Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was clear: "I wish to close this chapter of personal attacks and personal life," declared the French minister for education, youth, sports, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, on the morning of Monday, January 15. For the previous three days, she had been caught in a public storm. On Friday, less than 24 hours after she inherited the education portfolio, the minister incurred the wrath of the educational sector by justifying the enrolment of her three children in the very conservative Collège Stanislas private Catholic school, in Paris's 6th arrondissement, by alleging absenteeism from public school teachers.
It appears the storm is set to last. Firstly, because the newspaper Libération tracked down her eldest son's teacher, who denied having been absent during the six months that the child attended the Littré public school, in the same arrondissement. Moreover, through her statements, the newly promoted education minister has put her finger on several issues that are of particular concern to the school system – particularly in Paris.
Le Monde's interviewees agreed that there was no "judgment" to be passed on the choice of schooling children in the private system, a decision Oudéa-Castéra shares with around 21% of parents in France. Yet the minister justified her decision on the grounds of difficulties replacing teachers, by taking the side of parents – as opposed to the teachers she is in charge of, whom she implicitly criticized. The teachers' unions reacted angrily, and demanded a public apology, as leaders of the prominent FSU union made clear after "cutting short" their first bilateral meeting with the minister on Monday.
"The minister has demonstrated that she doesn't know the national education [system]," analyzed Rodrigo Arenas, a La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) MP and former co-president of the Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations (FCPE). "Teachers are a body. When you attack one, you attack them all. Besides, everyone knows that the school system's biggest problem is absenteeism. But it was up to [President Emmanuel Macron's government] to find solutions, which they haven't done since 2017."
Not only has Oudéa-Castéra highlighted the difficulties of a system for which she is now responsible, but her statement also shows her to be the parent of private school pupils. This, according to education system commentators, is where the real fault lies.
Indeed, the minister has asserted that she has made the choice of "high standards," ensuring that her children are "happy," "fulfilled," "safe" and surrounded by "friends." "With this phrase about friends, she implies that the child would not have made any in his neighborhood school, and advocates a form of school separatism," said Pierre Ouzoulias, a Communist vice-president of the Sénat, who has written a bill aiming at adjusting subsidies from local authorities to private schools according to their rate of social diversity. He added: "She went on to point out that she was not a Catholic and that religion had nothing to do with it," arguing instead that Oudéa-Castéra had chosen the school because of the social status of most students there.
You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.