On the morning of January 9, shortly before the announcement of his appointment as Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal summoned school heads for a video meeting. “I took the opportunity to alert him of the urgency of communicating about future hourly allocations. Because it is impossible for us to set up the famous level groups wanted by the ministry from the start of the school year in September 2024 without knowing how much hours we will have. It is urgent. All this cannot be improvised and must be prepared from January”, says Bruno Bobkiewicz, the president of SNPDEN-Unsa, the main management staff union.
Alas, the arbitration will wait… for the successor of Gabriel Attal. The outgoing minister has just been appointed to Matignon. Shock in the teaching community! Since his arrival, Gabriel Attal, appointed last August, had made a series of announcements at a rapid pace: a ban on the wearing of the abaya in schools, a vast plan to combat harassment, experimentation with the wearing of uniforms, establishment of the “Shock of Knowledge” mission aimed at raising the level after the announcement of the inglorious results of the international Pisa investigation….
If some projects have been completed or have been vigorously initiated, many are still at the stage of simple announcements. On these, everything remains to be done. “It’s a bit as if Gabriel Attal had thrown several coins into the air. Now, they will have to fall. Which way? That’s the question we ask ourselves,” reacts Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the majority union of secondary school teachers. While her SE-Unsa counterpart, Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, expresses her “discontent” and her “anger”: “A few months ago, the President of the Republic said he wanted to make school his priority. “But changing management after five months and using Gabriel Attal as an adjustment variable during a government reshuffle is irresponsible.”
Who will succeed Gabriel Attal at the head of this immense machine that is National Education? For now, the suspense remains. “The only certainty is that we will have to start from scratch with the next minister, wait for him to take possession of the files and get up to speed while time is running out,” worries Jean-Rémi Girard, the president of the National Union of high schools, colleges, schools and higher education. It remains to be seen which files the future host of rue Grenelle, who will inevitably be tempted to make his mark, will take up or not.
“A man in a hurry”
What assessment do the representative bodies draw from the passage of Gabriel Attal on rue de Grenelle? “Difficult to take stock of such a short period,” replies Jean-Rémi Girard, who will nevertheless retain the ban on the wearing of the abaya in schools, a measure on which his predecessor Pap Ndiaye has been procrastinating for several months. His successor will have been able to speak out clearly and decide without delay, keen to see the 2004 law on the ban on the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols applied. Bruno Bobkiewicz, for his part, praises Gabriel Attal’s concern for consultation and social dialogue. This fine politician was indeed able to learn the lessons of the pitfall that Jean-Michel Blanquer encountered during Macron’s first five-year term. Another quality that many recognize in him: his ability to master files quickly. “As soon as he arrived in August, he took stock of current concerns such as the abaya but also the need to postpone the baccalaureate specialty exams or the difficulties of implementing the teaching pact,” insists Bruno Bobkiewicz.
For Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, the strength of Gabriel Attal, who passed through Bercy, was his ability to go to the front to win arbitrations. “It’s not so common to have before us a minister capable of responding tit for tat on budgetary issues,” she admits. On the other hand, the “Shock of knowledge” mission set up by Gabriel Attal to raise the level – in particular by establishing level groups and tackling the “taboo of repeating a year” – is far from having achieved unanimous support on the unions. And many regret that the question of the lack of attractiveness of the profession has not been taken head-on. “However, this is the number one problem. We can have the best educational ideas in the world, but if we do not have sufficient personnel to implement them, it will remain very abstract”, insists Jean-Rémi Girard for whom this This file should be the priority of Attal’s successor.
Finally, the majority of teacher representatives deplore the fact that the outgoing minister cannot be judged on his reforms which will only produce possible effects over the long term. Sophie Vénétitay sees in him above all “a man in a hurry who used National Education as a political springboard”. “He took us into a media whirlwind which allowed him to increase his popularity. I would say that he was more the minister of public opinion than that of the agents of National Education”, attacks the general secretary of Snes-FSU. Many believe that it is to this strong reputation – Gabriel Attal is at the top of the polls on the French’s favorite political figures – that he undoubtedly owes his position as Prime Minister. To the detriment of the school? In a year and a half, three ministers will have succeeded one another in this position. And Bruno Bobkiewicz sighs: “These permanent changes give us the impression of being in a laundry machine that never stops.”
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