
The Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, announces measures to reduce the success rates for the brevet and baccalaureate, aiming to increase the requirement and value of diplomas.
AI-generated summary
The Ministry of National Education has been suggesting this for several weeks: fewer students will leave middle and high schools with their baccalaureate and baccalaureate in July. A choice made for the first time in four decades. The Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, at a press conference on May 19, listed the measures that could lead to this drop in success rates. For the baccalaureate, while the remedial rules become stricter, “any paper which does not have a sufficient level in terms of spelling, syntax and grammar” will not be able to obtain the average. For the patent, the strengthening of the terminal exam and the abandonment of grading by skills – developments inherited from Gabriel Attal's transition to national education at the end of 2023 – could reduce success in the exam by 10%, according to ministerial projections. With these measures, Edouard Geffray claims the “demandingness” of the exam in order to guarantee that “each diploma has a value and attests to the level obtained by the students”. Forty years after the Minister of National Socialist Education Jean-Pierre Chevènement (1984-1986) proclaimed the ambition of bringing 80% of an age group to the baccalaureate, this assumed drop in the rate of graduates marks a notable break. If confusion arose – Mr. Chevènement spoke of 80% of a generation “at” the baccalaureate level and not “graduated” from the baccalaureate – it is indeed the increase in success rates that has continued since then.

Faced with the violence linked to the blockade of high schools, Nicolas Isnard, LR mayor of Salon-de-Provence, calls for a temporary ban on social networks to stop the amplifying effect of abuses and calls for murder.

Despite the government's call for calm, high school and university students remain determined to continue mobilizing for a better public education service, by preparing new actions until October 17.

The main principals' union refuses the day of consultation proposed by the government to appease the high school protests. After a day of demonstrations punctuated by violence and hundreds of arrests, divided unions and political parties disagree on the management of the crisis.

The principals' union SNPDEN-UNSA refuses the standardized day proposed by the government to appease the high school protests. After a third day of demonstrations marked by violence and arrests across France, the unions are calling for the movement to continue.

An intelligence note from the Paris police headquarters indicates that the blockades of high schools have their origins in the exploitation of student union structures and movements close to the extreme left, notably LFI. Furthermore, Nathanaël Combary, president of the board of directors of Renouveau lycéen and member of Renaissance, is the target of accusations from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while the Ministry of the Interior generalizes the suspension of driving licenses for using a telephone while driving, following 3,515 road deaths in 2025.

Individuals disrupted videoconference classes in five high schools in the Alpes-Maritimes using pseudonyms linked to terrorism. The Nice rectorate and public prosecutor's office have opened investigations for advocating terrorism and insults.