Assessing pupils in Year 3 of primary school in order to detect any difficulties as early as possible and give them positive feedback: these are the aims of the “CLÉ” test, which will be organised in all schools of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation from the coming school year.
Non-certifying, this common external assessment is not intended to award a certificate such as the CEB, but rather to help teachers give pupils feedback on where each of them stands in relation to basic learning. This approach will make it possible to detect pupils' potential difficulties earlier so as to address them in a more targeted way.
Until now, primary pupils were subject to two non-certifying external assessments, organised in Years 3 and 5. These, whose results were not taken into account for the report card, were not compulsory and covered only certain optional subjects. These assessments will therefore be replaced by the “CLÉ” test, which will indeed apply to all Year 3 primary pupils, including in special education.
This standardised assessment will require no preparation and should not cause particular stress for families. It is therefore not a question of “passing” or “failing” the test, but rather of seeing it as an opportunity to check with the pupil what they have fully mastered, what they only partially grasp and what they do not master at all, in order to put in place support that is both better targeted and more individualised.
Seen in this light, the “CLÉ” test aims to open doors along each pupil's learning journey, without ever closing one!