Since the CEB became compulsory (2009), the percentage of pupils passing it has almost always been around 90%. Yet, it turns out that 2 years later, when pupils take the CE1D at the end of the 2nd year of secondary school, there is a 50% failure rate. The CEB is therefore not aligned with the prerequisites needed to succeed in secondary school afterwards. We need a CEB that properly validates acquired knowledge in order to best prepare pupils for secondary school.
Exams should not be seen as a punitive obligation, but as an opportunity to assess learning and better support pupils who need it.
At a time when the 50 shades of the left want to abolish the CEB, the MR wants to keep it and raise its level of requirements, as well as its pass threshold from 50% to 60%, in order to measure mastery of basic learning. The CEB must also incorporate the polytechnic dimension of the common core curriculum and be extended to other subjects.
In addition, the MR wants to strengthen basic learning from an early age and introduce another certifying external test at the end of the 3rd year of primary school, focused on assessing basic skills (reading, writing and arithmetic), so that difficulties can be addressed as quickly as possible before they accumulate and put the rest of a pupil's schooling at risk (failure, repeating a year, dropping out).
Strong proposals that Stéphanie Cortisse, Member of Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, put forward this week in the DH. “Let's put an end to levelling down. The CEB must be kept and remain certifying. It's too late to assess only at the end of the common core, in the 3rd year of secondary school. Sitting exams is a learning process in itself. The CEB covers mastery of the expected skills in French, mathematics and general awareness: how can a 50% pass mark be justified when only half of this essential knowledge has been acquired?”
For the MR, it is clear: as long as the reforms of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching have not demonstrated their effect on improving the quality of education, it is out of the question to abolish the certifying purpose of the common external test taken by all pupils at the end of primary school.
Read the article in the DH