pass your baccalaureate when Parcoursup has already delivered a negative or uncertain verdict, a demotivating test for high school students

One eye on their revisions, the other on their Parcoursup wishes. While the baccalaureate kicks off on Tuesday June 18 for the final years, with the philosophy test, these high school students remain preoccupied by another issue. The admission results for the training courses requested on Parcoursup have been falling slowly since May 30, until July 12 for the main phase. With three possible answers: “yes”, “waiting”, or “no”. For students whose dream of a career has evaporated, or gone dormant, revisions for the baccalaureate have been difficult, to the point of causing a loss of meaning in the quest for this diploma once considered a Holy Grail.

“Since I was little, I wanted to become a veterinarian. It disgusted me”, testifies Mohammad, who has just suffered a refusal in the common post-baccalaureate competition from the four schools of the profession. Well placed on the waiting list for a health access license, this Lille high school student has no other choice but to reluctantly accept the proposal. And definitively bury his dream of caring for animals. While his professional future is sealed by the platform, “hard to be motivated” for the baccalaureate, he explains. To the point that a mention no longer interests him and Mohammad only aims for the strict average: “I’m taking the baccalaureate to pass it (…) It’s no longer an important diploma.”.

Mathilde, educated in a high school in Seine-et-Marne, was excluded from 26 training courses. “I am aware of having put quite selective things, so certain answers do not surprise me, but I did not expect” to so many refusals, underlines the one who had applied, among others, to Sciences Po Paris and to other Institutes of Political Studies. While his “efforts did not pay off” as she had hoped, she had difficulty cramming in her classes at the same time. “It’s a certain mental load” to juggle between preparing for the baccalaureate and anticipation of what comes after, judges Mathilde. At the start of the school year, she will still join a preparatory course in literature and social sciences.

Looking at her final year class at the Henri-Bergson high school in Paris, English teacher Virginie Pregny notes that the end of the year was complicated for the students at Parcoursup. “It demobilized them, they have a very strong feeling of failure”, she relates. A new stress compared to last year, since the specialty tests, which have the highest coefficients, were placed in March, as desired by the former Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer. The high school students therefore did not yet know their fate on the platform.

Conversely, students satisfied with their responses to wishes “now feel strengthened” to pass the baccalaureate, notes Virgine Pregny. As for those “waiting”, the situation turns out to be just as stressful as for those who failed, because refusal can come like a knife at any time.

This is the case of Agathe, accepted into general economic and commercial preparation in Nantes, but who hopes to integrate similar training in Rennes, better rated. Currently 9th on the waiting list, she was initially in 243rd place, that of the last selected last year. She watches the evolution of her rank several times a day, between two revisions. “It’s not going to matter much, it’s very stressful”shares the Vendée, who sees little interest in the baccalaureate: “I know I will get it, and a very good mention will not change my ranking.”

Like Mohammad, Mya aimed for the national veterinary school competition, but was unsuccessful. She was then on the waiting list for ten days for medicine at the University of Lorraine, before being accepted. Nancy’s high school student had a very difficult time during this period. “I cried a lot, it upset me too much”relates Mya.

“The first day of the results and the next day, I planned to work on my grand oral. I did not succeed.”

Mya, high school student in Nancy

at franceinfo

To limit the damage caused by the stress linked to Parcoursup, the Ministry of National Education has chosen to suspend responses during the baccalaureate period, from June 16 to 23. But for the high school students interviewed by franceinfo, this precaution is useless, even counterproductive. “I find it worse not to know, because we are moving forward in the dark,” believes Mathilde. For Agathe, it would even be “more motivating if we knew we were caught” during the week of tests.

Since its launch in 2018, the post-baccalaureate platform has also attracted more general criticism. In addition to a lack of transparency, it is regularly accused of socially discriminating against candidates. As a result, students became anxious and gradually lost interest in the high school final exam. The problem goes beyond the overlapping calendar, according to Gwenn Thomas-Alves, president of the High School Union: “LThe baccalaureate has become a secondary source of stress, pbecause the pfirst is Parcoursup.”