Authority, secularism, uniform, fundamental knowledge… The presidential camp and Jordan Bardella’s party seem to highlight the same themes in their programs for schools. How similar are they really?
One advocates one “surge of authority”, the other promises a “big bang of authority”. The Prime Minister and former Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, and the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, both make the restoration of order in schools a priority. In addition to this common rhetoric, their programs include similar measures, from banning phones to increased sanctions against students “disruptors”. And just as Gabriel Attal defends a “shock of knowledge” fundamentals, Jordan Bardella focused on “the mastery of fundamental knowledge in primary school in particular”during the presentation of his program, Monday June 24.
In March, well before the dissolution of the National Assembly and the organization of early legislative elections, Jean-Paul Delahaye, honorary general inspector of National Education, already estimated that the National Rally (RN) had “provided the government with elements of [sa] toolbox”, in a column published in Release. Clearly, if Jordan Bardella relies very largely, in his campaign for the legislative elections, on Marine Le Pen’s program for the 2022 presidential election, Gabriel Attal has for several months been carrying out an educational policy whose measures are close to those of the ‘far right. A “political strategy” aimed at chasing away votes from the side of “the conservative, even reactionary, electorate”estimates Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU.
Let’s take the patent: in December, Gabriel Attal, then Minister of Education, announced that the diploma would be necessary to enter high school. In 2022, Marine Le Pen wanted to go a step further by making the patent a “post-3rd orientation exam”, which would direct students towards general, technological or professional education. Speaking to franceinfo, the RN’s education specialist, Roger Chudeau, confirmed that he wants to make the brevet a “secondary pass exam”.
Wearing a uniform at school is also part of the measures taken by the RN and the presidential camp. If it comes to power, the far right intends to continue the experiment launched by the government.
Despite these notable commonalities on very visible elements of their programs, Claude Lelièvre, education historian, notes profound differences. The far right is distinguished by its ideology “identity and nationalist”he explains. This is felt in the meaning that each camp gives to fundamental knowledge: on the government side, we insist on “read, write, count, behave” (Emmanuel Macron at Point, August 23, 2023); on the RN side, we insist on “French, maths and French history” (in the 2022 program), notes this specialist. In his campaign for the legislative elections (PDF), Jordan Bardella evokes, this time, “sciences, French and history”.
On secularism, the RN plans to go further than macronie. If Gabriel Attal this year banned the wearing of the abaya in schools, these long dresses worn by certain Muslim students, Jordan Bardella intends to toughen the rules for those accompanying school outings, by prohibiting the wearing of the veil, which which the government refuses to do.
If authority seems a priority for Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella, the details reveal clear differences. For example, the Prime Minister wishes to make students and their parents responsible by having them sign a “contract of rights and obligations”. In the event of non-compliance with the rules, he wants to put a note on the Parcoursup file of disruptive students and deduct points from them in the exams. The most serious cases may also lead to referral to the courts. For the RN, the sanctions would be at another level, with the return of the Ciotti law (suspension of family allowances and school scholarships in the event of disturbances “severe and repeated”). “We know what this can cause in terms of impoverishment, in families which are already precarious. The risk is also to see violence arise within the home”denounces Catherine Nave-Bekhti, general secretary of the CFDT union.
Jordan Bardella also plans to create “specialized centers” for disruptive students, an idea which is similar to that launched by Gabriel Attal in April, placement in boarding schools to prevent delinquency. Another measure around authority, more symbolic this time, the RN wishes to make it compulsory for students to nominate teachers.
“The RN is ultra-identitarian, ultra-security-oriented and ultra-authoritarian.”
Claude Lelièvre, educational historianat franceinfo
Above all, Claude Lelièvre perceives “bringing teachers into line”. He cites, supported by the RN program, the establishment of minimum sanctions for students, “which must be applied during disciplinary councils under penalty of sanctions against the management of the establishments”. But also the strengthening of the neutrality of teachers, with “A increased control power of inspection bodies in this area and an obligation to report problematic cases under penalty of sanctions against supervisors”. According to the historian, such surveillance would be unprecedented “since Pétain”.
Grégory Chambat, college professor and author of When the far right dreams of becoming a school, a cultural and social battle, analyzed the mechanisms at work in countries where the far right is already in charge. Questioned by Médiapart, he explains that he noticed the emergence of a “gag law” at school : “a ‘neutral’ teaching, in which we cannot denounce racism, sexism, in which certain scientific arguments are called into question”.
On a purely educational level, other differences exist between Renaissance and the RN. While the establishment of level groups in 6th and 5th grade at the start of the school year divides professionals and parents, some of whom denounce a “sorting” the students, Roger Chudeau specifies to franceinfo that the RN does not wish to make it a rule but a possibility, at the discretion of the establishments.
The party, however, has another project: reform the college so that it is “modular” For redirect certain students into 4th and 3rd technological grades. “At Snes-FSU, we were very opposed to the level groups. There, the sorting is even more assumed, with eviction routes from the 5th”, underlines Sophie Vénétitay. It is also planned by Jordan Bardella to establish a national passage exam in 6th grade and to put an end to the REP (Priority Education Network), leaving only the REP+. For Roger Chudeau, this is about “focus resources on schools that really need them”to avoid “a damaging dispersion”.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the New Popular Front (NFP) is, on the contrary, banking heavily on school diversity, in particular by adjusting the funding of schools according to their efforts in this area. Its programme has even ended up convincing the Snes-FSU to abandon its usual neutrality, since the main union for primary and secondary education has announced its support for the NFP.
The educational community in the broad sense is concerned, above all, about the arrival of the far right at Matignon and on school benches. “Gabriel Attal perhaps wanted to pull the rug out from under the RN” drawing inspiration from its themes, “but voters might prefer the original to the copy”fears Catherine Nave-Bekhti, of the CFDT. In a petition, some 700 heads of establishments, educational, academy and general inspectors have already announced that they will not apply “measures that would contravene the values of the Republic”. “We say it now before it is too late, before our School is misused, instrumentalized and serves a disastrous political project”they write.
Especially since the changes could be very rapid. First, because National Education is essentially managed by decrees, orders and circulars. Clearly, its texts do not always pass through the Senate and the National Assembly. And, contrary to what Emmanuel Macron declared in August 2023, this ministry is not legally part of the “reserved domain of the president”. In the event of cohabitation, the Prime Minister and his government would then have significant power over the school.