2024-01-19 20:08:34
The remarks of the Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, justifying the schooling of her children in the private Stanislas college (6th arrondissement of Paris), provoked the ire of the teaching world.
During her first trip after her appointment to rue de Grenelle, Friday January 12, the minister justified the choice of private education for her children in the posh Catholic establishment by pointing out the difficulties of replacing teachers in the public sector. Accused of “school separatism”the minister says she presented « ses excuses » at the public school from which she had withdrawn her son, and agreed to “deport relative acts” at Stanislas College.
Beyond the controversy, this affair has shed light on the debate between public and private education, and the excesses of certain private establishments (lack of social diversity, lack of State control, conservative deviation, etc.) including Stanislas College is the archetype, according to a damning report from the general inspection carried out in 2023.
But what do we mean by private education in which two of the twelve million students in France are educated? Four-point lighting.
What is private education?
In France, freedom of education is one of the fundamentals of the Republic. The law imposes an obligation of education: all children must benefit from education in a school or in their family. The prerogative of the Church for centuries, teaching gradually became public after the French Revolution, Napoleon and the Republic. He became secular at the end of the 19th century.
Faced in particular with financial difficulties after the Second World War, private education was concerned about a loss of speed while the establishments welcomed 15% of primary school students and 40% of secondary schools.
On December 31, 1959, the law on relations between the State and private educational establishments, known as the “Debre law”, legally regulates this teaching. It establishes a contract between private establishments and the State. Aid is granted to establishments which keep their “own character” in return for a certain number of commitments such as respecting the programs defined by national education and guaranteeing the reception of students without distinction of origin, belief and opinion. Other legislative provisions, such as the so-called “Gatel” law passed in 2018 which aims to better regulate private schools outside of contracts, have since supplemented this law.
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Three types of private educational institutions
Unlike public establishments which must welcome students from their geographical area, private schools can choose their students, and set tuition fees which vary according to the type and location of the establishment. There are three types of establishments:
- Private establishments under association contract
They are contractually linked to the State and represent the majority (more than 9 out of 10) private establishments. 96% of them provide Catholic education, with a very strong presence in the West (40% of the staff at the Rennes academy, 38% for the Nantes academy).
When it has concluded a contract with the State, the school, college or private high school provides lessons in accordance with the rules and programs of the Ministry of National Education. The 142,000 private teachers are “contractual masters” paid and employed by the State. Recruited by competitive examination as in the public, they are paid as they are. However, they do not have civil servant status.
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Heads of private establishments under contract are more autonomous and flexible in their management, and endowed with more extensive powers than their public counterparts. “Some establishments have chosen to recruit fewer nurses to be able to recruit a psychologist”, notes a report from the Court of Auditors published in June 2023. “Unlike managers of public establishments, heads of private education establishments are not required to report to the rectorates all serious problems or incidents occurring in the establishment”specifies the institution.
- Private establishments under simple contract
This type of contract only concerns primary schools and concerns less than 5% of schools. Teachers are subject to the same training and remuneration conditions as their public counterparts (without being civil servants). These schools must have been in existence for five years to request to be contractually linked to the State.
The simple contract allows the school to make adaptations to public education programs, depending on the profile of the students enrolled (in medical-educational institutes which welcome disabled children, for example). Municipalities have the possibility of paying these establishments a municipal flat rate but are not required to do so.
- Private establishments outside of contract
Non-contract establishments were enrolling, at the start of the 2022 school year, nearly 82,500 students in nearly two thousand establishments – compared to less than a thousand in 2012.
These establishments, ranging from first to second level, have not signed a convention agreement with the State, and in fact do not receive any subsidy from national education. Families who wish to send their children to school there must therefore pay to access this training. The head of the establishment himself recruits teachers and they are paid by the establishment.
They have autonomous management, but must establish an opening declaration with the rectorate. They are free from the content and schedules of the lessons provided. Students must still acquire « the common base » of knowledge.
How are private establishments subsidized?
As summarized by the Court of Auditors, the “funding provided by the State (…) is preponderant in the economic model » private establishments under contract.
In 2021, the Ministry of National Education spent 7.8 billion euros for establishments under contract. This public money finances almost 90% of teachers’ remuneration and certain operating expenses (textbooks, educational documents, direct aid to students, etc.).
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Private establishments can also benefit from other subsidies. In 2021, 1 billion euros were allocated by all other ministries, 2.9 billion by local authorities and 9.3 million by public administrations. According to the newspaper Release, the Stanislas college, for example, would have received 487,000 euros in subsidies from the Ile-de-France region for the repair of two elevators and an air conditioning unit. Following the report from the General Inspectorate reporting abuses in this college, the Paris town hall announced that it was suspending its subsidies.
What controls can the State exercise?
All private establishments are subject to controls:
- THE administrative controls are carried out under the authority of the prefect and the rector of the academy. They ensure that the director and teachers have the required diplomas and verify that the operation of the establishment respects compulsory education, public order, health and social prevention and the protection of children and young people. .
- THE educational checks are carried out under the direction of the academy rector. It ensures that the lessons allow children to acquire knowledge of ” common ground “ of skills that every student must master by the age of 16.
Non-contract establishments are inspected the first year and “other checks may be organized subsequently, unexpectedly or not”as’explains the Ministry of Education on his site.
Establishments under contract with the State are subject to these same controls, but in more depth since they must respect the educational requirements provided for in their contract. Their teachers are evaluated under conditions comparable to those of their public counterparts. The education code also authorizes financial control in order to verify the conformity of the use of public funds.
In the event of breaches and non-compliance with the law, a formal notice is sent to the head of the establishment. If the latter does not remedy these shortcomings within the set deadline, the prefect may pronounce, by reasoned order, the temporary or permanent closure of the establishment or classes concerned. The parents of the students are then ordered to send their children to another establishment.
Despite this legal framework, “these controls are not or barely exercised”as the Court of Auditors points out in its report:
- financial control of private establishments under contract “is not implemented”;
- educational control “ is “practiced” in a minimalist manner”;
- administrative control “is only mobilized occasionally when a problem is reported”.
The Court of Auditors also points to monitoring “not very rigorous” contracts concluded with these private structures, “certain rectorates do not have these documents on the basis of which substantial sums are nevertheless paid”.
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