France: how to rethink the training of elites

ENA main entrance in Strasbourg (East of France). AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

Too bourgeois, too Parisian, too elistist, too far from people ... the high civil service does not resemble the society that we are, said the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in spring 2019. It was after the crisis "yellow vests", after the "great national debate". Everything had to be changed, starting with the abolition of the National School of Administration (ENA), from which the French President himself left. And it was to another enarch, Frédéric Thiriez, that he entrusted the mission to rethink the training of elites. He submits his report to Matignon this Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

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In order for the senior civil service to better represent society, the National School of Administration would give way to the School of Public Administration. This will be used to train civil administrators but also magistrates or commissioners. The training will begin with a three-week military preparation and the supervision of young people performing their universal service. After this period, four months will follow in the field where the future highest state servants will work in a town hall, a hospital or a court.

In tune with France

The basic idea is that the senior civil service is more in tune with the life of the French. Then, at the end of these first six months, the students will be brought together on three sites, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Rennes to follow fifteen days of joint teaching.

A revamped competition

Finally, the entrance exam for this new school will be revised. This will involve the creation of around twenty preparatory classes in mainland France and overseas. On the positive discrimination aspect, there could be, on an experimental basis, a special competition for young people from low-income families. Ten places out of 130 would be reserved for these young people from the special competition.

► Emmanuel Macron launches the universal national service

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