2023-08-29 10:38:41
That the question of the school, around which the Republic was historically built, is both the cornerstone of our society, a daily issue for millions of families as well as a powerful political vector is not new . Because it builds the nation, because it aims to help each child build their future and because everyone has had to deal with it, because it never ceases to fuel the debate of ideas, the school institution counts among the most scrutinized of the declinations of the State. That the President of the Republic decrees, in the middle of an interview in Point, what ” education is part [de son] reserved area, an expression which, in the Fifth Republic, applies to foreign and defense policies, is therefore not insignificant.
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The news is not bad a priori. After all, Emmanuel Macron is not the first host of the Elysée to show a “priority to education” or to want to imprint his personal mark on a social subject not traditionally included among the sovereign subjects. We could therefore see in the presidential insistence on the school the will to promote and highlight a fundamental field of action for the country, to stimulate the main orientations intended to remedy the main well-identified weaknesses of our school system. : its propensity to perpetuate inequalities, its poor performance on fundamental learning and its inability to attract teaching vocations because of often unworthy salaries.
Winks to right-wing voters
Instead, the President of the Republic replaces the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal. He wants to change the history programs, shorten the summer holidays, denounces the ” pedagogism and announces the postponement of the baccalaureate specialty tests, leaving the new incumbent only to announce the ban on the abaya, this long Middle Eastern dress considered a religious marker.
Admittedly, measures already taken, such as the splitting of CP, CE1 and large kindergarten classes in priority areas, the possibility of doing homework in college, the desire to better replace absent teachers serve the objective of social justice . And the decisions on the baccalaureate and religious symbols were demanded by a large part of the educational community.
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But how not to see, in the alignment of the themes put forward in this new school year, heavy nods to right-wing voters? As well as a way to hide the dissatisfaction of teachers with the failure to respect candidate Macron’s promise to increase their salaries by 10% (in reality 5.5% on average, dented by inflation)? And their reluctance to adhere to the “pact” which conditions a salary boost to the acceptance of additional tasks?
The appointment Rue de Grenelle of an ambitious “politician” with the full confidence of the Head of State should in principle make it possible to defend education issues loud and clear. However, the short-circuiting of the minister by the president, the contradiction between the stated desire to favor initiatives on the ground and the incessant injunctions coming from the top of the state risk paralyzing an already tired system. The school is such a serious subject that it supposes to be carried by political heavyweights. But it is also an institution that is too essential, and already too tossed about, to be driven in double command, like a shock absorber from the political jolting of the moment.
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