After Lille, Marseille will provide a back-to-school kit to its 76,000 students to reduce family bills

2023-05-26 11:30:10

A student holds a notebook offered by the mayor of Marseille during the start of the school year at the Révolution-Jet d’Eau school, in Marseille, on September 1, 2022. CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

Reduce family bills in times of inflation, move towards equal treatment in the city’s 470 schools, allow establishments to use their resources for something else: this is the triple objective that the town hall of Marseille is aiming for in allocating, from the start of the 2023 school year, a kit of school supplies to the 76,000 pupils of the city’s public nursery and primary schools. The idea is not new. Among the major French cities, Lille has been experimenting with a similar system since 2021.

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The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan (various left), chose the Font-Vert school, in a very popular city of 14^e rounding, to announce the measurement and present the range: a well-filled kit (ruler, three tubes of glue, two erasers, a pencil sharpener, five pens, etc.), boxes of markers and colored pencils, four highlighters, a notebook for primary school children. In addition, a packet of tissues, a blouse and a notebook for those in kindergarten.

The list was drawn up with a group of experts including school principals, representatives of the academy and the unions. For these kits, Marseille is investing 1.2 million euros. This brings to 4.9 million the sum allocated to the material purchases of schools. The quotient per pupil reaches 57 euros in the REP+ zone (reinforced priority education network), against 42 euros previously.

” In the right direction “

“I would have liked a few more pens, but that’s fine. It restores equality in a territory where certain lists could go up to 120 euros, while others remained at 30 “, believes Christophe Olivier, director of the Font-Vert school and UNSA delegate for the district. Present at the three expert meetings, he ensured that “the list does not affect the pedagogical freedom of teachers to order what they feel they need”. “This measure is a step in the right direction.confirms the departmental secretary of SNUipp, Virginie Akliouat. With inflation, the balance payable by parents has increased sharply. They shouldn’t have much left there. »

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The Aix-Marseille academy, a stakeholder, has promised to send the teaching teams a note asking them to wear ” special attention “ the contents of the kit before launching their annual order. On this point, Arnaud Dupleix, administrator of the FCPE Bouches-du-Rhône, asks to see. “Will the kit make the supplemental lists disappear? I doubt “he slips, also regretting that the parents’ associations were not invited to the expert meetings.

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