(Paris) The youngest candidate for the general baccalaureate in France is 9 years old, a record in the history of this end-of-school exam, between high school and higher education, the Ministry of National Education announced on Friday.
The student from the Strasbourg academy (east), of primary school age, is registered as a free candidate for the baccalaureate session, which starts on June 18 with the philosophy test, said the National Education on the sidelines of a press conference on the presentation of the baccalaureate.
In order to get back up to speed, the young candidate, who chose the specialties of mathematics as well as physics and chemistry, recently took “one-off tests, which correspond to continuous assessment”.
For the 2024 edition of the baccalaureate which brings together 728,164 candidates, the oldest registered applicant is 76 years old.
The youngest candidates for the baccalaureate are “generally rather 12 or 13 years old”, indicated Edouard Geffray, general director of school education (Dgesco). Last year, the youngest candidate was 12 years old.
The baccalaureate was established by a decree of March 17, 1808 and its first edition, in the form of oral tests only, took place in 1809. The first holders of the diploma were only 31. The first woman to obtain the diploma, Julie-Victoire Daubié, obtained it in 1861, at the age of 37.