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The results of the French A-Levels ( the very much dreaded Baccalauréat or Bac in short ) for
the 2014 academic year are now out! Close to 80% of the total number of candidates passed an,d they
will all be fixed somewhere : universities, higher schools of specialized learning, apprenticeship in all
professional trades, etc.... In France the Baccalauréat is the academic determiner of one's life, and to possess
one means to own the real key for one's life! It's a certificate that has bred inventors, thinkers, writers, etc
A person with a Bac is seen almost in the same way as in our time in Uganda the public used to look with admiration
at a young individual who snatched a Pass A in the primary final exams! Of course the Bac is greater but the pride and the
respect would both match more or less on a similar path. You got Pass A, you are somebody, and you have a Bac, you are an
adored individual! And unlike in our system at home, after S4 one needs to take three years to write the Bac.
So when this time the results were approved by the French Ministry of Education and later published, it was Miss Myriam Bourhail,
an eighteen years old French student of Moroccan origin who topped the whole country! She totalled practically every subject except
Sport, English, and Spanish where she didn't score the usually unattainable 20 / 20 ( unlike in the British system, the French place
their total mark not at 100% but at 20 on 20 ). So Myriam scored many twenties except in philosophy ( 19/20 ), History/Georgraphy ( 18/20),
and sport ( 15/20 ) NB In France Sport at school is both a compulsory subject and a physical activity compulsory to all students! And philosophy is a stiff exam compulsory to all candidates So in the end Myriam obtained a total aggregate of 21.03 out of 20. A very great feat, indeed! How did this come about? Again we refer to the French system whereby apart from taking some of the compulsory subjects in one's group, a student, in order to increase his / her chances to get the passmark has a right to co-opt for an optional subject ( maximum 3 subjects ), if he / she fails the optional subject(s) it doesn't alter the total aggregate note but if he/she passes it or them then the examiners take away the mark(s) that go beyond the average passmark and add them to the marks already obtained in the obligatory subjects. For example a candidate takes Latin as an option and gets 13 / 20 he /she will get a benefit of those 3 points that stand above the average 10
points and will see them added to the total already obtained in the compulsory subjects. And this time again a candidate, our Myriam, had a series of marks collected from the following options Latin, Chinese and European Studies and when they were fused in the total averageobtained from the compulsory subjects she naturally had a round total going beyuond the maximum 20 points required to total the entire exam. She becomes France's all time second best performer in the Baccalauréat. The actual record is helb by French girl Caroline Huriet who last year ( 2013 ) scored a total 21.18 out of 20 ! Caroline is now doing a degree in astrophysics and space sciences and intends to become a researcher - astronaut. While Myriam is hesitating between Medicine and Law. Like Caroline, Myriam took a mixture of subjects both in arts and sciences.
Myriam Bourhail is one of the many students of African extraction to shine in France where all education facilities are equally extended to all
students and youths. Many Africans have shone in one way or another. Four years ago a 16-year-old intelligent youth who had just arrived from
Mali sat his Bac and astounded everybody by topping the nation in physics ( 20/20 ). This boy could do sums in class at a rhythm of a bright
university student! And he was the youngest candidate in the whole nation. And some five years ago a girl student of Ugandan extraction,
Josephine Nyakana, topped the nation in Chemistry and a study circle in sciences organized a special reception to congratulate her.She is now a young specialist in a great laboratory! The Malian lad is doing his Master's in physics!
G.H.K.
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