The creation of the Baccalaureat Professionnel: a case study of decision making in French education

Prime Minister Fabius's announcement (May 1985) of the creation of a new ba ccalaureat, the baccalaureat professionnel, and of the official objective o f having 80% of high school students reach the level of the baccalaureat in 2000, was the most important decision in French education since the Gaulli st reforms of the early sixties. This article shows the impact of that deci sion on student numbers and on the morphology of the educational system, ma inly its vocational track. The detailed chronology of the reform makes it p ossible to specify the responsibility of each agent: the teachers' unions, the executive officers of the ministry, the politicians and the employers' pressure groups. The decision was not a response to employers' demands. It was state policy based on politicians' view of the long-term needs of the e conomy, on their desire to upgrade the vocational track and give the educat ional system a new dynamic turn, and finally, on shore-run political consid erations of the positive impact of such a measure on public opinion in view of the legislative election of 1986.