THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC has prompted France to dramatically alter how it grades students leaving secondary school, with the traditional ’baccalaureat’ exams ditched in favour of coursework and homework.

In an address on French television today, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer announced that the ‘bac’ – France’s version of the Leaving Cert – will not take place in its traditional form.

Instead of sit-down tests in the summer, students will receive an average score in each subject that will be calculated from marks achieved in tests and homework throughout the year.

Blanquer tweeted that student safety and maintaining educational standards were the rational for changing the format of the ‘bac’.

Introduced by Napoleon in 1808, the ‘bac’ occupies a similar space in French life as the Leaving Cert does in Ireland. Each year the university entrance qualifications receive widespread coverage in the national media and serve as a rite of passage for French teenagers.

‘By hook or by crook’

The Irish government has been adamant that this year’s Leaving Cert examinations will take place. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said yesterday that he did not want students hoping to enter third-level education to “lose a year” of their lives.

Varadkar said that the State Examinations Commission and Minister for Education Joe McHugh are working to ensure that the exams take place “by hook or by crook”.

The comments were echoed today by finance minister Paschal Donohoe who said that the government’s message to students is:

Keep studying, keep doing your work. The Government is going to do its utmost to try and find a way that these exams happen.

The Department of Education announced last month that all students were allocated full marks in Leaving Cert and Junior Cert orals and practical exams.

Universities

The group that represents all of Ireland’s universities, except Technological University Dublin, say that they plan to complete arrangements for end of semester assignments within the next week. 

All traditional face-to-face exams will be replaced with a variety of alternative assessment formats such as essays, reports, problem sheets, multiple choice questions and other formats.