Public or private?
Since the controversial outing of the new Minister of National Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on the Littré public school in the opulent sixth arrondissement, the school war seems to have - almost - resumed.
But behind the debates which have animated the political class and the media for a week, parents of students, although not initially opposed to the public, or even defenders of the public, explain why they finally made the choice of the private sector, without to regret.
Private education which welcomes nearly 17% of students each year.
“
Once you start in these establishments, you never want to leave
,” says Myriam, in her fifties and mother of three boys in private school.
Has he found the miracle formula?
Discipline, rigor, security... Fans of these establishments praise the qualities of a system that they often see as a good alternative to the failures of public schools.
A question of “security”
Isabelle, a management executive in the banking sector, was however not a regular.
“
We moved every three to four years and I always put my son in the audience, depending on my transfers
,” she explains in the preamble.
Or at least, until the end of his primary school education: “
At that time, we lived in the 9th arrondissement of Marseille and I had enrolled him, as planned, in the public school in the area
”.
But the months passed and Isabelle quickly became disillusioned: “
One day, while I was at work, I received a call from the school: I was told of an unexpected strike in the canteen,”
says She.
“I was told I had to come pick up my 9-year-old son or he might just not eat.”
If the event seems trivial, it repeats three or four times in a few months, angering the mother.
But
“what ultimately made me decide to change my son’s establishment was security.
One day, a child came to school with a knife and threatened his classmates.
Fortunately, not my son,”
recalls the fifty-year-old.
“When I had a meeting with the director, she reacted very lightly, she told me that it was nothing, that it was just children.”
It was enough for Isabelle to leave without looking back:
“For me, it was simply not possible
.”
However, Isabelle has nothing against public school.
“
Besides, as soon as we moved to the Var four years later, he returned to the public
.”
Like her, nearly 45% of families - who we call "
zappers
" - move their children between public and private depending on professional assignments and new sector establishments.
And this because
“the criterion of many parents is that of success”,
describes the historian specializing in Education Brunot Poucet
.
“Parents choose based on what is available to them.
Those from the middle class
who live in difficult neighborhoods and who cannot always move, for example, will tend to flee public establishments if they are bad, even if it means paying a little more
,” explains the expert.
“In the public, it could have gone badly for them”
But if the choice of private life may initially appear as a
“default
” choice, it can quickly turn out to be a “
heart
” choice.
This is what happened to Myriam and her husband, living in Puteaux, a residential suburb in the west of Paris, since the beginning of the 2000s. “
Initially, we put our eldest son in public kindergarten.
But I had heard bad things about the local primary school from other parents, particularly because many students spoke French poorly.
Myriam therefore enrolled little Baptiste in a private establishment.
Far from security issues, the mother above all wanted a serious framework: “
I wanted rigor, follow-up.
The level of study is absolutely essential for me
.”
And the private sector supported her three boys better than elsewhere, she believes:
“They would not have succeeded in the same way in the public sector.
I think it could have gone badly for them
.”
It's not a question of "
teachers
,
because they are the same between private and public",
the mother wants to clarify.
And to decide: “
It’s a question of discipline
”.
But also “
dating
”, underlines Lucille*, a 56-year-old from Bordeaux.
The private high school in which his eldest son attended was more central than the local high school.
“
I was much more reassured when he told me he was going to have a drink after class
,” admits the mother of three children.
“I have done everything in the public, but times change”
And the business school executive's gamble is paying off: her youngest son, currently attending a public college in the center of Bordeaux, wants to join a private establishment from the start of the school year in September 2024. “
He doesn't feel not doing well in his school because he is in the worst fourth grade class
.”
Julien* returns in the evening, demoralized, and says that the students are defying the authority of their teachers “
pushed to the limit
”.
“
It’s difficult for him.
However, I did everything in the public for my part
,” breathes Lucille.
Before deciding: “
But times are changing
”.
For these various reasons, the parents, many of whom are not believers, have put aside the religious question and that of Catholic teaching.
For Myriam, an atheist of Lebanese origin, this dimension has never been a problem.
“On the contrary, I find that it is an opening to the world and to all religions
.”
Two of his sons even decided to “
baptize themselves
” during their schooling.
Isabelle agrees: “
The Christian side
didn’t bother me at all.
Besides, I wasn't the only one.
Almost half of the families in this establishment were of the Muslim faith and saw no problem there
.”
My father thought language education was bad in France and wanted me to speak English
Juliette, former student of a Parisian bilingual high school
Intransigence and each other as limits
Far from this idyllic picture, parents and students alike perceive some limits to the functioning of the private sector.
Because rigor and discipline do not suit everyone.
“
In the private sector, if you are not the best you get by,”
laments Lucille.
“
These establishments want 100% for the baccalaureate and my daughter, with an average of 10 in college, was kindly thanked
,” she confides.
A tough selection which can also be synonymous with a very important “
between oneself
”.
“
People were completely disconnected from reality
,” remembers Juliette*, aged 28, formerly educated in a bilingual private school in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris.
“
My father found that language education was bad in France and wanted me to speak English.
So it worked, of course, but people were in a real golden bubble.”
And this phenomenon has increased every year: since 2000, private establishments have increasingly attracted the (very) advantaged classes (from 41.5% to 55.4% of the workforce between 2000 and 2021) to the detriment of the disadvantaged classes ( from 24.8% to 15.8% over the same period), notes the Court of Auditors in a report on private high schools under contract.
Antoine, a Lyonnais who is approaching thirty, speaks of his first months in private high school - after a long career in the public sector - as a real "
adaptation to a new social environment"
.
“
There was a gap with the others, because of certain preconceptions.
Two worlds collided and without being labeled as “the guy in the audience”, it took a little time to gain their trust and find my place
,” explains the young man.
Today, Antoine is delighted to have been able to get to know the two schools, over which many have been arguing for several days.