The distribution of a kit this Wednesday, February 21 for primary school students for the 2024 Olympic Games is causing annoyance among teachers.
While the national education sector has been plagued by tensions for several weeks, the government’s latest initiative has once again fueled the anger of the teaching profession. This Wednesday, February 21, many primary schools received packages from National Education. Inside, educational kits intended for all French schoolchildren from CP to CM2. For the moment, these kits have arrived in Loir-et-Cher and Maine-et-Loire as well as in several large cities in France. Distribution should take place until the end of June and concerns a total of four million students.
These government kits are entitled “At the heart of the Games” and contain a booklet of around ten pages, four of which were written by President Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera and Gabriel Attal , when the latter held the post of Minister of Education. Designed to “discover the history and values” of this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, the other pages have an “educational aim” as indicated by Release the cabinet of Nicole Belloubet, the new Minister of Education. The booklet contains crosswords and charades as well as other types of content, all intended to educate children about the games. This kit also contains a two euro coin specially designed by the Paris Mint on which is engraved an Eiffel Tower which “takes its momentum to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic Games” in the words of the booklet.
However, teachers did not view this new government operation favorably. Indeed, the professors speak of “yet another government communications operation carried out without consultation” according to Libération. For Guislaine David, spokesperson for the first schools union, SnuiPP-FSU, “this booklet is useless from an educational point of view” as reported by Libération. A feeling also shared by David Lelong, representative of the SE-Unsa union who declared to the media: “The relevance of the tool questions us”.
The two euro coin is particularly controversial. As Guislaine David indicates, “This piece will become an object of desire in the playground.” After which she highlights to Libération the problematic aspect, according to her, of the distribution of money in class: “Symbolically, it is not up to teachers to distribute money to students.” Ms. David also explained to the West France that “for social reasons or risks of theft, cash is prohibited within establishments.”
The cost of the operation largely contributed to the dissatisfaction of the teaching staff. Carrying out this communication action would represent a total of 16 million euros. On France Info this Wednesday, Estelle Guyon, teacher in a school in Angers and departmental representative of the SNUipp-FSU union, highlighted a poorly chosen moment for this type of action: “At the moment when we are told that there is no more money to operate public services and in particular the public education service. This operation comes shortly after the announcements by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on February 18 regarding the reduction in public spending.