“They have 4 to 5 times fewer lesson hours”, deplores the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty

Dominique Simonnot calls on the government to “rearm the civic sense of locked-up children by giving teachers the means to teach them something”.

In her latest opinion published Wednesday January 31, the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL), Dominique Simonnot, denounces on France Inter the situation “totally abnormal” of the education provided to minors deprived of their liberty, who have notably “4 to 5 times fewer lesson hours than their classmates outside.”

In his general policy declaration, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announces a “civic rearmament” to the Education program. Dominique Simonnot calls on the government to “rearm the civic sense of locked-up children by teaching them something, by giving them lessons and giving them the means, by giving teachers the means to teach them something”.

These young people, explains Dominique Simonnot, “are already damaged by life” and even “Already have totally chaotic life paths for the most part, are placed in child welfare. They have gone through all the vicissitudes of life and they arrive in these centers or in prison, and there, They don’t have adequate class hours.” when they are already experiencing great academic difficulty, or even dropping out of school.

“Difficult” children are given fewer chances

The general controller of places of deprivation of liberty mentions, for example, the question of school holidays, which “do not exist in places of deprivation of liberty” for children, but are taken by their teachers. “Why don’t we reset this?” questions Dominique Simonnot, pleading for the creation of a status for teachers in place of deprivation of liberty and for the State to provide means for the replacement of these teachers which is non-existent in these establishments. “There are not enough teachers” she explains, describing a situation much worse than in the so-called teaching “normal”.

Even if, in the opinion of the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, school monitoring in closed environments has improved over the last three years, Dominique Simonnot points out the lack of resources of teachers in these structures: lack of equipment, rooms too small, no Internet access. “There is a reality that we are faced with, which is that these children who are more difficult than others, who have fewer opportunities than others, we give them fewer opportunities than others”, she denounces. Leaving these establishments and returning to classical education can therefore only be “very complicated”.