When entering sixth grade, nearly one in two students does not have the required reading level. Results that drop to a third for college students in enhanced priority education.
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Reading time : 2 min.
Guislaine David, co-secretary general and spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU, judged Tuesday, November 16 on franceinfo the reading level of 6th grade students “disturbing” and advocated a change of “mode of operation of educational policy in France”. The results of primary school assessments, presented by the Ministry of National Education, reveal that overall, CP and CE1 students have returned to the levels before the first confinement where classes had closed for three months because of Covid-19 . But only half of 6th grade students have the expected level. We fall to a third in enhanced priority education.
franceinfo: How do you judge this evaluation on the level of the pupils?
Guislaine David: We are with these evaluations on high-level reading skills that are not achieved. The gaps are widened between priority education and outside priority education on these skills. This means that indeed, to read is to understand. We must work on these skills on comprehension and not focus as we are doing now and as the minister’s policy is currently doing on the oralization of reading and on the fluidity of reading. This is not all. Obviously, you have to understand what you read in order to then have the skills required in all the lessons.
Has the duplication of CP and CE1 classes in difficult neighborhoods had no effect?
The effects of duplication have not achieved the objectives of the fight against inequalities. This means that it is not everything. We must also have teaching practices that focus on reading comprehension. Teacher training is also needed. And then the duplication was accompanied by a prescriptive method, ready-made methods for learning. We can see that this is not what makes the students progress. It’s a whole. And let’s not forget that our priority education students are those who are also socially the most disadvantaged and therefore, this is not enough to improve their skills.
Is the reading level of sixth grade students alarming?
It’s worrying. This means that we have to change the way educational policy works in France. You have to focus on something else, that is to say, you have to work on level skills, reading comprehension skills. It also means problem solving. We can see that this is where the gaps are widening. If we want students to be successful after the sixth grade, we have to work on these comprehension skills, which is essential. So we have to change practices. And then, we have to give more to the students. We have seen that there is something that has been abandoned for a few years, it is the “More teachers than classes” system, an additional teacher in schools to help precisely have a double look at the pupils. We must return to these practices in order to be able to develop our students.