What is the single college, while Gabriel Attal plans to create level groups?

The Minister of Education is concerned about the results of the evaluations of middle school students in 4^e. “The results are not satisfactory and are even… rather worrying”said Gabriel Attal, in the newspaper The Parisian. To improve the acquisition of knowledge, the minister is thinking of creating level groups in certain subjects, within the same class. Some, like the Snes-FSU teaching union, see this as a possible challenge to the “single college”.

The single middle school dates back to 1975. Before that date, when students left primary school, they entered classes of 6^e which were classified into three groups according to the level of the children. In college, there was the “6^e 1″ which corresponded to a long road which leads to the high school; the “6^e 2″ which was a short path, with the objective of the patent and the “6^e 3″ which was called “transitional” and which led to learning.

Reform and adjustments

In 1975, everything changed with the Haby law, which owes its name to the Minister of National Education René Haby during the seven-year term of Valérie Giscard d’Estaing. There is no longer any difference, everyone follows the same path from sixth to third grade. The objective is a democratization of education so that the most modest social classes can have a base comparable to other social classes. From this time, criticism emerged against this reform which leveled down, according to its detractors.

Since 1975, the single college has undergone some adjustments with several successive ministers, from the right and the left. In 1994, François Bayrou was strict with what he called the “unfair college”. He does not return to it, but in particular creates diversified paths for students in difficulty with support groups in sixth grade. In 1999, Ségolène Royal set up support hours for struggling students with increased guided studies. Najat Vallaud-Belkacem introduced personalized support in 2016, made compulsory for all students for three hours per week in 6^e and one hour per week from 5^e at 3^e.