French baccalaureate results tickle out after teachers strike holds up corrections

Results of the French baccalauréat, the exam at the end of high school, are finally being posted Friday, after a strike by markers this week. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had promised that all students would get a mark by Friday.

Teachers have refused to hand in marks this week, to push the government to re-open negotiations on planned high school reforms and the baccalaureate itself.

The delay has been causing stress for the 743,000 students eagerly awaiting the results.

To pass, students need a mark of 10 out of 20. Those who get between 8 and 10 have the option of taking an oral exam on Monday and Tuesday, to boost their mark. Now they only have the weekend to prepare.

Blanquer said the teachers' decision to hold up the results was “scandalous” and called it “sabotage”.

He warned that teachers who did not hand in marks would be considered strikers from the day they received the exams, and would lose 10 to 15 days of salary.

According to the minister, by Thursday evening, only 700 markers out of 175,000 had not handed in results, affecting 30,000 out of the four million exams to be graded.

Those whose exams were not graded by Friday would receive marks based on their school performance during the year, and that once the baccalaureate results came out, the best mark would be counted.