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The European Baccalaureate is awarded to students who successfully manage to complete a European School. These are mainly attended by students whose parents work for a European Institution. There are currently 13 European Schools.
The European Baccalaureate
The European Baccalaureate is taken at the end of the seventh year of secondary education. It is awarded only by the thirteen European Schools and should be distinguished from the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the baccalaureate of various national systems. Details of this examination are set out in the Annex of the Statute of the European School and in the Regulations for the European Baccalaureate, available from the schools.
The European Baccalaureate is administered and directly supervised by an external examining board appointed annually by the Board of Governors. The examining board consists of up to three representatives of each member state, who must satisfy the conditions governing the appointment of equivalent examining boards in their respective countries. It is presided over by a senior university educator appointed by each member state in turn, assisted by a member of the Board of Inspectors of the schools.
Article 5 (2) of the Statute provides that holders of the Baccalaureate shall:
- enjoy, in the Member State of which they are nationals, all the benefits attaching to the possession of the diploma or certificate awarded at the end of secondary school education in that country; and
- be entitled to seek admission to any university in the territory of any Member State on the same terms as nationals of that Member State with equivalent qualifications
The Baccalaureate is a two year course and assesses the performance of students in the subjects taught in secondary years 6-7.
The first awards of the European Baccalaureate were made in 1959.
The EB is marked in percentages out of 100, and, in contrast to many national systems (e.g. British A-Levels), comprises many compulsory subjects, including a foreign language, some science, mathematics, philosophy, gym, and history and geography (these are taught in the students' first foreign language, i.e. English, German or French). Subjects: Compulsory: Language 1 Language 2 Mathematics (3 or 5) Gym Religion or ethics
Main Options (4 hours weekly): Language 3 Language 4 Economics Physics Chemistry Biology 4h Latin Ancient Greek Philosophy 4h History Geography
Students must choose these if they did not take the four hours option: History 2h Geography 2h Philosophy 2h Biology 2h
Advanced options: Further Mathematics Adv L1 Adv L2
More options: Sociology Introductory economics Political sciences Language 5 Lab physics Lab chemistry lab biology Sport Drama Dance
The total mark consists of:
-15% coursework from 7th year -25% January exams - The remaining 60% from Oral and Written exams in 7th year
Consequently, there is a comparatively heavy workload for the students; the system is less suited to such people who prefer to be highly specialised in one field. However the pass-rate is very high (above 90%) due to the practice of 'weeding out' candidates who are not academically strong enough to complete the Baccalaureate. This process starts from an early age whereby many pupils either leave, are asked to leave or fall foul of the 'three strikes' rule (fail a year three times and the student will be asked to leave). Failing and repeating a year is a common occurrence from age 10 upwards, roughly 5% of pupils will fail in each year.
However, the pluridiciplinarity it offers is advantageous to students wishing to study in France and Germany. Most of the English section students and a significant minority of students from the other language sections apply to British universities.
Not to be confused with
- Other types of educational qualifications are also called Baccalaureate
- In the German language language the European Baccalaureate is called Europäisches Abitur, not to be confused with the German Abitur.
Evaluation of the European Baccalaureate
In a recent study based on a sample of over 500 former European School pupils, Kelly and Kelly compared the performances at British and Irish Universities of students who had taken the European Baccalaureate with the peformances of students who had studied A-levels. The showed that, in terms of the probability of getting a good degree, a European Baccalaureate (EB) score of 80 or more is roughly equivalent to 30 A-level points (3 A grades). An EB score of 70 to 79 is equivalent to an A-level score of 26-29 (ABB to AAB) and an EB score of 60 to 69 is equivalent to 22-25 A-level points (BBC, BBB). Even students with a bare pass at the EB (60-64) are more likely to get a good degree at university than students who achieved 18-22 points (CBB, CCB, CCC) at A-level. The full study can be downloaded from here:*
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Europäisches Abitur | Bakalaŭro | Baccalauréat européen | Europese Baccalaureaat
"European Baccalaureate"