"The school is at the forefront of social progress in our country," said the Minister of Education during his ritual speech. A few days before the start of September, of the 12.4 million students and 870,000 teachers, he defended his reforms which revolve around three major challenges: "the challenge of equal opportunities, the well-being at work of the staff, and the great challenge of the future, the environmental issue ".
The year 2019-2020 will be placed "under the sign of maturity and success," said the Minister at his press conference, held in the garden of the Ministry to illustrate a desire to act for sustainable development . In the same vein, he announced that 250,000 "eco-delegates" would be appointed - one per class in middle and high school - to promote the implementation of concrete actions in classrooms.
"Priority" on primary school
The primary school remains the "priority" of the government, said Jean-Michel Blanquer, as illustrated by the flagship measure of its law "for a school of trust" voted this summer: the reduction to three years of the age of compulsory education, compared with six today. The measure will concern only 2.5% of children but it is an important stake for territories like Mayotte or Guyana.
In addition, the reduction in the number of CP and CE1 classes in disadvantaged neighborhoods is ending. "300,000 students are about to be concerned" and they should be 450,000 by the end of the five-year period, President Emmanuel Macron having announced in the spring that it would be gradually extended to the classes of major section in priority education. "This is good news but we will ask the minister how he intends to do, because it will not have to inflate the numbers of other classes," warned Monday Francette Popineau, secretary general of Snuipp-FSU, the first teachers' union primary school.
"Equality of opportunity also means schooling children with disabilities," said the minister, recalling that 4,500 accompanying students with disabilities (AESH) were recruited. Implemented last year in CP, CE1 and 6th, student evaluations, much criticized by some of the teachers, are maintained but reviewed to take account of criticism.
"Turn the page"
Another project of the government: the delicate reform of the baccalaureate, which must be effective in 2021. This reform, which will reduce the number of final tests in favor of continuous monitoring, is accompanied by a redesign of teaching in high school. This year, the series (L, ES and S) are suppressed in First class and replaced by specialty courses.
The reform has crystallized the oppositions of those who fear the introduction of a "local" and no longer national, to rejillir end of June on the bac, tainted by a strike correctors. In this season, the minister seems to play the card of appeasement. "It's time to turn the page on the bac crisis, to move on," he said.
Improve the well-being of teachers
During his speech, Jean-Michel Blanquer emphasized at length the need to strengthen the well-being of teachers. Accused repeatedly by the unions to remain deaf to their demands, the minister stressed "the need to work in depth with the social partners." With a view to pension reform, which could penalize teachers in particular, it will be a question of "revaluing this profession", he assured. The teachers, meanwhile, hope to quickly obtain salary increases.
In particular, he detailed the measures of the school violence plan, which has been postponed many times: at the start of the school year, personalized support for teachers who have been victims of violence is put in place. Highly disruptive and "poly-excluded" students from different schools may be assigned to relay classes without the family's consent. This plan was promised last October, after the video showing a student threatening his teacher with a dummy weapon in a high school in Créteil, in the Val-de-Marne.