high school students and parents react to the words of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra

The declaration by the Minister of National Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on her “frustration” at “the packets of teaching hours” which were not seriously replaced” goes down badly among parents and high school students . The minister said she “regretted having hurt certain teachers”.

Faced with the bronca raised by the remarks of the new Minister of Education, on “packets of hours” not replaced in the public, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra expressed this Saturday, January 13, her regrets at having “could have injured certain public education teachers” and assures in a statement to AFP that it will be “always” to “sides” of “public school and its teachers”. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, strongly criticized for her choice to place her three children in the private Catholic Stanislas college-high school, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The unions are outraged by the minister’s arguments, as are many high school students, or parents of students who have chosen public schools.

Anne, a parent of a student in the audience, grimaces at the idea of ​​such an introduction for the Minister of National Education. “It’s surprising that she makes these comments without realizing that it’s going to be really problematic. I think that the message that we must give when we are Minister of Education is that public schools take precedence , to ensure that all children succeed”she is indignant.

“It is the hospital that does not care about charity.”

Ryan and Evan, high school students in Coulommiers in Seine-et-Marne

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Anne is also a former teacher in the National Education Department. She threw in the towel. “We have very large classes, we have school medicine which is also really dismantled so the money must go to the public”, she judges.

Ryan and Evan, two final year students in Seine-et-Marne, say nothing else. “That means that it abandons public establishments. Those who have money have no problem but for those who don’t have the means it’s complicated”, the two high school students get annoyed. They describe their establishment in Coulommiers as “dilapidated”. “The walls are moldy, parts of the stairs are missing. We have a lot of absent teachers,” according to them.

The fear of an “American-style system”

What troubles many of them is that the new minister does not specify that her role is precisely to remedy this public/private divide and the dysfunctions of National Education. But Florent is not shocked that Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has chosen to place her own children in a paying and prestigious establishment. “It’s very personal in relation to what we earn and the budget we want to put into the education of our children. We can’t throw stones at her either because she has the capacity to do so. TO DO”he said.

“The social diversity which was so dear to National Education and public schools is being lost.”

Émilie, mother of a student

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But for Émilie who comes to pick up her little Martha, almost 5 years old, from school, the way the minister justifies herself does not hold up. “I think this is a false argument. In reality these are people who are very successful in life and who want their children to have the best places in the best places and who think that the private sector is a solution” , she laments. “We will end up with schools that have been somewhat abandoned by the social classes of senior executives. We will fall into an American-style system where when we have money we will have access to a good school system”fears Émilie.

She assures that she will leave her granddaughter in public school as long as possible.