Exam preparation, a pretext for standardizing teaching – SNES-FSU

The service note of August 28, 2026 sought to impose the PLE on high schools. Rectorates took advantage of it to extend the requirements for standardized evaluation within colleges. The recent memo of March 26, 2026 entitled “Preparation of students for the requirements of the DNB and the general and technological baccalaureates from the 2026 session” is part of this continuity with the desire of the ministry to format teacher evaluation practices.

Expand local practices to better standardize

The first part of the text “Prepare students throughout the year“reveals well the tendency at work in the transformation de nos métiers. Evaluation precedes teaching in the educational project. In other words, teaching has no other purpose than to be evaluated. Thus, the memo describes in detail the desired practices: “For teaching teams, it is about [les élèves] practice reading the subjects carefully in order to correctly understand the instructions, mobilizing the entire time allotted for the test, persevering in the face of difficulty, including when the subjects may differ from their expectations, and actively and effectively rereading what they have produced.“. The ministry takes note of the existence of mock tests in middle and high schools et calls for them to be made “systematic” while emphasizing “training and review activities”. A “encouragement » est adressé aux établissements pour « organize a specific revision time before the testsin order to allow students to provide dense, temporary and effective intellectual effort. » Thus, the ministry relies on existing local practices and tends to generalize them whatever the contexts. However, what appeared to be team choices here or there may not have the same relevance elsewhere.

Aid devices for the examination

One of the subparts enjoins “Mobilize student support systems“, by calling on additional hours of reinforced support and homework done for 3rd grade students to prepare for the tests. At the LGT, these are the hours of personalized support or tutoring which “can be used to strengthen working methods and consolidate learning.” On the one hand, the memo does not mention the financing of these measures. On the other hand, remediation of academic difficulty becomes subordinate to preparation for the DNB or baccalaureate tests.

Students overheating?

On the student side, the ministry invites engagement in the fashionable meritocratic style: “ Each student must also invest, throughout the year, in preparing for the tests, while intensifying their efforts as the exam date approaches.» The teachers act as coaches to advise the student »with prepare mentally and materially for the exam. » At a time when the psychological suffering of young people continues to cause concern, this competitive logic which makes teaching an object of effort and merit must raise alarm.

As teaching conditions deteriorate and support for students with special needs is scuttled, the ministry is establishing ever more restrictive examination frameworks. giving the illusion of an investment in the service of the success of all. In reality, we are observing a transformation of the content of the tests of certain exams going precisely towards a level of requirement that the school in the current material and social conditions cannot follow. A voluntary and maintained disconnection between a school without resources and demanding exams. Academic failure is thus solely individual responsibility..

Spelling, as a sorting tool

The memo ends with “A reinforced requirement in editorial expectations for all disciplinesHAS”. Of course mastery of the written code is essential in our teaching, but this emphasis on “editorial quality: spelling, syntax, grammar, clarity of the language and readability of the message” sounds like an incentive for finicky and discriminating correction. Indeed, studies show that the students least comfortable with written codes are the most socially disadvantaged students. For the SNES-FSU, spelling must in no case serve as a justification for vast social and academic discrimination!

Teachers in control of their pedagogical choices

As with the memo of August 28, 2025 organizing the implementation of evaluation projects, the SNES-FSU recalls that a memo has little regulatory value. The Education Code guarantees the pedagogical freedom of teachers. This new memo it is must not be an instrument of imposition of présumées Collective “good practices”. What matters most is the pedagogical choices of the teachers who are the best experts!