Higher education reform: technology will bear the brunt of the “new sixths”.

Pap Ndiaye, meanwhile, has committed to it his announcements on higher education reform : Sixth graders receive one hour of support or training per week in French or mathematics. This hour will be mandatory for everyone, according to the ministerial circulars published on Thursday. It will focus on skills considered essential – for example, being able to read comfortably or mastering fractions and decimals. Almost a third of sixth graders have weaknesses in French or in mathematics .

Pupils from the same institution find themselves in more or less numerous “intermediate class” groups, depending on their needs. The Ministry does not want the mentoring hour to be used to prolong uncompleted studies and students to be stigmatized between those who need support and those who do not. For example, a student may focus on reading in the first semester, work on fractions in the second semester, and develop a different skill in the third semester.

“Distance” from technology

This weekly lesson is provided for the students at constant times, i.e. 26 hours per week, as before, with the support of the school teachers, among other things Experience at the Amiens Academy . It is engineering that will bear the brunt of this “new sixth.” “Science and technology education is being reconfigured,” explains a senior official at the Ministry of National Education, speaking of the “removal in quotes” of courses in the sixth and the “strengthening of technology” from the fifth, with the training of teachers is the focus.

Meanwhile, starting next September, sixth-grade technology teachers will “intervene a little less in technology, but they can prepare for reinforcement [de cette matière] “As of September 5, 2024, the Ministry estimates – “That leaves one year for the training of these teachers”.

However, the ministry points out that they have passed the capes of engineering sciences and techniques and that as such they are “qualified to intervene in the rest of the scientific classes and also in the deepening and remedial sessions envisaged within the framework of the new one”. sixth.

“The Economic Needs of the Nation”

At National Education, the evolution is also justified by the fact that “the identity of the technological subject is not always well understood, when it should be a subject of vocation, the birth of an appetite or taste, especially for digital and IT”. .

This is intended to ensure that more high school students opt for the subject “Digital and Computer Science”, opt for a first “STI2D” (technical baccalaureate) or, from the 3rd year, a few more go in the direction of the vocational baccalaureate information systems. “These professions could probably be born by crossing the professor of technology,” slips a senior official.

“The reality of the technology path is essential in relation to the economic needs of the nation,” confirmed Jean-Charles Ringard, co-pilot of the supervisory committee for the reform of the high school, during the last week Postbac fair organized by the specialized agency AEF . We cannot launch a reindustrialization plan without considering this path, Companies need middle managers , we must bring full reality to the technological path. »

“Hypertrophy” from the STMG series

However, the technological path in high school today is a victim of the “hypertrophy” of the STMG (Sciences and Technologies of Management and Management) series, which welcomed 10,000 more students between 2018 and 2022. A series that is all too often perceived as “a path of descent from the general path in the minds of second-year teachers,” says Jean-Charles Ringard.

The co-pilot of the monitoring committee advocates for “a reorientation within the technological path”, towards the production series STI2D (industry and sustainable development), STL (laboratories) or even ST2S (social sciences) in relation to higher education and employment needs. It evokes a “cultural” problem that requires acting on the orientations and representations of the technological path.

“The training map should still allow this development!” explains a high-ranking ministry official. And then what do we do with teachers who practice STMG? Do you ask them to convert? »