged in such discrimination”said Caroline Yadan, Renaissance MP for the 8th constituency of French people abroad, on X. ““No student should be discriminated against by their teachers because of their religion.”adds to X the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, who has “contacted the Paris rectorate to shed full light on this affair”.
Administrative investigation concludes that students were not discriminated against
The Minister of Education announced on Thursday morning the launch of “a thorough investigation”. “If the facts were proven, they would be intolerable in our school. And I will not let anything go,” added Nicole Belloubet. In a press release, the ministry clarified the method of the administrative investigation. “The distribution of the marks obtained by these students is examined, jury by jury, from a statistical perspective in order to establish whether the mean, variance and distribution of these marks are abnormally different from those of other students who took the tests in the same circumstances.”The method will be applied to all students on the incriminated juries, and “the elements of the test reports are also systematically analyzed”.
The elements collected “do not allow us to conclude that the students of the Yabné high school suffered any discrimination on the grounds of their supposed religion or their original establishment”according to the results of the investigation communicated Thursday evening by the ministry. “While some students may have received lower marks in this very specific Grand Oral test than in other written tests in the same subjects, there is nothing to show that these marks awarded by a sovereign jury were for reasons other than the mastery or lack of mastery of this exercise by these students,” adds the survey. The examination procedures were “compliant”the investigation claims.
On “the two incriminated juries”, for the first, “the analysis of the results of the candidates marked by this jury, by comparing the students from Yabné and the other students, does not reveal any distortion of marking”, according to the findings of the investigation. And for the second, if “has been generally more severe, there is no evidence of real or supposed discrimination against high school students” Yabné, she adds.
Asked by franceinfo, the SNPDEN-Unsa, the head teachers’ union, assures that “The examiners do not have the origin of the educational establishments” And “are subject to a code of ethics with rating scales”. He recalls that every year “There are contested grades because they are considered too severe”and specifies “that there is a harmonization of notes”which a candidate may appeal.