A few days ago, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, newly appointed Minister of National Education, admitted that she had withdrawn her children from the Littré public school in order to send them to the Stanislas school, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. This Tuesday, the controversy, far from having faded, takes a specifically Parisian turn. The mayor of Paris (PS) Anne Hidalgo asked him, in a letter, to recruit teachers for her city.
"The question of replacing teachers, like that of overcrowded classes, calls for the same answer: the recruitment of a sufficient number of teachers," Anne Hidalgo wrote to the Minister of National Education. In her letter, the mayor of Paris recalls that Gabriel Attal, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra's predecessor, had planned for the start of the school year in September 2024 "the elimination of 125 teaching positions in Paris in primary education, and 128 positions in secondary education".
"It is up to you to ensure its proper functioning, by giving it the necessary means to accomplish its educational mission."
Anne Hidalgo to Amélie Oudéa-Castéra
This decrease is in line with a trend towards job cuts that has already led, at the start of the 2023 school year, to the closure of more than 170 classes in Parisian schools, "as well as the equivalent of three middle schools", deplores the mayor of Paris. "The future of public schools is now your ministerial responsibility," continued Anne Hidalgo. It is up to you to guarantee its proper functioning, by giving it the necessary means to accomplish its educational mission (...). »
Letter from Anne Hidalgo to Minister @education_gouv:
"I invite you to be consistent and responsible by reconsidering the cuts in teaching positions in Paris".
At the start of the 2024 academic year:
✔ 125 positions will be eliminated in primary education,
✔ 128 positions in secondary education. pic.twitter.com/IfexmFGpDh
— Patrick BLOCHE (@pbloche) January 16, 2024
Anne Hidalgo accuses the minister, who was already in charge of sports - which she retained - in the previous government, by accusing her of having been "in solidarity with these measures" taken by Gabriel Attal at the time. She adds that despite the personal nature of her choice to send her children to private schools, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has shown "a form of mistrust and contempt for public schools". A defiance that the minister faced this Tuesday when she went to the Littré school, to boos.