Gwenaël Surel, Deputy Secretary General of the National Union of National Education Management Staff (SNPDEN) and principal of a high school in Nantes, pointed Thursday January 20 on franceinfo “pressure” suffered by final year students who can now express their wishes for higher education on the Parcoursup platform. According to him, they undergo a “systemic pressure from National Education”, “social” and “family” in the context of the health crisis linked to Covid-19. It is therefore necessary to play down the drama, according to him, but also to remind the family that “it is not the orientation of the parents, but it is the orientation of the student”, insisted Gwenaël Surel.
>> “Stay calm”: the advice of the head of the Parcoursup project for high school students
franceinfo: Is Parcoursup a stressful time for students?
Gwenael Surel: We must be clear, there is stress among our students. But there is also a better knowledge of the Parcoursup platform. Sometimes it can have the opposite effect. The more we know about the admission requirements, the more stress it can generate for our young people. It is really very important to take into consideration that there is a form of systemic pressure from National Education, in which the principals participate. And a contextual pressure currently with the Covid-19. There is also social pressure. And then, clearly, there is also family pressure which means that sometimes we find young people who are badly and perhaps even more so for three years.
Do students become very concerned about their grades?
There is a look, perhaps, of appropriation of knowledge which is no longer the same, that is to say that we are perhaps more among young people on a look of obtaining the best place in the classroom and not to learn for the sake of learning. And that still poses concerns on the merits, where in fact, we would make young people to simply position themselves on a classification in a class and not a field of reflexive learning for a better match in higher education.
Do you observe any psychological problems among the students?
It’s a reality.
“We have more and more students who are followed psychologically, even with medication.”
Gwenaël Surel, Principal and Deputy Secretary General of SNPDENat franceinfo
You really have to play it down, reassure and remember that it is not the orientation of the parents, but it is the orientation of the student. And sometimes there may be, involuntarily and unconsciously, confusion. The role of parents is very complicated, there is no criticism from us. Be careful that this is the student’s choice. Sometimes, we can find ourselves on choices that are a little constrained and wanted by others, and it’s quite complicated. And unfortunately, we also participate in it at the level of the education system.