This is the first controversy of the Attal government. As soon as she was appointed Minister of National Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra drew a lot of criticism for having sent her children to private schools, as revealed by the investigative media Mediapart.
Read also"It's mind-blowing!": Minister Oudéa-Castéra at the heart of a controversy over her children's schooling
It was then the way in which she defended herself in the face of these criticisms that provoked the anger of the unions and part of the political class. While her son was at the Littré public school in Paris, she and her husband were "fed up" with the many hours "not seriously replaced", leading them to "look for a different solution".
🤯 He is told who has been in charge since 2017? 😡 HALLUCINATORY!
How many jobs were eliminated that could have been substitutes? We have been asking for resources and a revalo of the profession without answers for years, Madam Minister, go for it! #remaniement... https://t.co/f2VsotUVgA
— FSU-SNUipp (@FSU_SNUipp) January 12, 2024
This is not the first time that the issue of schooling for the children of the Ministers of National Education has been debated. In office between May 2022 and July 2023, Pap Ndiaye chose to send his children to the prestigious Alsatian School, in the <>th arrondissement of the capital, where Gabriel Attal also took his classes.
For a "serene and happy" schooling
Assuming responsibility for his children's schooling, he had indicated that there can be "moments which, in the child's development, can be complicated", evoking the parents' choice of a "serene and happy" schooling. He also said that his children had previously been schooled in "REP+", the acronym for "priority education networks".
His predecessor Jean-Michel Blanquer, who was in office for five years between 2017 and 2022, had also admitted that he had not sent all his children to public school. Interviewed by Léa Salamé during the "Political Show" in February 2018, Jean-Michel Blanquer said: "I have three-quarters of them in the public", implying that one of his four children was in private school.
Luc Chatel, minister between 2009 and 2012, said in an interview with Le Parisien that he had "children in the public and private sectors". "Depending on the kids, you think there's a system that might be better suited. The two systems need to enrich each other," he said. François Fillon, who was Minister of National Education between 2004 and 2005, also chose to enrol his children in private schools, Mediapart reports.
François Bayrou "out of religious conviction"
After reports in Le Monde that Luc Ferry, Minister of National Education under Jacques Chirac between 2002 and 2004, had three of his children in private schools, a spokesman said he had "two daughters, not three in the private sector." "My wife is Catholic. For my part, I wanted my daughters to receive a religious education," he said.
Minister of National Education between 1993 and 1997, under the presidencies of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, François Bayrou also chose to go to the private sector for three of his six children. "When we chose the private sector, it was out of religious conviction," said the MoDem president, who is known to be a practicing Catholic.
Jean-Pierre Chevènement, who was in office between 1984 and 1986, when Laurent Fabius was prime minister, also sent his children to private schools, at the Alsatian school, according to Le Monde. "But it wasn't at the time he was at the Ministry of Education, and only for a few months, the time it took to move," one of his relatives told the newspaper.