An approach that aims to feminize the scientific sectors. The Minister of National Education Élisabeth Borne set on Tuesday a target of 50 % of girls in the mathematical specialty in terminal in 2030, against 42 % currently.
The objective is to “strengthen the place of women in engineering and digital fields. Girls must choose the math specialty more in the first one, they keep it in terminal and also take the expert math option (chosen by only 33 % of girls, editor’s note), “said the minister in an echo interview.
A study by the Ministry of Education published in March has shown that girls remain underrepresented in scientific matters in general terminal, in engineering sciences or computer science and digital (15 %in both cases), in physical education (32 %) and, to a lesser extent, in mathematics (42 %) and physics-chemistry (47 %).
5,000 more girls from the next school year
The government will “ask the heads of schools and teachers to encourage girls to choose and keep” the Maths specialty in terminal, explains Élisabeth Borne. A “first walk” of 5,000 additional girls is scheduled for the next school year, she said.
The Minister also takes up her account “the objective” of a report by general inspections which advocates at least 20 % of girls in each scientific preparatory class in 2026 and 30 % in 2030.
The establishment of quotas, a term that the minister does not use, is a long -standing recommendation of the high council for equality. In its 2023 report on the invisibilization of women in digital, the HCE had recommended that they impose quotas of 50 % of girls in scientific specialties (mathematics, physics) and 30 % minimum in NSI (digital and computer science) in high school.
The first “pillar” of the “girls and math” plan presented by the minister is “to raise awareness and train all the teachers from the start of the 2025 – primary school in high school”.
This plan for 370,000 school teachers, 24,000 college math teachers and 12,000 high schools, should allow for example that girls are more often questioned in class, even if they do not raise their hands.
The latest international study Timss (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), published in December, has noted that French students in CM1 and fourth remain among the least vouchers in the European Union in math and sciences, with an increase in the gap between girls and boys at the end of the elementary school. This gap is the most important of EU countries.