First steps at the head of the “super ministry” of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, first controversy. Friday January 12, as soon as she was promoted, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra left for her first trip to the field alongside Gabriel Attal, her predecessor appointed prime minister. It was at the end of this visit to a college in Yvelines, facing the camera, that the trap closed on “AOC”.
Questioned about the schooling of her three sons at Stanislas, a private and elitist establishment in the capital, the new minister deplored a “trial of intent” and “personal attacks” before explaining the “frustration” of her husband and herself faced with “lots of unreplaced hours” when their eldest son was in public school. “At one point, we got fed up, like hundreds of thousands of families who chose to look for a different solution.”
A few words which immediately sparked a storm within the educational community and the political world. “Lunar and provocative remarks against the public education service and its staff. From the first day,” reacted Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary-level union. Among non-unionized teachers, while some have a more moderate judgment on the substance of the minister’s statements, they nonetheless criticize their form. “Whether people put their children in the private sector, I don’t care. But the message is not very clear…”, comments this history professor from the Parisian suburbs.
Also read: Guillaume Tabard: “Vautrin, Oudéa-Castéra, Dati, the bad trials of the left against three ministers”
For his part, Grégoire Ensel, president of the FCPE parents’ federation, evokes comments that are “clumsy to say the least”, even “staggering”. “Yes, the school is in crisis but we believe in public schools and we choose to send our children there,” he insists. His counterpart from the Association of Parents of Free Schools (Apel), Gilles Demarquet, recalls his “attachment to the freedom of choice of families, whether they are children of ministers or baker’. And underlines that “private education under contract is associated, by this very contract, with the public education service. There is no need for a public-private war: there is no competition between projects, and there is room for everyone!”
“Contempt”, “provocation”… All weekend, criticism descended on Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who ended up sending a statement to AFP in which she said she “regretted” that her comments “could have hurt some public education teachers. “I’m afraid it’s coming a little late…” commented Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the leading union in primary education. “The minister would have done better to think more about her communication beforehand,” said a “Stan” teacher, who had one of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s children in class. But she says out loud what many people think quietly. And ministers who have their children in the private sector, there have been and still are tons of them…”
The minister is in fact far from being the first tenant of Rue de Grenelle to have chosen the private sector for her children. The son and daughter of Pap Ndiaye (minister in 2022-2023) were students at the Alsatian School, a private establishment under secular contract. “It is the choice of parents of children for whom, at one point, the conditions for a peaceful and happy schooling were no longer met,” the academic explained. Some of Jean-Michel Blanquer’s children (2018-2022) were also educated in the private sector, like Luc Chatel (2009-2012), Luc Ferry (2002-2004), François Bayrou (1993-1997)…
Gabriel Attal, at the head of National Education for five months, had not escaped remarks about his past at the Alsatian School. And he had also chosen to broach the subject himself as soon as he arrived at Rue de Grenelle. “Yes, I went to private school, I don’t have to deny or apologize for this choice my parents made at the time, like millions of parents do every year,” he declared.
Now head of government, the thirty-year-old had to work to clear up the controversy, even though he had announced that he was taking the “school cause”, described as “the mother of all battles”, to Matignon. Denouncing “a lot of hypocrisy” on the subject, he considered that Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had “expressed herself transparently about the choices she made in her family and about her life”. Not enough to put out the fire.
Especially since Sunday evening, January 14, the former teacher of the minister’s eldest son affirmed in Libération that she had not been absent during the few months when the little boy was educated at the Littré school. , from January 2009, and that the latter’s parents had changed establishments because they wanted to move him to the middle section, which the teacher had refused, judging him “not yet mature”. Information which pushed several politicians and members of the educational community to demand the resignation of the minister, accusing her of having lied. This is what Amélie Oudéa-Castéra defends, who “maintains that the choice she made to change her child’s school in 2009 is linked to no other reason than organizational problems and unreplaced hours” , insists his entourage to Le Figaro.
“The minister categorically denies this. Like all parents, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Frédéric Oudéa have always had the well-being of their child as a priority and implied that they would have made a choice that would go against their values and the development of their little boy deeply offends them,” “AOC”’s entourage informed AFP on Sunday evening after the publication of the Libération article, denouncing “inaccurate, inappropriate and hurtful comments for parents.”
Monday morning, the politician spoke again on this subject during a visit to the Olympic village of Saint-Denis. “I do not want to go any further into the area of personal life and private life. There are attacks to which I tried to respond as sincerely as possible. We must close this chapter of personal attacks and personal life,” she declared.
After these difficult beginnings, “AOC” will have a lot to do to get back on a good footing with the educational community, while the projects it promised to “continue” are immense: raising the level of students, restoring authority. at school, fight against harassment, reform of teacher competitions… and therefore, replacement of absent teachers.
