Louise Sallé / Photo credit: ALAIN JOCARD / POOL / AFP
He was omnipresent in front of the cameras and in his speeches. The new head of government, Gabriel Attal, was traveling this Friday to a school in Andrézy in Yvelines. He was accompanied by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who succeeded him as Minister of National Education.
The Prime Minister took the opportunity to reveal the first results of the questionnaires on school bullying, distributed in class last November, and whose data shows a sharp increase in violence at the end of primary school. It was then he who insisted on re-presenting the priorities of the ministry, of which he was in charge between July 2023 and January 2024.
Oudéa-Castéra, forced to justify herself
“I just recalled the very ambitious roadmap on the shock of knowledge with a certain number of measures which, I know, are the subject of debate and which will be implemented. Other projects have been opened with the organizations unions representing teachers, on the question of the attractiveness of the profession. We will also continue the relentless fight against school bullying. You know that this is a great cause for me and I will obviously be very attached, with Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, to also continue this project,” he declared.
According to those around him, Gabriel Attal wishes to continue to shine the spotlight on certain subjects linked to education, even from Matignon. At the risk of erasing the new minister who also had to justify having chosen a private school to educate her children. “My husband and I saw lots of hours that were not seriously replaced. And at one point, we got fed up, like hundreds of thousands of families who made a choice. That of going and looking for a different solution.
“We are afraid of not being the priority subject for the coming year”
A sincere admission, but rather pessimistic. Chloé, an English teacher at this college, was not convinced by the visit of this new minister. “We were a little disappointed to see the merger between the Ministry of National Education and that of Sports, knowing that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are being prepared. We are afraid of not being the priority subject for the coming year.” Other teachers even admit to regretting the departure of Gabriel Attal.