Starting This Fall: High School Juniors Can Prep for the New Bac Exam!

Entering the 11th grade marks a crucial step in our children’s educational journey. It is the year when they first face the challenges of the much-feared baccalaureate exams, but more importantly, it’s a pivotal time when students begin to delve into the subjects they are truly passionate about. This choice in specialization is crucial, allowing them to thrive in their favorite subjects while laying the groundwork for their future higher education.

By the start of the school year in September 2026, students will experience several significant changes in this curriculum. As the Minister of National Education has announced, a brand new section will be introduced for students entering their junior year who choose it for their baccalaureate. It will be implemented this year, allowing students to prepare for their exam session in June 2028.

This new program involves the creation of a true bilingual section in regional languages such as Breton, Basque, Corsican, or even Creole! Specifically, a student can now pursue a specialty (like physics-chemistry or history-geography, for example) entirely in one of these languages during their last two years of high school. But the real innovation lies in the final exams. “Once a student has pursued a specialty in a regional living language over the two years of 11th and 12th grade, they can take the corresponding exam in that language,” explained Édouard Geffray to Ouest-France. On exam day, the test given will be exactly the same as the national exam, just translated.

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To ensure fair treatment among all candidates, one condition has been set: this new feature will only apply to one specialty, with the second necessarily being prepared and taken in French. The Grand Oral, which is based on both subjects, can also be conducted partly in the regional language. For students who pass, the “bilingual section” distinction will be clearly noted on their baccalaureate diploma—a prestigious acknowledgment as they conclude their high school years.

While the teaching of these regional cultures was already available in high school, it was previously limited to optional exams. “A student who currently pursues an entire specialty in a regional language can only take their exam in French unless the language itself is the specialty. That’s quite paradoxical,” the minister lamented to Ouest-France.

This significant measure, while promising on paper, has already sparked quite a bit of skepticism on the ground. From the teachers’ unions’ perspective, the enthusiasm is notably lacking. Representatives criticize a measure that could predominantly benefit private immersive schools, due to a lack of qualified teachers and adequately developed bilingual specialties in public high schools. It’s a major organizational and recruiting challenge that the National Education Department must quickly address.