Barely appointed, the Minister of Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra faced her first controversy on Friday January 12 by justifying her decision to transfer her children from the public to the private sector by her « frustration » in front “packets of hours” teaching not replaced during teacher absences. “I am not going to dodge your question (…), we are going to go into the personnel field”she responded during a press briefing to a journalist from Mediapart, after visiting a college in Andrésy (Yvelines).
This was his first trip as Minister of Education, alongside his predecessor Gabriel Attal, now at Matignon. “My eldest son, Vincent, started, like his mother, at public (elementary) school in Littré (6th arrondissement of Paris)”explained this mother of three teenage boys, before talking about her « frustration » as well as that of her husband, who “saw lots of hours which were not seriously replaced”.
The couple has “I was fed up, like hundreds of thousands of families who, at one point, made a choice to seek a different solution”she defended herself, specifying that it was a “proximity choice” since they lived on rue Stanislas. The Stanislas college-lyceum, also in the 6th arrondissement, in the heart of Paris, is a prestigious private Catholic establishment.
At the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Education contacted the General Inspectorate and launched a call for testimony after accusations of homophobic and sexist excesses relayed in the press targeting this establishment. In a survey published in June 2022, Mediapart pointed out “the sexist, homophobic and authoritarian universe of the Parisian Stanislas middle and high school, a private Catholic establishment described as “the best” high school in France”.
“Its primary subject must be the public school, the only school of all and for all”
The arguments put forward by the minister immediately sparked political controversy. “Seven years that they have been in power, seven years that they have done nothing to restore the school of the Republic. And today they are offended by the dilapidation of public education, as if they were not responsible for it”the leader of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen was indignant on X (formerly Twitter).
The boss of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure judged on the same network “mind-blowing” the minister’s words by parodying them: “’The public school of which I am now the minister was not good enough for my children so I sent them to a private high school whose values are, according to the surveys carried out there, far from republican values’”.
The Insoumis deputy Rodrigo Arenas, former co-president of the FCPE parent federation, for his part said he would contact the rector of the Paris academy “to verify the denigrating remarks of the Minister of National Education about the Littré school in Paris. »
Teachers’ unions also reacted strongly. “Lunar and provocative remarks, against the public education service and its staff”, commented on X Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union. While the CGT Educ’action castigated a “lamentable and unworthy speech by the new minister”. As for Unsa, it “will not fail to quickly remind the minister that her primary subject must be public schools, the only school of all and for all”said the general secretary of the teachers’ union Elisabeth Allain-Moreno.
Regrets
Faced with the bronca, the government tried on Saturday to debunk the first controversy of the Gabriel Attal era, caught up in school, « cause » which he took to Matignon. The executive has ” answered “ to the difficulties of replacing absent teachers, in particular by increasing the remuneration of replacement hours, assured the government spokesperson, Prisca Thévenot, questioned on France 2 on the controversy sparked by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
Aurore Bergé, Minister for Gender Equality, also defended her colleague from Education: “Isn’t it that, when she says that, she is saying something that, unfortunately, many French people have experienced? Today, there are too many parents who make the default choice to send their children to private school. »she stressed on France 5.
Asked by AFP, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra herself said she regretted having been able to “hurt some teachers” public.
A similar controversy targeted the former Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, after his arrival at Rue de Grenelle in 2022. Criticized by certain members of the opposition, he had to justify his choice to send his two children to the Alsatian School. , a very renowned secular private establishment, also located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. “ There are times in a child’s development that can be complicated, he replied. It is the choice of parents of children for whom, at one point, the conditions for a peaceful and happy schooling were no longer met. »
2024-01-14 00:06:16
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