Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education, in February 2019. -

NICOLAS NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

  • Are nursery school students the target of a National Education “file”? 

  • Some Internet users are worried about it because of a study in progress with children of small section, which seeks in particular to know if they "easily have tears in their eyes" or if they "cut the word" .

  • The Ministry of National Education confirms the authenticity of this statistical panel undergoing experimentation, recalling that this type of survey has been common for years. 

While the health protocol against Covid-19 in force in schools has continued to evolve over the months, a much more discreet measure, which entered into force at the start of the year, would seriously undermine the freedoms of young pupils.

"Blanquer wants to file students from the age of 3!"

", Thus alarms a Mediapart blog article relayed on Facebook, which provokes many indignant reactions in comments:" Our children will not be your slaves!

"," It's up to the parents to react "...

The text in question denounces the establishment of a "questionnaire proposed from January to March to 35,000 students from 1,700 classes in the small kindergarten section", inviting teachers to note with what regularity ("often," "sometimes" ... ) a child “cuts out”, “easily has tears in his eyes” or “is easily distracted by everything going on around”.

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, the Ministry of National Education confirms the authenticity of the questionnaire while being surprised by this controversy: “This is a statistical panel as in fact the DEPP [Department of evaluation, prospective and performance], a statistical service of the ministry, for years.

She has been carrying out such studies for 45 years.

In this case, it is a longitudinal follow-up of pupils from the beginning to the end of their schooling, which concerns 35,000 pupils in small section, between 2021 and 2022, in 1,700 nursery classes distributed throughout the national territory, which are administratively monitored through questionnaires.

"



As indicated by the DEPP on its website, the survey fits in effect a continuation of previous studies conducted with CP students in 2007 and 2011, in particular.

“Like any statistical operation carried out by the DEPP, an experimentation phase is carried out first.

This phase takes place in the first semester of 2021. It concerns a small sample and consists of experimenting with pupil observation grids, the language and transversal activities module and questionnaires with teachers ”, she explains in detail. outraged.

“Some [students], chosen at random, will also take a test using a tablet application.

A questionnaire will be sent to their families in the spring of 2022, describing the family and social environment, the childcare arrangements before starting school, the degree of involvement and the expectations of the family in terms of education, ”indicated by elsewhere the DEPP.

"See how educational inequalities can evolve from kindergarten to first grade"

On the other hand, it is the first time that such a survey has been carried out among such young pupils, as the Ministry of National Education recognizes: “This corresponds to the lowering of compulsory education at the age of 3 years, which will also allow us to observe the role that nursery school plays in relation to elementary school and to see how educational inequalities can evolve from nursery school to entry to preparatory course ”.

And if the ministry emphasizes "that none of these data will be the subject of a file", these being "protected" and "collected only to establish statistics specific to the DEPP", the teaching union SNUipp-FSU de Haute-Garonne worried, at the beginning of February, that this survey seemed to "prepare the ground for the constitution of a real school record, in the service of standardization and profiling of students.

"

A fear that is reminiscent of the outcry provoked in the teaching community by Jean-Michel Blanquer in October 2011, when he was "simple" general director of school education and had proposed to "identify" students with learning risks from kindergarten.

"The statistical panel of the DEPP is in no way an order of the Minister of Education, and it is not carried out in the continuity of the measures proposed by Jean-Michel Blanquer at the time", indicates the ministry of National Education.

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