Gabriel Attal will be appointed Minister of National Education. For the secretary general of the SNES-FSU Sophie Vénétitay, the new minister will have to “impose measures on Emmanuel Macron very far from what the President of the Republic is wearing”.
“Gabriel Attal comes at a decisive moment for the future of our school“, reacts Thursday, July 20 on franceinfo Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the Snes-FSU union, while the current minister delegate in charge of public accounts will be appointed minister of National Education and Youth, replacing Pap Ndiaye, learned franceinfo this Thursday from government sources.
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franceinfo: What is your assessment of Pap Ndiaye’s time at the Ministry of National Education and Youth?
Sophie Venetitay : In a year, Pap Ndiaye had not really managed to print anything, he remained in the shadow of Emmanuel Macron, both literally and figuratively. When he arrived, there were above all hopes for a change in form, because the discussions with Jean-Michel Blanquer were very complicated. In the first months, he tried to renew the dialogue a little, but very quickly he was locked into the politics of Emmanuel Macron, to the point that in the last few months, he adopted the same shortcomings of method. I am thinking, for example, of the question of the teacher pact, a measure denounced by all the trade unions. However, Pap Ndiaye, with the support of Emmanuel Macron, came through. It was a failure in form and substance.
“Pap Ndiaye did not listen to National Education staff.”
Sophie Venetitayat franceinfo
What do you expect from Gabriel Attal?
Gabriel Attal is close to Emmanuel Macron, he has followed him since the first five-year term. Will he remain this collaborator of Emmanuel Macron or will he be a minister who will take the measure of the crisis in National Education? Gabriel Attal arrives at a decisive moment for the future of our school: it is difficult to recruit, there is still a lack of teachers for the next school year, there are more and more resignations. He will have to have the political weight to impose measures on Emmanuel Macron very far from what the President of the Republic is carrying, otherwise he will become an accomplice in the weakening of the public service of National Education.
What do you intend to say to this new minister?
There is an emergency, it is the question of salaries. Emmanuel Macron had promised a 10% increase for everyone in January 2023, in the end we will have +5.5% on average in September. The account is not there to really revalue our professions. The first thing we will say to him, and we hope he will hear it as former Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, is that it takes 3.6 billion to increase all teachers by 10%. We will also tell him that at a time when Emmanuel Macron is talking about the destatization of school, and while Gabriel Attal was the first defender of the SNU in 2018, that our youth and our society need public school. The answer that must be given in the aftermath of the riots is more public schools, more public service, more teachers, and not the project led by Emmanuel Macron.