In the middle of the ruckus, a supervisor tries to make himself heard to announce the upcoming arrival of a guidance counselor. “He’s going to talk to you about your future, even if you don’t have one. You’re already screwed,” he asserts to the handful of students sitting in front of him. What follows is a succession of scenes in a classroom with overturned chairs and cabinets. To a young person who aims to “be the first small person to go to the Moon”, the advisor retorts: “I’m sorry, but it’s going to be complicated. You’re small. You’re stupid too. For you, I have a CAP delivering goods, if you want.”
This extract is taken from the second episode of the web series The Segpa, launched in 2016, which has since given rise to cinema adaptations. The Segpa on skis, latest film, co-produced by Cyril Hanouna, released on December 23, has just exceeded one million admissions. “A success which, unfortunately, contributes to conveying a false image of these young people, caricatured as stupid people”, denounces Rachid Zerrouki, who worked for seven years, from 2016 to 2022, in one of these general and professional education sections adapted to Marseille. The teacher remembers with bitterness the day he called a mechanic to ask him to take one of his third grade students on an internship: “After accepting, he asks me for details. As soon as I say the word ‘Segpa’, he retracts, under the pretext that “he doesn’t want to have any problems”, referring to this famous web series”, laments the professor.
Like him, many of his colleagues consider the representation of these 85,800 young people registered in one of the 1,600 Segpa, from sixth to third grade, “very violent” and “unfair”. Which represents 2.5% of all middle school students. Those who are called students with “special educational needs” will follow adapted education, aimed at making up for the delay accumulated throughout primary school, for multiple reasons which may be family, social or medical problems. “Very often, if not systematically, when we pull back the curtain on academic difficulties, we discover tragedies, illnesses, life trajectories marked by adversity and bad luck,” writes Rachid Zerrouki in the book The Unbreakables (Robert Laffont, 2020), drawn from his own experience. Faced with such a heterogeneous group, it is difficult to adapt learning to each person. But, to meet the challenge, these structures, which are unique to France, benefit from significant resources: a dedicated director, classes which only have a maximum of 16 students, specialized teachers responsible for several disciplines, meetings of regular team.
“Help them to open up to the outside world”
“At home, it repairs a lot of kids broken by life!” says Fatiha Boudjahlat, deputy principal of Abel-Minard college, in Tonnerre, in Yonne. A territory hit hard by deindustrialization and unemployment, which has become a medical desert. “Here, when you want to see a speech therapist, there is a two-year wait. The other day, a little girl from Segpa who had a toothache couldn’t find any dentist to treat her. The school is the only institution that take care of them,” continues the principal. With its 96 students, the section of this establishment is the largest in the Dijon academy. Its director, Olivier Berthou, is in close contact with associations, communities, social services and businesses in the region. “Our strong point is our work on orientation, he explains. Thanks to the workshops set up, we introduce our students to lots of sectors, such as carpentry, construction, automobiles, agriculture , but also artistic metalwork, animal care and sewing.” The teaching team fights at its own level against the social determinisms that the French education system struggles to counter. “Out of the same siblings of 7 children, you can have 5 who are led in Segpa. This is proof that they suffer from a lack of stimulation at the start,” says Fatiha Boudjahlat.
Many specialist teachers say they oscillate between “glimmers of hope” and “discouragement”. Thomas* is preparing to hang up his phone after having worked in Segpa for more than twenty years. “An excellent system which must be maintained, but which should be completely reformed,” he sighs. Over the years, his task has become tougher. “In certain suburbs, like the one where I work, the situation is very different from that of rural areas or medium-sized towns. Violence is much more present there,” he testifies. If he says he is “shocked and disappointed by the image conveyed by these films that we see in the cinema”, he recognizes that most of his students do not have the same reading of them. “Some people can take a certain pride in being perceived as unmanageable, in the same way that they claim to belong to a city which has its own rules,” he says. Its students, 90% of foreign origin, feel relegated. Moreover, many rarely go beyond the borders of their neighborhood and dread taking the RER to go to Paris, only a few stations away. “A large part of our work consists of helping them to open up to the outside world, but it’s complicated,” sighs Thomas, who pleads for greater social diversity and origins in the Segpa. “In certain establishments, you have lots of kids who deserve to benefit from it, but who give up going there out of fear. This is often the case when school heads turn a blind eye and let situations disintegrate,” insists -he.
Over the years, the number of students waiting for notification from the departmental center for disabled people (MDPH) or who are beneficiaries has also increased within these structures. “Today, they represent on average 25 to 30% of the workforce, compared to 17% before Covid, confirms Serge Bontoux, director of Segpa at the Edouard-Pailleron college, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, and member of SNUipp- FSU. But this development is specific to the institution in general, which now welcomes 430,000 students with disabilities” – an increase of 34% since 2017. Segpa classes, like National Education as a whole, are making the costs of the lack of resources dedicated to inclusive schools. Due to a lack of places available in therapeutic, educational and pedagogical institutes (Itep), it happens that certain adolescents suffering from behavioral disorders and who should benefit from specific support end up in Segpa by default.
“Totally fulfilled in their profession”
Despite these difficulties, all stakeholders in the sector recognize that enormous progress has been made in the care of these students suffering academically since 1996, when the Segpa mission was redefined. “In the past, we called them the special education sections (SES)… which some had renamed the ‘wild child sections’!” recalls Serge Bontoux. Nothing to do with today’s structures, which are much more open, totally integrated into the college, and which do enormous work to combat the risks of stigmatization.
After the third year in Segpa, the majority of students are oriented towards the professional path; 59% of them follow training leading to the CAP. “They find comrades from the general route there. The big advantage is that they will have had time to think about their orientation and do internships,” says Rachid Zerrouki, who rejects the idea of a siding often associated on a professional path. And to underline: “Many students from Segpa are totally fulfilled in their profession. Unfortunately, they often prefer to keep quiet about their former status. Too bad, because they are the ones who would make the best ambassadors.”
* The first name has been changed.
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