Baccalaureate and patent 2027: the Ministry of Education toughens sanctions on spelling

Students will now know what to expect for the baccalaureate and the patent in June 2027. The Minister of Education announces the details of the new rules for spelling, in a publication in the Official Bulletin on Thursday September 17. Édouard Geffray had, however, already given instructions in 2025, which had not really been followed. The Minister of Education clarified his idea during an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday.

Up to two points may be removed in a paper which combines spelling and conjugation errors during the patent and baccalaureate exams. This is a new scale, with four levels, ranging from “very insufficient” to “very satisfactory”. The scale is based on four criteria: spelling, syntax, lexicon and organization of thought. With this document, the correctors, but especially the students, will know exactly what to expect.

Poor mastery sanctioned in all disciplines

Mastery of the language will therefore be sanctioned, whatever the discipline including maths or physics. For subjects that require more writing, such as French or history-geography, the candidate will not be able to get the average if the syntax or lexicon are not up to standard. This last point will not really change with what has been done until now.

In 2025, Édouard Geffray had already pushed for written expression to be punished more harshly in exams. But that didn't really translate into reality. With this new scale, published in September, the Minister of Education intends this time to clarify his instructions.

The minister makes it clear that beyond these instructions for exams, schools must take action to prevent and reduce student difficulties. We will have to see concretely what can be put in place, knowing that most middle and high schools have declining budgets. They also have very little room for maneuver to organize small groups, workshops or work of this type to help students progress.

A level that has been falling for years

Faced with this new scale, some criticize the fact of sanctioning students rather than improving support during their schooling. Especially since the level of spelling and syntax has been declining for several years due to several factors. First, students have fewer hours of French at school. A group of teachers calculated that there would be 500 fewer hours of schooling since the 1960s. Students also read less and have high screen time which is accompanied by lower concentration. In this context, we add the evolution of writing methods: more texting and fewer pens.

All this affects the level of spelling. The mistakes made by the students mainly concern agreements and common nouns like “dog” or “house” for example. Conjugation is the source of multiple error. For example, they will have difficulty writing “they were seen” with the “s” or “she fell” ending with “ait”. Barely one in two students writes them correctly. It was almost 9 out of 10 in 1987.

Social origin also plays a role. We observe a gap of six faults between students from schools considered the most advantaged and those seen as the least favored. The drop in level is also observed later among students, sometimes even among the best, and then in the world of work.