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According to Mediapart, Amélie Oudéa Castera, the Minister of Education, has chosen to separate her three boys from the girls within the private and Catholic Parisian establishment Stanislas. A legal and very marginal practice.
The schooling of Amélie Oudéa-Castera’s children continues to spark controversy. While the government has just recognized that there had been “a non-compliance with Parcoursup” on the part of the private establishment Stanislas regarding one of the sons of the Minister of Education, Mediapart revealed, Wednesday January 24, that Amélie Oudéa- Castera chose to separate her three boys from the girls at the private, Catholic Parisian college.
While diversity is one of the fundamental principles of public republican schools, certain private establishments choose to separate girls and boys. A very minority legal practice.
Since when is diversity compulsory?
It is the so-called “Haby” law (which owes its name to the Minister of National Education René Haby) of July 11, 1975 establishing “college for all” which makes diversity compulsory in primary and secondary education. A revolution that did not happen overnight, explains education historian Claude Lelièvre. “Historically, we must not forget that mixing was totally discouraged by the Catholic Church. “From the 1960s, he continues, so it was before 1968, contrary to what people think, diversity was favored, at least among the public, at the primary and partly middle school level. So the movement to question diversity, except in marginal cases, dates from the 1960s and for high schools after 1968.”
Public establishments and private establishments under contract are therefore prohibited from separating girls and boys in class. “Unless we cannot do otherwise for reasons of staffing”, shade Claude Lelièvre. The historian also points out that this diversity is “relative”. “Particularly in highly professionalized sectors [où] you have classes that are almost not mixed.”
Are there any exceptions?
In the public sector, no longer any public establishment operates separately, with the exception, and this is the one and only, of the educational centers for young girls of the Legion of Honor. That is to say around a thousand students, from sixth grade to preparatory classes and BTS.
The “Haby” law does not apply to private establishments “outside of contract” either. These structures must enable children to acquire knowledge of common base of skills, as indicated by the Ministry of National Education, but are not legally required to follow the programs, respect the timetables of public education, nor guarantee diversity. “Almost all schools outside the contract, recalls Claude Lelièvre, are Catholic religious establishments.
In theory, the Stanislas private college, under contract with the State, is therefore not authorized to separate girls and boys. The management of the Parisian Catholic establishment specifies on its website that this non-mixing is optional. “Only in the middle school years, students and their families are offered the educational choice of mixed or single-sex education,” can we read.
How many students are affected?
Single-sex classes “are really marginal”affirms Claude Lelièvre, knowing that structures outside contracts do not represent as a whole “not even 1%” of all educational establishments.
As National Education does not carry out a census of cases of non-mixing, it does not have statistics on this subject. The latest official figure dates from… 1999! A Senate report, published in 2004, identified 44 single-sex schools, including 32 boys’ schools and 12 girls’ schools, out of more than 59,000 schools, or 0.07%.
“There is no wave for a return to non-mixity”, believes Claude Lelièvre. The Stanislas college-high school, where Amélie Oudéa-Castéa’s sons are educated, is therefore, according to the historian, the incarnation of an education “fundamentally conservative”.