[graecea]

I never implied that, in fact I'm pretty noncommittal on the matter and would do away with the baccalaureat (or maturite, or whatever) entirely.

60 years ago a test was hard and most people failed it. Today it's easy and most people pass it. What's the difference? Why even have a test? Since we're somehow talking about French-speaking countries, Belgium doesn't have such a test and isn't worse off for it.

[Foobar8568]

You had different certificates that were valid (check a "dictée" from a CEP at the end of primary school, I am not sure that many people would make less than 4 grammatical mistakes).

Now you have private certificates that employers start asking (voltaire certificate) and there will be similar in math.

Regarding Switzerland, check the subject and grading of ECR in Vaud https://www.vd.ch/themes/formation/scolarite-obligatoire/eva... and an 8P example https://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/organisation/dfj/dge... it's at the end of the first year of middle school // 12years old. Considering the way of grading, my daughter would pass it at 7.