More autonomy for establishments, “hierarchical” authority of directors over teachers: the Senate adopted on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, at first reading, an LR bill on schools, reopening divisive debates.
In the hemicycle, the senators nevertheless opposed the compulsory wearing of the uniform from primary to high school. This was a point of disagreement between Republicans and centrists, the latter being mostly hostile to it.
The school is part, with health and ecology, of the sites on which President Emmanuel Macron has affirmed his determination to “move forward” despite the pension crisis.
The bill “for a school of freedom, equal opportunity and secularism”, voted by 220 votes against 118, “carries right-wing markers, assumed as such”, had warned its author Max Brisson, former Inspector General of National Education.
The left voted against, as did the majority Renaissance RDPI group.
National Education Minister Pap Ndiaye distanced herself from the text. “We share many findings, but our solutions may not be the same,” he said.
Communist Céline Brulin castigated “a clearly right-wing and even reactionary vision”, while ecologist Thomas Dossus worried about “a possible deal” between the right and the presidential clan.
For the socialist Marie-Pierre Monier, “what our school needs is means (…) and not such measures which are intended to tip it into a liberal and competitive logic far from republican principles” .
The SE-Unsa teachers’ union said in a press release “firmly opposed to this bill synonymous with the dismantling of the public education service”.
First shock provision: in an attempt to remedy “a poorly functioning education system” and put a stop to “bureaucratic suffocation”, the text intends to allow voluntary schools to have more autonomy, to experimental title and in contractual form.
This extension of autonomy would cover five areas: student recruitment, staff assignment, budgetary means, pedagogical organization and student support systems.
This proposal is reminiscent of the educational experiment, contested by the teacher unions, tested in Marseille under the impetus of Emmanuel Macron.
Since the law of December 21, 2021 creating the function of school principal, the latter have a “functional” authority. Max Brisson proposes to go further by giving them “hierarchical authority” over the teachers in their school, now exercised by the national education inspector.
The scope of this measure has been limited to schools whose number of classes exceeds a certain threshold. But the government remains opposed to it.
The bill would also make it possible to derogate from the rules for assigning teachers to create, for example, assignment contracts.
Another sensitive subject, Mr. Brisson proposes a reform of the training of primary school teachers, with the creation in each academy of a “higher school of school teachers”.
The bill also provides for the creation of a public school support service, and the establishment of “rural areas with special educational needs” which would benefit from specific means and mechanisms.
A final axis “secularism and living together” put the question of the veil back on the table, by again proposing to prohibit the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols for parents accompanying school outings.
An article added in committee aims to extend, beyond the start of the 2023-2024 school year, the derogation which authorizes kindergartens to provide education for children aged three to six.
The Senate also voted LR amendments in favor of family education, subject to an authorization regime since the law “consolidating respect for the principles of the Republic”.
04/12/2023 05:19:17 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
