In the midst of a debate on school rhythms, the 8 o’clock news cameras stopped for a report in Meilhan-sur-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne. Broadcast in October 2012 on France 2, the images of the Tersac school have the value of archival documents. The establishment is out of contract with the National Education, only lives on tuition fees. They are high, exceeding € 20,000 per year per child.
It is a school of the discipline, recalls the duo of directors on the screen, in place for ten years in 2012. Classes in the morning and sports in the afternoon, dark tie on a blue shirt and V-neck sweater for the boys , pair of moccasins and skirt for girls. The girl surprised with a cell phone in her bag is deprived of it for a month. The youngster who has not finished his minced steak at the cafeteria must sit down and finish his meal. An attitude judged out of the nails in class and the bad guy must pick up the rubbish in the yard. The minors who study there come from all walks of life, children of expatriates but also sons and daughters of Lot-et-Garonne and Aquitaine. The success rate for the Bac tests flirts with 100%.
Buyout in 2018
Founded in the mid-1960s, Tersac is sold as a model, at odds with public education shown to be lax. Quasi-military rigor, iron discipline: the establishment’s promotional documents highlight the values of strict teaching, flawless pedagogy, on a model reminiscent of the Anglo-Saxon approach to education.
It’s not just a showcase. On the other hand, in the back room, voices are heard in the mid-2010s. Parents and former teachers add another color to the pink of the communication brochures. At the time, a local elected representative soberly observed that she had heard of “difficulties between teachers and management.” A mother of a student reports on condition of anonymity that her somewhat recalcitrant offspring found himself with his suitcase emptied in front of the others in the yard. “It was a further annoyance.”
Before the takeover by the Diderot Education group in 2018, teachers have already left Meilhan-sur-Garonne. These teachers have private law status, are not civil servants. With the arrival of the new management, the number of departures accelerated. Before the start of the 2018-2019 school year, around ten conventional breaks. The personnel concerned is “forced to submit to it” recalls in a press release the FEP-CFDT, the trade union organization which supported the dismissed until the procedures before the industrial tribunal of Marmande.
Less than thirty
In the fall of 2018, this union collects testimonies and constitutes a legal file which takes thickness: eleven dismissals, “two contested contractual ruptures.” The first hearing took place almost a year later before the industrial tribunal. In July 2020, the decision falls. The employer was sentenced for the eight separate cases, with damages up to € 187,000. “It is certainly a financial victory, but above all a human one,” said Nathalie El Assaoui, of the CFDT. “You have to know that we have recovered people in a strange state and for them an injustice has been repaired.” From a union source, Diderot Education has not appealed against the decision of the industrial tribunal of Marmande.
The flagship of an atypical education, the Tersac school has always been established but has less than thirty students to date. On the internet, however, mention is made of the organization, for example, of a basketball camp this summer, organized in partnership with the FFBB, the national federation. The candidates could also register for a “survival camp” in February with the menu fights, self-defense and obstacle course. On the home page, a Rambo knife above the flames of a campfire.
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