Characters too small, incompetent “secretaries” for typed dictation, Aline Langevin, when she registered for the Agrégation de Lettres Modernes competition on the advice of her academy inspector, did not imagine that she was going to devote 10 months of his life to preparing for a competition, lost in advance!
Lost in advance, certainly. Not because of her personal and professional abilities, if the academy inspector recommends that she face it, it is to validate her skills. But neither one nor the other had imagined that the National Education would show so much unwillingness to adapt the conditions of the competition, provided elsewhere to the visual handicap.
An obstacle course
“I suffer from a congenital and orphan degenerative disease, I have 1.5 left with the corrections. I have initiated an approach with the rectorate of Nantes for a third-time arrangement of the composition and enlargement of texts. presented myself to a doctor approved by the National Education, I underwent 3 hours of in-depth examinations to determine with precision which font size, which conditions in terms of light, were adapted. These are nevertheless two tests of 7 hours, it’s quite tiring “.
And then begins an obstacle course which the candidate for “aggreg” would have gladly done without. The start of a series of humiliations. The doctor refused to give him the layout table, “there it was a story of financial arrangement with the rectorate, he wanted a request for an estimate for an expertise even though I had just done three hours of examinations”. The rectorate does not understand the process and refers to the doctor, “It lasted 3 weeks when I was under stress since I found myself out of time to register for the competition”.
Aline therefore saw a second approved doctor to fill in the same table, “he did not understand the attitude of his colleague, finally I had the right to organize the tests that I sent to the rectorate, which sent to the National Education in Paris”.
So do the conditions for a serene competition begin? No ! The works to be studied are not in a format suitable for the visually impaired. Aline has to cut them out and enlarge them page by page on the high school photocopier …
Aline Langevin, example of reading difficulty
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Ten months of preparation and impossible composition conditions
Aline works ten months between her home and Angers to prepare for this competition. Putting his family life aside. And on the day of the exam, nothing goes!
“On the day of the test, which took place at the Nantes rectorate in a furnished room, I discovered when opening the sealed envelope that the documents did not comply with the recommendations of the approved doctor. found myself with two tests of 9 hours (7 hours for a valid candidate), confronted with texts that I could not read “.
The first test of text study was very painful, “I had the sheet stuck under my eyes, I was trying with my enlarger, with a hand-held magnifying glass. I was in a position of intense stress”.
The rectorate had allocated him two secretaries, for the drafting of his work, who did not master typing, and who discovered at that precise moment, what it was to assist a person with a disability! “I was inevitably slowed down, one of the two secretaries present told me at the end of the test that these were inhuman conditions to compose”.
Aline Langevin emerges from this ordeal, in every sense of the word, “annoyed, distressed, depressed”. But the next day she recovered, and called on the president of the jury. “I put my family life on hold, I worked 10 months of my life for a competition that I had no chance of succeeding”. It had to be known! “I was called to order, because I was not allowed to contact the president of the jury”.
Not deserving enough
It was a little over a year ago. Since the humiliations accumulate. The human resources department ensures that it has adapted the conditions as requested. I was told, “well you will take the contest again next year, we will try to enlarge the texts more!”
She then moves heaven and earth, the rector is contacted, without response, the Minister of National Education, no better. Only Ms. Macron will answer him, highlighting the injustice done to him. “I asked her for an audience to make my voice heard, since I know that Ms. Macron is sensitive to discrimination, to disability, that she is a human person”.
“The mediation got in touch with the rectorate and the Rector told him that I could be promoted on the aptitude list”. One of the two paths for aggregation, with the help, “or you are an excellent professor and you can claim to be elected on a list of aptitudes. I have taken the necessary steps. At first the rector was favorable, and, three weeks ago, I finally received a refusal, without motivation “.
Aline Langevin, the answers of the EN
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Aline Langevin again addresses the rector to have an appointment. “I was told that my application had not been accepted because there were teachers more deserving than me! I indicated that I challenged these teachers to do everything they do with 1.5 tenths “. And still not a word of apology or the slightest hint of compassion.
The failure of “school”
However, Aline Langevin does not give up, it is her eyesight that is deteriorating. The handicap worsens, and makes the prospect of a second attempt more and more difficult. She contacted a lawyer to defend her cause and that of people with disabilities in the world of education.
“If I had known what awaited me, I would never have embarked on this event, both literally and figuratively, I want to open the doors for the people who will follow, no visually impaired can compete, you have to read a lot, do everything yourself, enlargements, audio recordings, and on D-day, you are given a text that you cannot read … “
Decidedly at the School of the Republic, equality of opportunity remains to be invented, for the students as we knew, the failure of “school” also affects its own teachers.
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