Romain Rouillard 16:54 p.m., November 14, 2023

Guest of Elisabeth Assayag in "La France bouge" this Tuesday, Philippe Coléon, CEO of Acadomia, reacted to the remarks made by Gabriel Attal in the columns of the "Parisien" about the overall level of college students. He confirms the difficulties experienced by many students, partly inherited, according to him, from the health crisis.

They had to provide a photograph of the average level of the students. The French and maths tests, taken for the first time by the 4th graders at the beginning of the year, have delivered their verdict. And the results "are not satisfactory and are even... rather worrying," said Gabriel Attal, Minister of National Education, in the columns of Le Parisien on Tuesday.

In detail, it shows that just over half of the pupils are unable to read properly and do not master mathematical problem solving. While Gabriel Attal highlights an overall progression in 6th grade, he also points to a level that "stagnates, or even regresses" until the finish in 4th grade. To discuss these difficulties that persist on the benches of college and that hinder the acquisition of the famous fundamental knowledge, La France bouge received Philippe Coléon, CEO of Acadomia, a company specializing in home tutoring.

"When you're missing bricks..."

Speaking to Europe 1, the manager confirmed the conclusions drawn by the tenant of the rue de Grenelle, particularly in mathematics. He mentions, among other things, the responsibility for the health crisis, during which successive lockdowns forced students to follow their teaching remotely. "I think we haven't done enough to take stock of the damage that Covid-19 has done to children. Mathematics is a brick-by-brick construction. And when you're missing bricks, you find it difficult to progress," argues Philippe Coléon.

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Hence the interest in going back a year, sometimes even two years, in order to reconsolidate certain bases. "These Covid years have been very difficult years of learning and a 4th grade math teacher is there to do the 4th grade lesson, not the 5th grade, not the 6th grade. So we have to rebuild, we have to help," he said. Philippe Coléon thus evokes the mission entrusted by the parents of pupils to Acadomia, namely to "restore confidence and review the fundamentals. These are things that may have been seen a little too quickly, especially because of unfinished programs."

Innumeracy

Some pupils are even victims of numeralism, the equivalent of illiteracy, but adapted to mathematics. "In concrete terms, it's the difficulty of connecting the 9 and the 3 to read 93," explains Philippe Coléon, who also confirms that mathematics is at the top of Acadomia's requests for tutoring, ahead of English, which is now ahead of French.

Beyond the purely pedagogical effort, intended to catch up on certain poorly acquired basics, "we have many more requests around the organization of the child, confidence and methodology", compared to the period before Covid-19, reports Philippe Coléon.