Level groups lasting, at least, three-quarters of the school year. Traveling to a college in Chartres, alongside the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, Gabriel Attal confirmed his announcements from the day before. In an interview with AFP, the Prime Minister assured that these famous level groups would be “the rule” and the entire class, “the exception”.
“We are still wondering how we will function at the start of the school year”
Thus, only a few periods of the school year will be done as a whole class to allow teachers to see the progress of their students in maths and French and to change groups if necessary. Gabriel Attal therefore discussed with the team of this Chartres college and spent more than an hour in videoconference with school heads to try to convince them once again of the interest of this measure which is far from making the unanimity. Including among the teachers he met.
“We are going to need additional resources, in maths and French in particular, since we have three classes and four groups will be needed. And so we are taking hours from other disciplines which also need to work in groups, like SVT or physics-chemistry, like languages also where we will have classes for some of 30. Concretely, we are still wondering how we will function at the start of the 2024 school year”, confides Hélène Besnard, mathematics teacher.
“The goal is to help everyone progress”
Last week, Nicole Belloubet assured that she wanted to give flexibility to school leaders to implement these groups. But it was Gabriel Attal who monopolized the floor this Thursday, denying any disagreement with the minister. “You know, as I had the opportunity to say, what does the bottle matter, as long as there is the measure. Everyone has their own sensitivity. I have always talked about groups of levels which correspond to the needs of the students. The minister talks about groups of needs to raise the level of students. I think that, honestly, we are quite aligned on the measure. The objective is to help everyone progress.” This speech still demonstrates that the tenant of Matignon intends to keep an eye on the school’s cause.