Sesame for high school, less weight for continuous monitoring… What are the terms of the new patent announced by Gabriel Attal?

If a middle school student does not obtain his certificate, he will have to go through a “preparatory high school”, announced the Minister of National Education.

All-round announcements. Tuesday December 5, Gabriel Attal presented his measures to “raise the level” of students, in the wake of the publication of the Pisa survey, which compares education systems around the world, and whose results are not good, particularly for France.

Among the announcements, the facilitation of repeating a year, the distribution of middle school students by level groups in maths and French, and the modification of the terms of the middle school certificate. The main change is that this diploma will become the gateway to high school, whether general, technological or professional.

“The patent must once again become the keystone of the college, regaining a meaning that it has today lost.”

Gabriel Attal, Minister of National Education

at a press conference

From the 2025 edition, in the event of failure, the student will be redirected to an intermediate class called “high school prep”, which will be neither a repeat of the 3rd, nor a normal second. This class will in fact be a level with dedicated courses, delivered at high school, without any further details being available at this time.

Less continuous monitoring

The final patent tests will also count a little more than today on the overall mark: 60% instead of 50% currently, to the detriment of continuous assessment, which will therefore lose importance.

Finally, the minister also wants to remove the “academic corrections”. This practice makes it possible to artificially increase the grades in an academy so that it is within the national scale. This measure could lower the next national results, but Gabriel Attal accepts it. On the other hand, the phase of harmonization between correctors to agree on their practices will continue.