France launches 2026 Baccalauréat philosophy exams for 530,000 seniors

Minister of Education Édouard Geffray inaugurated the written philosophy exams of the 2026 Baccalauréat on Monday morning at a high school in Nogent‑sur‑Marne. The exams opened at 08:00 for roughly 530 000 terminal‑year students (386 312 in the general track and 146 687 in the technological track), who must submit their papers by noon.

Candidates faced three philosophy subjects – two dissertations and one text commentary. In the general stream the options were “Do we master our words?”, “Can we be happy when others are not?” and an excerpt from Friedrich Nietzsche’s *Human, All Too Human*. In the technological stream the choices were “Is debating a search for truth?”, “Can technique be bad?” and a passage from Paul Ricoeur’s *Le Juste*.

The ministry emphasized a strict language‑mastery criterion, warning that papers written with a markedly poor level of French could be denied a passing grade. Union representatives noted the lack of detailed grading guidelines for markers. The philosophy component carries a coefficient of eight for the general track and four for the technological track, contributing to the overall exam score that combines 40 % continuous assessment and 60 % terminal exams.

The Baccalauréat will continue with specialty exams later in the week, followed by the national oral exam in late June. Results are scheduled for 7 July. The overall pass rate has stayed above 80 % in recent years, reaching 91.8 % last year.