Study Reveals Moroccan Math Exam Surpasses French Baccalaureate in Complexity

The subject on which Moroccan baccalaureate candidates worked a few weeks ago is causing incomprehension in France. "We couldn’t give that to our French students, it wouldn’t even be considered," cuts Rémi Chautard, a mathematics teacher in a high school in the Paris region. The level required of Moroccan high school students is high compared to that of young French people. According to Rémi Chautard, the notions included in the Moroccan exam are not even covered in the French high school curriculum, reports Le Figaro. "I’m thinking of the theorem of finite increments, the algebra exercise or the sum calculations," he develops. "It’s a subject that we could have proposed 30 years ago for baccalaureate C candidates at the time, but today it corresponds more to what is taught at the end of a prep school type math special." The Moroccan subject is "more complex than the one proposed in France to CAPES candidates," estimates the teacher, noting that "the Moroccans have managed to protect and enhance this subject where France has only degraded it."

According to the explanations of Claire Piolti-Lamorthe, president of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of Public Education (APMEP), in Morocco, students take an exam at the end of primary education (and then schooling is no longer compulsory) then an entrance exam to high school that determines the rest of their path. And to temper: "It seems to me delicate to compare exams that are based on different programs or schedules dedicated to this discipline."

The school program in France is not the same as in Morocco. In contrast to French students, Moroccan students who choose the equivalent of a so-called "math science" stream follow a particularly rigorous program. "We have more than 10 hours of math classes per week," a young Moroccan student in prep school in Rabat explained a few months ago to Figaro Étudiant. "What we see in the first year of HEC prep has already been studied in the final year, so it obviously helps us a lot." Thanks to this program, Moroccans are numerous to shine in the competitions to integrate the best French engineering schools, like Polytechnique. In 2023, some 41 Moroccans out of 60 foreign students in the CPGE (Preparatory Classes for the Grandes Écoles) stream successfully passed the entrance test for this Parisian school.