Pap Ndiaye: his challenges for National Education

His first actions at the head of National Education

New Minister of National Education and Youth, Pap Ndiaye took up his new duties with strength and conviction. Reflecting his commitment as a historian, this specialist in the social history of the USA, in particular that of minorities, chose to inaugurate his new hat a completely symbolic trip. Moved and visibly involved, this is how the teachers of the Conflans Saint-Honorine college described him, former colleagues of Samuel Paty.

Thursday June 2, 2022, Pap Ndiaye is expected in Marseillee, where he will go with President Emmanuel Macron, as part of the experiment in the free recruitment of teachers by the establishments themselves. It is that the various governances at the head of National Education have worked to make the profession of teacher attractive, in vain: many disciplines have more positions to fill than eligible applicants… Between vocational crisis in the teaching and rupture of educational equality, Pap Ndiaye has set himself the guiding line of restore the school’s image and to give it back its full function as a social lever. Because among the OECD countries, it is in France that social origins weigh the most in the success of studies. A challenge that the history graduate, sensitive to issues of downgrading, inequality and discrimination, decided to take head-on. Better: a real priesthood, for those who define themselves as the result of the republican and meritocratic school.

What challenges await Pap Ndiaye at National Education?

Social and school inequalities, teacher recruitment, back to school... Many topics await the new Minister of National Education and Youth. For Pap Ndiaye, the challenge of the post of Minister of Education is therefore daunting, as students and teachers have been turned upside down in recent years by the Covid-19 crisis as well as the baccalaureate reform, which deserves, from the start of the school year, new adaptations, particularly with regard to the reintroduction of mathematics in the common core.

“My first thoughts go to the world of teachers which has always been mine” assured the new Minister of National Education who will also have to tackle the increase in teachers’ salaries. During the debate between the two rounds, Emmanuel Macron had, in fact, announced that he wanted to raise the salaries of teachers so that there is “no more career start-ups under 2,000 euros” per month, ce which represented an increase “about 10%” for teachers at the start of their career. The president, then candidate, had also promised that this revaluation would reach up to 20% for “those who use the most innovative methods by allowing more freedom, in the field, to our teachers“The new Minister of National Education is therefore eagerly awaited on this issue, particularly by the unions.”The question of wages will have to come on the table very quickly (…) We are impatiently awaiting a meeting with the Minister, then a consultation, because it is urgent to clarify things “, explained Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union according to The Telegram,

Pap Ndiaye will also have to manage the problem linked to the lack of teachers especially in mathematics, German, letters but also in primary schools. Finally, he will have to tackle the major reform of the vocational high school described as “a huge construction site“, by Emmanuel Macron. The Head of State had thus indicated that he notably wished to increase by 50% the internship periods for vocational high school students.

Who is Pap Ndiaye, the new Minister of National Education?

Pap Ndiaye was born in 1965 in Antony in the Hauts-de-Seine and grew up in the suburbs of Paris. Her father, Senegalese, is a renowned engineer in sub-Saharan Africa and her mother, French, from a family of farmers then became a professor of natural sciences in a college, raised her children alone. Pap Ndiaye is now the father of two children, whom he had with sociologist Jeanne Lazarus. The French historian specializes in the social history of the United States and minorities. Holder of a doctorate from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Pap Ndiaye was notably a lecturer, then professor at Sciences Po Paris, and finally general manager of the Palais de la Porte-Dorée. The new Minister of National Education and brother of writer Marie Ndiayeis also the one who led the Immigration History Museum.

Pap Ndiaye, already criticized by the far right

Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour immediately reacted to the appointment of the new Minister of National Education accusing Emmanuel Macron of wanting “deconstruct” the history of France. For the RN candidate, the arrival of Pap Ndiaye in the ministry is “the last stone in the deconstruction of our country, its values ​​and its future” she believes on Twitter. She adds in front of the cameras that this appointment “defending indigenism, racialism at the head of national education, is a terrifying choice”. As for Jordan Bordela (RN), he qualifies him as “racialist and anti-cop activist“. On CNews, Eric Zemmour denounces the fact that Pap Ndiaye “has participated in meetings forbidden to whites, he is a real indigenous intellectual, a real woke”. Elisabeth Borne did not hesitate to immediately defend her new Minister of Education: “Pap Ndiaye is a very committed Republican, someone who believes in the values ​​of the Republic and that is obviously what he will wear as Minister of National Education.“