Gabriel Attal, a hyperactive former minister who “leaves a bitter taste” within National Education

The new Prime Minister had a short stint at the Ministry of National Education, during which he launched numerous files without being able to complete them.

Gabriel Attal was appointed Prime Minister after a short but notable period at the Ministry of National Education. Five and a half months, an express passage during which Gabriel Attal was hyperactive as a minister in this position rarely is. When we look in the rearview mirror, after his appointment last July, he announced a few days before the start of the school year the ban on the abaya, a controversial subject, but also the postponement of the baccalaureate specialty tests from March to June. At the end of September he unveiled, alongside Elisabeth Borne, the harassment plan, a large-scale interministerial plan.

At the beginning of October, he gave a speech that he wanted to be foundational on the teaching profession: at this time he developed his vision on authority at school and pleaded for greater demands on students. On October 13, the day of the Arras attack, where a French teacher was murdered by a former student, he went there twice. He then talks about radicalized young people, whom he wants to see out of schools.

At the beginning of December, Gabriel Attal presents his “clash of knowledge” in the wake of the Pisa results, where France is far from shining: easier repetition, middle school level groups in maths and French. Last element at the end of December, just before the holidays: he announced that the cuts to teaching positions planned for 2024 were cancelled, in particular to ensure the implementation of these famous level groups.

Unions deplore his “lightning passage”

Gabriel Attal wanted to show that he was Minister of Education until the last moment. A somewhat lunar moment on Tuesday at midday, while his name has been circulating insistently since Monday, he maintains his videoconference at the end of the morning, with the heads of middle and high school establishments, planned for a long time. And when his appointment was announced around noon, he was still responding to principals and principals on back-to-school issues.

“You will always, always find me at your side”, affirmed Gabriel Attal to these staff. A very different story among the teaching unions, who deplore “a lightning passage”. “When he arrived at rue de Grenelle, he also told us that we did not enter this ministry out of ambition or strategy, those were his words,” recalls Sophie Venetitay, the head of Snes-FSU, the first union of middle and high school teachers.

“Today we have the impression that he was ultimately a man in a hurry, who used education as a political springboard.”

Sophie Venetitay, head of Snes

at franceinfo

“It inevitably leaves a bitter taste on the lack of consideration given to this ministry and the image of an express passage, with a minister who dragged National Education into a form of media whirlwind”, she adds. “It is not the express passage of Gabriel Attal which will have changed anything.” We need something concrete for the daily lives of students and teachers, says this representative, fewer students per class, and a greater increase in salaries, among other things.

Numerous files in charge of his successor

Gabriel Attal had launched numerous files, so he left several under construction, notably that on the “clash of knowledge”. In addition to the level groups, there is also the certificate, which will become a mandatory requirement for going to high school, while a baccalaureate maths test is planned in first grade and new programs in primary.

The new Minister of Education will also have to resume the experiment on uniforms, where several communities are in favor, or even the overhaul of initial teacher training.
Olivier Beaufrere, representative of the union of school heads (SNPDEN), is asking for time to now implement these numerous projects.

“It is difficult, today, to go further on everything that has already been announced. We need to have time to ask questions, digest, step back, analyze.”

Olivier Beaufrere, from the headteachers’ union

at franceinfo

“We have always said that school time is not necessarily political time. The latter has been established, now we must have the time to establish school time, he continues. When we look closely, whether it is on the reforms of the vocational high school or the ‘shock of knowledge’, we see increases in power at the start of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 academic years.”

But what room for maneuver will the next Minister of National Education have? The question deserves to be asked, between Gabriel Attal who has already stated that he “emmen[ait] the cause of the school in Matignon” and an Emmanuel Macron who has made education his reserved domain.