One of the tests offered to new students concerns the prerequisites in reading and comprehension of an academic text and another concerns the prerequisites in mathematics. As regards the mathematics test taken by students in economics and management and management engineering, in 2019 (226 students), the performance gap between the weakest 25% of new students and the strongest 25% is 5.5 points out of 20. For the Reading and Comprehension test and for the same students, we also observed a significant performance gap of 4.5 points out of 20 between the weakest and the strongest 25% of new students.  This result is not surprising, since the PISA surveys have repeatedly shown that a particularly pronounced disparity in results is observed between FWB students.

Laurent Schumacher

Laurent Schumacher, Vice-Rector for Education, Training and Sustainable Development

"This is a major challenge for all the components of higher education in French-speaking Belgium, which are faced with groups with extremely varied individual profiles," explains Laurent Schumacher, Vice-Rector for Education at UNamur.

"This observation prompts us to intensify contacts between the secondary and higher education levels in order to organize the most successful transition possible for our young people on leaving compulsory education.

"However, let's not kid ourselves," adds Laurent Schumacher. "This observation also lends support to those who advocate the introduction of a propaedeutic year (preparation for higher education) and/or more or less stringent entrance tests, as the Flemish authorities have decided with their 'ijkingstoetsen' (https://www.ijkingstoets.be). Faced with the same challenge of the heterogeneity of the public in a framework of broad democratisation of access to higher education, the Flemish authorities have decided to maintain the principle of broadly open access, by means of a test that confronts each future student with his or her responsibilities in terms of initial higher education: to inform him or herself, to evaluate him or herself, and to orientate him or herself in the best way possible according to his or her interests and abilities.

In addition, these pre-requisite tests also allow for an assessment of the impact of the reconfiguration of secondary education on learning during a health crisis. For those groups of pupils who have gone through successive confinements, the Mathematics Passport shows a significant drop in September 2021 in the level of mastery of several pre-requisites: graphical representation, translation from one language to another, logic and set theory and geometry. The Passport to Reading and Comprehension of a Text shows a significant drop, in September 2021, in the understanding of links in a text (logical links and repetition of an element already mentioned). Significant drops in the level of mastery of certain prerequisites had already been noted at the start of the 2020 academic year. The new students in the 2020 and 2021 intake were therefore less well prepared to meet the expectations of their teachers.

Fortunately, thanks to the "Passeports pour le Bac" project and the reinforcement activities that are organised after the tests, all these students have been given the opportunity to remedy these shortcomings: commented correction of the tests, reminders of theoretical points, complementary exercises, reading strategy workshops, individual interviews, etc.

Despite the admirable dedication of teachers to their students throughout the periods of containment, it is clear that the pandemic has had lasting effects on learning. Effects that the 'Passports to the Bac' reveal.