On Monday 17 July, the petitions committee approved Jeff Trierweiler’s petition.

For both the “classique” and “technique” colleges (lycées), resits are held in early September, and students only receive their diploma at the end of September. This poses a problem for students who want to continue their education at university, as many universities already start their courses in September. Between the last written final year written exam and the resits, there is a period of two-and-a-half months.

Trierweiler is afraid he won’t get accepted at his chosen university in France, because the results of his resit will arrive too late, and the uncertainty means that he can’t look for a flat and prepare his start at university.

He argued in his petition that doing the resit in July/August would be better. He argued that a period of one month would be sufficient to study for the resit. The results would be available earlier and the students could prepare themselves for the future.

Reaction from the ministry of education

RTL radio reported that the head of the secondary education service said that this would be very difficult to implement. Students who have one or more resits needed those two months to catch up with the material.

He said that a student, who has to resit an exam, has significant knowledge gaps. Three weeks or a month would not be enough time to catch up and that was why the resits were held in September. He also noted that marks between 27 and 30 (out of the total 60 points) made it possible to do a small test (épreuve complémentaire), which is held immediately after the final year exams.

A petition needs to collect 4,500 signatures for it to be debated in parliament. Anyone legally registered in Luxembourg aged 15 or over may sign a petition in Luxembourg.