France to tighten baccalaureate grading, demand high writing standards from 2026

Education minister Édouard Geffray issued a circular for the 2026 school year that makes language mastery and scientific reasoning the core of French schooling. The baccalaureate will now include a mandatory assessment of “qualité rédactionnelle” in every subject, and students who submit poorly written papers will be denied the diploma. As he stated, "Les élèves qui rendent des copies mal rédigées ne peuvent pas avoir le bac." The reform also bans the use of “textes à trous” except for special needs, promotes stronger maths automation and problem‑solving skills, and seeks to reduce gender gaps. Additional measures aim to restore civility, with a proposed prohibition of mobile phones in high schools and greater parental involvement.

The changes are intended to counter a perceived decline in writing skills over the past three decades and to equip pupils with the capacity for complex thought, especially as they increasingly rely on artificial‑intelligence tools.