At the heart of accusations of “drifts”, according to a 2023 report from the generation inspection of national education, the Parisian private establishment Stanislas has also, according to the same document organized a system of “circumvention” of the procedure of Parcoursup orientation for some of the establishment’s students. The Médiapart information site revealed, Saturday January 20, that one of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s sons benefited from it.
According to the investigation report, published by Médiapart, on Tuesday, Stanislas’s Terminale students are “encouraged”, when making their orientation wishes, to formulate only one choice of establishment – the one from which they are from – “in exchange for the guarantee of being admitted” to a preparatory class for the grandes écoles (CPGE).
This practice is “contrary to the principles and rules of the Parcoursup procedure”, recalled the investigators. “Avoid absolutely making only one wish” encourages the Parcoursup website, which notes that “on average, candidates have made nearly 13 wishes and sub-wishes in 2023”.
Principle of “non-discrimination”
The report notes that the practice is “very isolated” among high schools with CPGEs: “In 2023, out of more than 600,000 high school students who have expressed their wishes in Parcoursup, there are only 41 candidates who have made only one wish” for a CPGE in the establishment where they are in their final year and “38 are students of Stanislas”. The eldest son of the Minister of National Education is among these 38 students, reveals Médiapart.
“Like other families, his family followed the procedure planned by Stanislas and each of the steps planned by Parcour’sup”, explains Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s entourage to Médiapart. “At the end of the class council of the 2nd term, (the young man) received a favorable opinion from Stanislas, in view of his academic results, regarding his wish to enter the preparatory class, specifies the same source. Preferring, like many students throughout France, to stay in his original establishment, he chose to enter this single wish in the confirmation phase of final wishes on Parcoursup.
The Ministry of Higher Education informed Agence France-Presse on Sunday that at the end of its investigations the general inspectorate “sent a letter in August reporting this circumvention”. A letter was sent on January 17 to Stanislas “to remind him of his commitments” to respect the Parcoursup charter, in particular “respect for the principles of ‘Freedom of expression of expressed wishes and choice of admission proposals’ and of ‘non-discrimination, equal treatment, fairness and transparency'”, specifies the ministry.
“The head of the establishment was asked to confirm that all arrangements have been made in this regard within his establishment for the 2024 session which is opening,” continued the ministry, which added that it “will assess the actions to be taken conduct in light of the headteacher’s responses.”
The director of Stanislas Frédéric Gautier affirmed Sunday on BFM-TV that “no one is wronged”. Stanislas’s students decide “themselves” about the choice they make and “there is plenty of room for all the other students who want to apply, so there is no insider trading”, a- he continued. “If we have to do otherwise, we will do otherwise, but we do not have the feeling of harming students who come from outside or of deceiving our own students,” he insisted.