“We have never started a new school year with a minister who resigned”: SNUipp is concerned about not having a new Minister of Education

A week before the start of classes, the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, is launching the new school year as if nothing had happened. A ridiculous situation for the SNUipp.

In a week, on Monday, September 2, students will return to their primary, secondary or high school. But this return to school is being prepared in a particular context, since the new government has still not been appointed, a month and a half after the legislative elections. An unprecedented situation, says the main union of school teachers: “It’s hard to imagine going back to school without a minister”.

While waiting for a new government, Nicole Belloubet, the resigning minister, met with the rectors and executives of the National Education on Monday morning. She is also organizing her back-to-school press conference on Tuesday, August 27. But for Guislaine David, the general secretary of SNUipp, this situation poses a problem of legitimacy.

“There are still questions to be asked about the legitimacy of this press conference.”

Guislaine David, the general secretary of SNUipp

to franceinfo

“We have never started a new school year with a minister resigning, she laments. Will it set the tone for the start of the school year? What guidelines will it provide? The one in the back-to-school circular, written before the dissolution and the legislative elections, which is the guideline of Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal, but which is not the one wanted by the French people, nor by teachers?

For the union, the dialogue should not be with this resigning government, but with the elected Parliament. It therefore plans to question the deputies in the coming weeks to discuss the situation of the school.

This unclear situation has very concrete consequences on life in the classrooms, the educational community is waiting. Two major projects, which were to be implemented at the start of the school year, have finally been put on hold: the new programs, in maths and French, and the labeling of school textbooks.

But a new feature is coming into effect this September, namely national assessments in all classes. Until now, this was only in CP, CE1 and CM1. The SNUipp is calling on teachers not to administer them. “These assessments are not useful for teachers, assures Guislaine David, and above all, they will result in injunctions which will reduce educational freedom.”

The union is also calling for a strike on Tuesday, September 10., “to challenge these national assessments, and above all, to demand a different educational policy”. “National assessments are the keystone of an educational policy that is harmful to students”, denounces the general secretary of SNUipp.

These national assessments focus on certain skills and not others, according to the union, which gives the example of reading, where reading speed is measured, but not understanding of the text, which is nevertheless essential and useful for progressing in other disciplines.