Tipped to become Minister of National Education, Elisabeth Borne is leading several projects for schools, colleges and high schools. Overview.
Gabriel Attal, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, Nicole Belloubet, Anne Genetet… and soon Elisabeth Borne? Teachers are expected to end the year 2024 with a fifth different boss in the same year, unheard of since the Fourth Republic. In 1948, four ministers had held the office in 12 months. 2024 could even end with a symbol for teachers: led in January by a future – now ex – Prime Minister, then, in December, by a former head of government.
Indeed, the latest rumors suggest that Elisabeth Borne could obtain the Ministry of National Education. And even more. According to the information from La Tribune Sundaythe role of the former Minister of Transport, Ecological Transition but also Labor could be extended to Research and Higher Education. A vast scope created for the first time in 1995 when… François Bayrou was appointed to this position by Alain Juppé.
Review the question of enrollment and class closures
But after having wandered between different ministerial responsibilities since Emmanuel Macron came to power, what could be the roadmap for the current Calvados MP for education? During her campaign to be re-elected to the National Assembly last June, the sixty-year-old blurted out, during an exchange with residents reported by The Worldthat “there is a lot of work to be done.”
The former tenant of Matignon suggested in particular having “fewer students per class”, up to a certain threshold. On the occasion of the debate between the two rounds on France 3 Normandyshe had adjusted her remarks: “At the same time, when there are classes with too few students, it is not necessarily better for the children. There is work that can be done to have groupings of classes in order to have the best educational response for the students.”
The question of staffing had already been addressed when she wore the hat of head of government. It was then a question of reviewing the method of closing classes. “Today, they are announced a few months in advance. We want to be able to anticipate, share transparently with elected officials and have an approach over several years, in order to find suitable responses,” she indicated in comments published by there Territories Bank.
Caution of the “shock of knowledge”
As Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne above all endorsed the implementation of the “shock of knowledge”, launched by Gabriel Attal, then Minister of National Education. Plural objective of this system: to allow teachers to decide whether to repeat a student, to create level groups in French and mathematics in 6th and 6th grade, to make it compulsory to obtain the certificate to progress to second grade or even to set up an anticipated baccalaureate science test. It is currently in abeyance, the Council of State having rejected the establishment of level groups.
She also called for the development of boarding schools in isolated high schools, “so that young people are not constrained in the choice of their high school by distance”, and campaigned for the development of the “Rural Educational Territories” system. This aims, in the most isolated areas, to “fight against the self-censorship of students and their families who favor more an orientation of geographical proximity towards the professional path, and less the transition to general and technological secondary school.”
Finally, it was under his leadership that the abaya was banned and the wearing of uniforms experimented with, as was the short-term replacement of teachers by another from the same establishment, paid thanks to the Teachers’ Pact. Elisabeth Borne had also launched a major plan against school bullying.
“Teacher training” in its projects
During the June 2024 campaign, Elisabeth Borne also called for “reviewing the training of teachers”, without detailing a possible roadmap.
It remains to be seen, if she is appointed, the room for maneuver she will have vis-à-vis François Bayrou, while the latter had refused the post of Minister of Education offered by Gabriel Attal when the thirty-year-old became Prime Minister. . A “difference in approach to method” had crystallized the tensions. But does questioning the method mean calling into question the projects? Not sure.