information evening secondary reform1 tuesday, 15 october 2013 1 welcome - bienvenue apeee bxl iii

Information evening secondary reform 1Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Welcome - Bienvenue

APEEE BXL III


Structure of Secondary level

Observation cycle: S1 – S3

Pre-orientation cycle: S4 – S5

Orientation cycle: S6 – S7


Current situation: S1 – S3

Compulsory courses: L1, L2, L3 (as of S2), Mathematics Integrated Sciences (combination of Biology, Chemistry and Physics) Human Sciences (combination of Geography and History) Religion/Ethics, Sport, Arts, Music in FR, EN or DE Information and Communication Technology (ICT, S1-S2): in FR, EN or DE

Optional courses: Latin in S3 Complementary activities (photography, aquarelle, etc., S2-S3) Ancient Greek (for pupils in Greek section) Other national language (for Irish)

Tuesday, 15 October 2013 Information evening secondary reform 4


Changes: S1 – S3

Compulsory courses: L3 as of S1 L1 in S1 without "learning to learn" Religion/Ethics: in L2 as of S3, no longer guaranteed in L1 as of S1

Optional courses: Latin as of S2 (2 periods each in S2/S3 instead of 4 periods in S3), no longer

guaranteed in L1 ICT as option in S3 No complementary activities?


Current situation: S4 – S5 (changes to S1-S3)

Compulsory courses: Mathematics split in 4 and 6 period courses as of S4 Biology, Chemistry, Physics instead of Integrated Sciences History, Geography in L2 instead of Human Sciences

Optional courses Arts, Music, ICT no longer compulsory L4 Economy in L2


Changes: S4 – S5

Compulsory courses: Mathematics in S4: 4 periods for all, 3 periods Math+ Mathematics in S5: no longer guaranteed in L1 Religion/Ethics: 1 period instead of 2

Optional courses: Grouping of options with choice of only 1 per group:

- L4, Latin or Irish

- Arts/Music or Math+/ICT

- Economy or Ancient Greek Ancient Greek no longer guaranteed in L1


Current situation: S6 – S7 (changes to S4-S5)

Compulsory courses: Mathematics split in 3 and 5 period courses as of S6 Biology, History, Geography and Philosophy with 2 or 4 periods

Optional courses L3, Chemistry, Physics no longer compulsory Choice of 2 or 4 periods for Economy, Arts, Music Advanced L1, L2, Math Complementary subjects: L5, Sociology, Laboratory, etc.


Changes: S6 – S7

New Structure: 3 streams (filières/Zweige):

Sciences stream (SCI)

Economics stream (ECO)

Humanities stream (HUM)

Compulsory courses: New HUMSCI (combination of History and Philosophy) for SCI New GENSCI (combination of Biology, Chemistry and Physics) for ECO+HUM New cross curriculum project New Ethics and Religious studies instead of choice of Religion or Ethics


Changes: S6 – S7

Optional courses: Biology, History, Geography, Philosophy no longer compulsory Limited choice of options per stream and grouping of options with choice of only

1 per group within the streams: Sciences stream: 2 of the underlined subjects have to be taken

- Biology

- Chemistry, ICT or Irish

- Physics or GeographyArts/Music or Math+/ICT

- L3 Economics stream: Economics and 1 of the underlined subjects have to be

taken

- History, ICT or Irish

- Geography or Physics

- L3


Changes: S6 – S7

Optional courses continued: Humanities stream: 1 of the underlined subjects has to be taken

- Philosophy or Music

- History, L4 or Irish

- Geography, Arts or Latin

- L3 or Ancient Greek Advanced courses: 1 of advanced L1, L2 or Math can be chosen Complementary subjects: not mentioned in the reform papers

Language regime: No guarantee of L1 for Mathematics, HUMSCI, GENSCI, Biology, Chemistry,

Physics, Philosophy, Latin, Ancient Greek, Advanced Mathematics No guarantee of L2 for Ethics and Religious studies, History, Geography,

Economics

Main issues for the secondary reform

The new proposals could mean that core subjects will be taught in L2/L3, or even in HCL (Host Country Language), if there are less than 7 pupils in a class

From S2 to S7: Latin From S4 to S7: Ancient Greek From S5 to S7: Maths 4, Maths 6 For S6 and S7: every subject except L1, L2, L3, L1Appro and L2Appro

("every subject" also includes: Maths, physics, chemistry, Philosophy, Biology.

In addition, the proposals do not set out a commitment that you may continue to follow one course, in one language: so the students may be forced to chop and change between L1/L2 and L3 for each course throughout the secondary cycle. Therefore, as class sizes and options change, you may have Maths in L1 until S4, Maths 4 or 6 in L3 in S5 and even Math 3 or math 5 in S6 in HCL – or back in L1 or L2….


These proposals also include the possibility that some subjects may not be organised at all (including some current core subjects). Even in the "Filière" system they are not guaranteed to be available Philosophy (currently in S6 and S7) will disappear. Laboratory Physics and Laboratory Chemistry will disappear. In S4, Math4 remains the only compulsory course in maths. Pupils who want to study

Math more intensely have the option of 3 additional hours. S4: all the following subjects are options (with no guarantee that they will be available):

Maths+, Economy, Latin, L4, Ancient Greek, ICT, Music, Art. S5: all the following subjects are options (with no guarantee that they will be available):

Maths6, Economy, Latin, L4, Ancient Greek for Greek people, Ancient Greek for non-Greek people, ICT, Music, Art.

From S4 till S7, there are discrepancies in the Maths subject: Maths+ (+3 periods) in S4 is compulsory in order to be allowed to take the scientific stream in S6/S7, otherwise the pupil will not have the requested level and will have to take an exam, but Maths+ is only an option is S4 with no availability guaranteed.

S6 /S7: in the “Economics stream”, economics itself as a subject is an option, so it is guaranteed only if more than 7 pupils want it.

S6/S7: in the "Scientific stream", Biology Physics, Chemistry, MathAppro (ex Maths8) are options.

S6/S7: in the "Humanities stream", L3 is an option


The objective of reducing school failure is not addressed at all. In fact, the following measures will raise the likelihood of failure even further

The introduction of L3 in S1 increases the number of students facing difficulties with many languages at the moment. It is an untimely addition when these pupils have to manage the difficult transition between the primary and the secondary school. There is no provision for increasing Learning Support accordingly.

With a drastic increase of core subjects given in L2/L3 or even in HCL, (without any guarantee of continuity from one grade to the next), there is a significant rise in pressure on pupils to quickly get to a high level in L2. This pressure is doubled for L3, as it will only commence in S1.

Most of the options in the BXL schools will be organised in L2 for the small sections, but no reinforcement of the L2 in Primary is foreseen.

The teaching of all pupils for Maths4 and Maths+ together in the same group for the first 4 periods.

The consequences of teaching maths in one language, Physics in another and yet chemistry in a third is not addressed.

The regrouping in some core subjects of pupils following it in L1 and pupils following it in L2 (even L3 or HCL), will not only introduce clear disadvantages to those students but will also discriminate against those in smaller sections.

There will be compulsory teaching of Math 5 for the "Scientific" and "Economics" stream if Physics is chosen as an option even though it is not compulsory for most economic courses in all Member States.


The proposed "Filière" system is not harmonized in any way with the national curriculum in the Member States, it has not been assembled from a serious analysis of the proposed pathways

The split into streams show a number of discrepancies, for instance: S4:

Latin cannot be taken together with L4, although Latin is also used for language studies at high level;

Similarly for ONL: native Irish speakers for instance, won't be allowed to take Latin any longer if they want to keep their own language.

S6/S7: There is no provision for philosophy in S6/S7 (outside the "humanities stream"). Few Member States understand the meaning of GENSCI or HUMSCI; there is a risk that the

mark from this subject will not be considered in the students overall Bac mark by the universities until its equivalence is set up with all Member States. This formal recognition is not even considered in the proposed reform.

S6/S7 Sciences stream: The students must choose between chemistry or ICT or ONL, meaning that you can have

biology + ICT + geography as a scientific trend, but that, if you have ONL, you cannot have chemistry or ICT.


S6/S7 Economics stream: The students can no longer opt to have ICT / History / Geography, although these are often

required for some economics courses in some business schools (needing History + Geography but also high level competencies in ICT for building graphs, analysis).

S6/S7 Humanities stream: Ancient Greek can no longer be taken together with L3 – however, Ancient Greek (as with

Latin) is often preferable for high-level language courses at university.

Despite being called "filière", there is no guarantee, that if a pupil has some options one year, s/he will continue to have them the following year. There is no commitment whatsoever that all the options will be offered, or that they will be offered in continuity from S4 till S7.


Overall issues There is no solid pedagogical assessment (only isolated extracts of the PISA report)

and not for all grades (only foreseen now for S6/S7). There is no exact financial impact assessment. There is no needs assessment addressing whether these reforms are in line with

national curriculums providing students with the necessary level of attainment for access to the Member States universities. Recognition of this qualification is already a serious issue for our students in many Member States - these changes compound it and still there is no European Bac recognition analysis.

There is no explanation on why and how it will reduce school failure. There is absolutely no guarantee of continuity in subjects from one year to the next,

or of the teaching language of a subject from one year to another. There is increased pressure on small sections with significantly less choices for the

pupils of these sections. Efficiency is gained through the pressure on the pupils choice. There is no "cost of change" assessment. There is no assessment of the transition period and risk analysis. There is also no

analysis of possible "clashes" and no mitigating measures. There are no proposals put forward with regard to a progressive implementation and

a lessons drawn approach after each step.


No alternative studied

In particular, there is no specific analysis carried out to assess possible alternatives for the BXL schools (or LUX schools): The possible grouping of courses among BXL schools The possible pooling of teachers – teachers are currently employed by one

school only, meaning they don’t always fulfil a full-time schedule. However if they were shared amongst the 4 Brussels schools this could reduce costs.

The possibility to better allocate the registration and opening / closing of classes.

The possible regrouping of sections, for the same grades, on the same campus



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information evening secondary reform1 tuesday, 15 october 2013 1 welcome - bienvenue apeee bxl iii

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