The creation of the Baccalaureat Professionnel : a case study of decision making in French education

Abstract

Prime Minister Fabius's announcement (May 1985) of the creation of a new baccalauréat, the baccalauréat professionnel, and of the official objective of having 80% of high school students reach the level of the baccalauréat in 2000, was the most important decision in French education since the Gaullist reforms of the early sixties. This article shows the impact of that decision on student numbers and on the morphology of the educational system, mainly its vocational track. The detailed chronology of the reform makes it possible to specify the responsibility of each agent: the teachers' unions, the executive officers of the ministry, the politicians and the employers' pressure groups. The decision was not a response to employers' demands. It was state policy based on politicians' view of the long-term needs of the economy, on their desire to upgrade the vocational track and give the educational system a new dynamic turn, and finally, on short-run political considerations of the positive impact of such a measure on public opinion in view of the legislative election of 1986.