French language exam structure ‘creates inequality’, teachers warn

Student teachers and nurses are at a disadvantage when learning French compared to those in other fields in their final year of compulsory education, teachers have said in a letter addressed to Education Minister Claude Meisch, as a result of the structure of French classes in the new first year of upper secondary school (Première).

Prospective teachers study at the Lycée technique des professions éducatives et sociales (LTPES) and the Lycée Bel-Val, while nursing training takes place at the École nationale de santé du Luxembourg (ENSA) – both are sections of the general secondary education system.

Less teaching, same exam

However, a new French programme was introduced this year for students in the affected tracks which, teachers from the three schools told the Luxemburger Wort, overburdens students. The reason: nursing and education students have significantly less French teaching time than other students in Première due to their work placements.

The teacher training programme (GED) includes six weeks of practical training and the nursing training programme (GSI) includes seven weeks, therefore meaning less regular teaching time. “This reduced time span does not allow them to go thoroughly through all the material and creates an inequality compared to the other sections of general education,” the teachers’ letter stated.

The teachers also criticised that many texts in the new curriculum are “too extensive and too demanding” for the language level of their students. The compulsory reading of the novel L’Attentat by Yasmina Khadra also represents a burden, because of linguistic difficulty and also thematic complexity.

The teachers said they have little choice but to teach predominantly in lecture fashion, “which does not correspond to the direction that the Ministry of Education wants to give to teaching; namely more interactive and varied didactic approaches”.

German and English language students have it better

Teachers are particularly critical of the fact that only French has a standardised programme and exam for all tracks. In German and English, on the other hand, GED and GSI students continue to have their own programmes and their own final exams. Those who choose French as an exam subject are therefore at a clear disadvantage.

Teachers warn that even fewer students could opt for French in future, describing it in their letter as “a language that is already held in low esteem” and something which could further increase the imbalance between the different tracks.

The programme is putting off many students, with the high demands causing stress, lower motivation and could impact the students’ success, the teachers wrote.

Appeal to ministry: change the track

The teachers want the programme to be revised “so that it is better suited to the available teaching time, the actual level of the pupils and our common educational goals”.

The Luxemburger Wort asked the Ministry of Education and the chair of the Programme Commission, Loïc Ferreira, why the French programme – unlike English and German – has not been adapted to the specificities of the GED and GSI sections and whether there are plans to respond to the demands of teachers and pupils. An LTPES student has also launched a petition calling for the workload of the French programme to be reduced.

The ministry referred to the programme commission, which developed the current curriculum and “deliberately adopted it in its current form”.

Schools “given the opportunity to develop their own exams”

All changes were presented at the commission meetings and supported by all members, said Ferreira. In addition, he added, reductions were already provided for the final two years on the two educational tracks. For example, one lesson and one book have been omitted in the penultimate year. In addition, students can replace a fourth written exam with an oral exam.

Teachers in final year at the two schools are exempt from so-called triple correction, and only double correction continues to apply to them, Ferreira added. The LTPES and ENSA have also been offered the opportunity to develop their own exam but neither accepted, he said.

Several sources contradict the chairman

Several sources who wish to remain anonymous contradict this account – saying the schools were never offered the option of their own exam.

“The question of whether GED and GSI students should have their own French exam was never discussed. In this respect, there was never a vote on this question,” explained a source. They only voted in favour of a joint text volume: “There was no vote on the exam question, as it was always said that there would only be one exam.”

“I am not aware of any proposal to develop a separate exam, nor is the representative of our school on the programme committee,” said Astrid Schuller, director of Lycée Bel-Val.

Two other sources confirm this independently of each other. Another source said: “I can confirm that the programme committee was informed about the specifics of the GED and GSI sections and that the uniform examination and the injustices that such an examination would entail for the pupils concerned were repeatedly discussed.” Several meeting reports of the programme committee seem to prove this.

There is a simple reason why the criticism is only now becoming public: teachers only received the text volume a few weeks before the start of this school year. “We saw the texts for the first time in mid-July and realised that they were very long and that it would be impossible to cover them all in class,” said one source.

Both the ministry and the programme commission said they would analyse and discuss the situation together. Sources claim consultations have begun, and a proposed solution is to be presented in the coming days.

(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by Alex Stevensson.)