A recent change to the European Schools’ rules for the European Baccalaureate (BAC) could have major consequences for students and for European Commission staff whose children attend these schools.
Until now, if a student missed a written BAC exam for a justified medical reason, they could take a substitute exam during the normal BAC session. This made it possible for students to complete the BAC in June, as usual, and move on to university in the next academic year
For the 2027 BAC session, this will change. Under the new rules, a student who misses an exam because of illness will have to take the reserve exam in September instead of during the ordinary session (art. 8.2.3. of 2015-05-D-12-en-51). The new rules were approved by the Board of Governors in April 2026 ( 2026-04-D-7-en-2) and entered into force in September 2026.
This change is worrying because many universities set enrolment deadlines in July or August. If a student has to wait until September to take a missed exam, they may not receive their final BAC results or diploma in time to secure a place in the university of their choice. In practice, these students could lose not only a place at university, but also an entire academic year.
There is also a financial impact for staff. If a student cannot begin university straight after the BAC and is therefore not enrolled in higher education, the parent may lose the education allowances linked to the student’s status. For some families, this could mean a significant loss of income just caused by an unexpected illness.
There is also a pure human and social side of the issue. A student who has completed almost all of the BAC but must wait until September for one exam may face stress, frustration and a sense of unfairness, while classmates receive their results, celebrate and move on with their studies. If the student starts university only a year later, they may also need to explain the gap in their studies and the unusual BAC timetable to future universities.
Parents’ representatives’ concerns were ignored. At a meeting in February, InterParents criticised the change and warned that September substitute exams would create serious problems for university enrolment. Representatives of parents, schools, teachers and pupils were opposed to the change during preparatory discussions.
The reason reportedly given for the new system was concern about possible abuse of medical certificates. It would seem that some absences might have been used to gain extra preparation time, since the schools cannot not verify whether every illness is genuine.
Generation 2004 considers that, while the risk of abuse always exists, casting doubt on the whole medical profession and the whole collective of students is just unacceptable. It is also totally disproportionate to punish everybody just because there is an unsubstantiated suspicion of a few abuses.
For this reason, together with all the other staff representatives in the Brussels Local Staff Committee (the staff committee that nominates staff representatives to the European Schools committees) has asked HR to clarify their position on the rule change and requested to raise the issue with the Office of the Secretary-General and the Board of Governors of the European Schools in order to redress this disproportionate change.
In addition to changing the rule, it is possible to implement mitigating measures. For instance, the current rules concede exceptions as transitional provisions that could allow extra exams in June.
In short, the change was introduced to deal with a hypothetical abuse, but it creates in practice serious educational, financial and emotional consequences for students and families. The debate is likely to continue, especially as the 2027 BAC cohort will be the first to be affected.
