FRANCE SCHOOLS FORMUP

FRANCE to overhaul the baccalaureate in tricky school reform.

FOR OVER two centuries French students have faced a grueling rite of passage : the week-long high school exit exam and its infamous-

Philosophical essay, which bedevils college hopefuls with stumpers like ''Do we know what we desire?''

The philosophy brain twister will remain, but the government has unveiled proposals for a major revamp of the rest of the baccalaureate, tackling a ''national monument'' based on structure created under Napoleon in 1808.

Emmanuel Macron pledged to overhaul the Bac, as it is known, during his presidential campaign, saying it was failing to adequately prepare teenagers for university and the modern job market.

Once in university, roughly 60 percent of students fail to secure their diplomas marking the first three years of study.

The proposed reform presented this week, which would have the number of Bac tests to just five including a new 30-minute oral exam, aims to orientate students towards specific degrees sooner.

The three broad subject choices - science, literature or social sciences would also be eliminated.

Before their final year students would choose two specific ''major'' subjects as well as two ''minors'' alongside the standard curriculum - a system that will sound familiar to American college graduates.

And instead of being based purely on results in the final exams, the new Bac grade would incorporate marks and test results obtained throughout the two final years of school.
     
Even class schedules will change by 2021 if the reforms are passed, with the year divided into two semesters instead of three trimesters, and the tests spread over several months instead of a single week.

[Agencies]