Concours général

The Concours général (General Competition ) is a nationwide competition in the French education system. It was founded in 1747. It is used to identify the best students of the graduating class ( terminal ) and the pre- final year ( première ) at the Lycée every year. The trainees can be distinguished in the concours général des métiers.

Implementation

The pupils of the Première can compete in the subjects of French, history, geography, translation into Latin and translation from ancient Greek. The pupils of the terminals have the subjects Philosophical essay, bio and geology mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, economics and social sciences, German, English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese and Russian are available. Some subjects for the terminals are of specific annual program dependent.

There are certain schools that emerge repeatedly in the competitions. These are for example the Lycée Louis -le- Grand with 13 awards in 2008 and 21 Awards 2007, the Lycée Henri- IV with 17 awards in 2008 and 14 Awards of 2007 or the Collège Stanislas de Paris with 4 awards in 2008 and 7 Awards in 2007. It there are also numerous other schools, which in this competition have success.

As each year per subject maximum of 18 students will be awarded, this competition is very demanding. The awards are divided into the categories of price ( prix ) with a maximum of 3, commendation ( accessits ), maximum 5, and honorable mention ( mention ) with a maximum of 10 awardees per year and subject. In contrast, in 2007, the number of participants exceed 2,000, for example in mathematics.

Students who receive an award will be invited to a celebration that often takes place in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne. There they congratulated the French education minister personally to their performance.

History

The competition is mainly due to foundations of the canons Le Gendre in 1733 and Collot in 1755. The first award was presented in 1747 in the presence of the Parliament of Paris and later Chancellor Maupeou at the Sorbonne instead. The competition had in this first period until 1793 inventory, it was abolished during the French Revolution.

In 1803 the competition, first, again called for the schools of Paris to life. 1818 Versailles was included. A 1838 exempt attempt to include the royal schools in the departments, failed because of the lack of transport and communications of the time and was abandoned in 1839. Another such attempt failed in 1848.

In 1864 was the then Minister of Public Education, Victor Duruy a feasible way: The academies in the departments of any organized their own Concours académique mentioned competition. The winners of these competitions were then nationwide in the Concours général at. The academies in Paris and Versailles led further through their own Concours général. 1880 Concours académiques were abolished, but the two split Concours général, with Paris and Versailles on one side and the departments on the other hand, had until 1904 inventory. As part of a political debate, he was placed in that year in question and abolished again.

1921, the competition was re- established by a decree of the Minister of Education Léon Bérard in life and at the same time limited the participation to the last two years of the Lycée. 1923 the distinction between Paris - Versailles and the department was abolished in favor of a nationwide competition.

Over the history of the competition the core subjects was extended again and again. The initial subjects were French and Latin themes, translation of Latin verse and translation of a Greek text into French. 1803, added the mathematics, physics, chemistry and natural history was followed in 1830, Modern Languages ​​, 1865. Technological subjects were introduced in 1961 and the subjects of the vocational baccalaureate followed in 1995. He was still the last compartment was added in 2007 Chinese.

Famous winners and laureates

For those who could excel in the competition include Maximilien de Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, Évariste Galois, Charles Baudelaire, Edmond de Goncourt, Louis Pasteur, Henri Poincaré, Henri Bergson, Jean Jaurès, Léon Blum, Charles Peguy, Jean Giraudoux, Jules Romains, Edgar Faure, Georges Pompidou, Maurice Schumann, Alain Juppe, Laurent Schwartz, Julien Gracq, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu, Volker Schlöndorff, Roland Barthes, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean -Pierre Chevènement, Jorge Semprun Jean -Pierre Serre and many other famous personalities.