2023-05-29 15:36:48
France’s education minister will have little hope of President Macron’s support for his reform.
Photo: dpa/Ludovic Marin
The renowned historian Pap Ndiaye, who was surprisingly appointed Education Minister when the government was formed a year ago, does not belong to any party and had absolutely no experience in politics. Whether he already regrets having accepted the office, he does not show. However, it cannot be overlooked that it is not easy for him to assert himself. His major concern, which he spoke about publicly for the first time last September and which is now taking concrete shape, is the social mix in the schools. It is the “requirement for the success of every student” and a means for the schools in the republic to “keep their promise of equal opportunities,” emphasizes the minister.
But this will be a laborious process. Perhaps the most impediment is the hesitant behavior of many school principals, as well as numerous officials in his own ministry. A number of predecessors in this ministerial chair have already resolved to promote equal opportunities through targeted measures, but this project soon petered out due to the persistent resistance at the grassroots level. It remains to be seen whether Pap Ndiaye will be more successful now. In any case, the goal is clear.
It’s about opening the doors to schools in middle-class neighborhoods for schoolchildren from socially disadvantaged areas as well, giving them better prospects for a good school-leaving certificate and later a successful course of study. When it comes to public schools, the minister is relying on the rectors of the academies, i.e. the various school districts, which he asked in mid-May to “reduce the differences in social recruitment between public schools by 20 percent by 2027”. They should be inspired by a “toolbox” with ideas that the ministry proposes to promote social mixing in the different schools. This is to prevent children from poorer backgrounds from concentrating in schools in “problem areas”, which of course lowers the standard there.
In addition, elite schools should also be encouraged to admit disadvantaged students. Last week, the minister signed a protocol with the umbrella organization of private schools. The General Secretariat of Catholic Education SGEC committed to increasing the number of schools that scale their tariffs according to family income by 50 percent within five years and to increasing the proportion of students who, due to their origin from particularly poor families, attend a state school Get scholarship to double. But the minister hasn’t demanded any binding commitments, although he has the upper hand, because after all the private schools – mostly Catholic – get the money to pay their teachers from the state.
Pap Ndiaye can expect little support from Emmanuel Macron, because greater social mix was never a priority for the president. Since the government camp only has a relative majority in the National Assembly, it is dependent on the support of the right-wing opposition Republican party when it comes to legislative projects. But they are vehement defenders of private schools.
Meanwhile, since 2016, work has been carried out on a set of indicators of social status, which will help to obtain statistical material on the social composition of students in specific schools and the surrounding neighborhoods from which they come. Based on this, the local school authorities should set specific goals for each school. At the end of last year, an interim balance was drawn up with figures from schools that took part in a large-scale experiment to create a greater social mix in a school district in the Haute-Garonne department.
Even experts were surprised at the “school segregation at the lowest level” that could be observed in many schools, and at the positive results of targeted “mixing” measures. As a result, conditions and academic outcomes have improved for many students from disadvantaged backgrounds, without penalizing students from the upper social class. But the most important finding was probably that the greater mix among all students strengthened social cohesion, academic self-esteem and a sense of optimism.
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