In memory of parents of schoolchildren, there has never been a fight at the municipal school in Auxi-le-Chateau (Pas-de-Calais).
Little heckling, no problems either.
“The children are well looked after”, judges a mother of a family, under her black umbrella at the exit of 4.30 pm.
"The school tells us what we need to know, everything is fine," said another, shrugging her shoulders.
Here, the worries make no noise.
But on the statistical maps of INSEE, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, everything flashes in dark red in this small isolated town, far from Abbeville and far from Arras.
More than one in four households live below the poverty line.
A third of 20-24 year olds are dropping out, that is to say neither in employment nor in training, according to figures from 2017. This is double the national average, and much more than in very segregated cities suburbs of Paris, such as Saint-Denis (25%) or Grigny (24%).
However, neither the school nor the college of Val-d'Authie belong to one of the 1092 priority education networks, created over 35 years ago to give more resources to the classes where students are concentrated. social, cultural or financial difficulties.
The forgotten people of school difficulty
In the corridors of the Ministry of National Education, Auxi is cited as a "typical example" of forgotten places of educational difficulty, which the plan to overhaul priority education unveiled exclusively in Le Parisien - Today in France by the Secretary of State in charge of the file, Nathalie Elimas, could help to support more.
The principle?
Provide schools, colleges and high schools with resources based on their field issues, on the basis of a three-year contract.
At Auxi school, we have already seen help arriving.
We have also seen it start again, over the course of the reforms decided upon in Paris: the additional teacher, who remained for four years to organize workshops in small groups, no longer exists.
Teachers regret it, even if the numbers are far from overloaded: no class has been closed this year despite the demographic fall.
At the primary school of Auxi-le-Château (Pas-de-Calais), hours of support after class would bring a "real plus", judges a teacher.
/ LP / Jean-Baptiste Quentin
“Even at nineteen per class, I can't really get the students to work in small groups, because they would need me to stay next to them all the time,” says Cyrille Lochouarn.
This CP teacher previously taught in the Paris suburbs.
She faced it at "a very disparate level" in her classes.
“Here,” she compares, “the level is quite low, and flat.
"And the result is the same:" It is difficult to pull the students up.
"
She believes that hours of after-school support would be "a real plus", even if families aren't asking for them.
"They trust us, maybe a little too much ...", confides a teacher.
“It's silent, but the difficulties really exist,” says Vincent Hernu, the district inspector.
A fragile level in CP for 40 to 60% of students
At the first national assessments at the start of CP, four years ago, teachers were amazed to discover “that between 40% and 60% of the pupils presented a weak level”, in almost all the areas assessed.
The result had the effect of an electric shock: the teachers gambergé to straighten the bar, but without solving everything.
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There remain "very present difficulties in reading, many children lack vocabulary and are not used to expressing themselves", diagnoses Frédéric Bénon in his class of CE1-CE2.
Above all, "children would need more openness, cultural discovery," explains the director, Pascal Finke.
With more resources, we could set up unifying projects, establish partnerships… ”
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Underprivileged students do not benefit enough from priority education
Even before the Covid-19 health crisis, which further padlocked daily life, outings were already very limited by the cost of renting the bus, which was too high.
No question of asking for a contribution from parents, while registrations in the canteen jumped when the town hall introduced the meal at one euro for the less fortunate.
In total, 109 children out of 160 half-boarders benefit from this social tariff.
"After the crisis, it will be a disaster in Auxi, many people will have difficulty getting up," urges Marie Calloux, the permanent Restos du cœur.
"Generate ambition"
“Here, there is always the expectation of the big night when the industry will restart: 16-year-olds continue to drop out of school, telling themselves that they are going to enter the factory as their parents.
Except that it no longer exists, ”says the mayor (PS) Henri Dejonghe.
Rozenn, 18, who is waiting for her little sister in front of the school, could attest to this: there is no work for her who left high school in June, her baccalaureate pro "commerce" in her pocket.
“Right now, I'm helping my mother with household chores, I'm a little bored,” concedes the young girl, who is thinking of going back to school at the start of the school year. But to do what, and where? "Going away from home, I don't really want to," says Rozenn. "It is not so much that the students do not want to make an effort, often they cannot move", remarks the principal of the college of Auxi, Laurence Lesellier, who works to "arouse ambition" in her students. To do this, the college has just forged its very first partnership with the Villeneuve-d'Ascq (North) faculty institute: five students have been “spotted” and will be supported in their dream of one day becoming teachers.
