“It’s not me that counts, it’s the school.” At the heart of the controversy since her appointment to the Ministry of National Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, guest of the France 2 morning show this Tuesday, reiterated her remorse concerning her comments on the education of her children in the private sector. Questioned about the schooling of her three sons at Stanislas, a private and elitist establishment in the capital, the new minister explained the “frustration” of her husband and herself in the face of “packages of hours not replaced” when their son eldest was educated at the Littré public school, in the 6th arrondissement. Comments which aroused the ire of many parents and teachers in the public.
Also read: What is Stanislas, where Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra sends her children to school?
The new minister, who combines responsibility for National Education with that of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, reiterated her “apologies” to the public teachers whom she “hurt, offended”. “I owe it to them,” she said. “I relied, with total sincerity, on the memory and feelings of a mother’s experience 15 years ago. Now, the word of a teacher proves me wrong. Of which act”. Sunday evening, 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.
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“I should not have made those comments and I should not have named the Littré school,” “AOC” apologized again, declaring that she had “explained it with the teaching team” of the school. establishment concerned during a visit on Monday. Acknowledging having raised the question of resignation, the minister reiterated her “determination” to “draw the road map established by the President of the Republic” on the school.
The minister also refuted the idea of a “massive flight” of students from the public to the private sector, arguing that the proportion of children in the private sector remained “stable” in recent years. “There is no educational separatism,” refuted Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, preferring the formula of a “plurality of models” leaving free educational choice to parents. “The choices of families must be respected,” she insisted.
The minister also assured that there would be no job cuts in 2024 in National Education, recalling that her predecessor in the ministry Gabriel Attal had canceled the measures planned for this purpose in the 2024 budget.