There is no longer any question of the abolition of the ENA.
This announcement by Emmanuel Macron, in April 2019, during the “yellow vests” crisis, had nevertheless had its effect.
The president then promised to bring down this symbol of elitism.
We must select young people
"in the image of society", "according to their merit and not their social or family origin",
he explained.
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A year and a half later, as the Covid crisis swept aside the expected government arbitrations on the issue, the immutable institution is alive and well.
"It will always be necessary to train senior officials,"
summarizes its director, Patrick Gérard.
There will be a competition in 2021. "
But the education reform will come into effect next January, under the terms of a decree published on December 22.
Main change: the internship in a company, previously carried out in heavy goods vehicles of the CAC 40, will now be compulsory within an SME.
A way to silence the recurring criticisms of "disconnection" of senior officials from the daily realities of the French.
A change that began with the health crisis:
"For the first time, all the students of a promotion (2020-2021) spent a month in an SME", in
order to
"better understand the situation"
of these companies and
"to take a more particular interest in the economy of territories ”,
welcomes the school.
Read also:
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Training will no longer be organized around traditional disciplines, such as law, economics or public finance, but around skills.
An evolution that recalls the change at work, for many years already, in secondary and primary school: haro academic knowledge, place to "reference frames of skills"!
At ENA, it will be a question of
"designing, implementing and evaluating public policies, piloting the transformation of public action, and carrying out the essential missions of the State".
The tests of the exit competition will be modified accordingly:
"extremely practical",
they will verify the acquisition of these skills.
We are far from the shock recommendations of the Thiriez report on the reform of the senior civil service, submitted in February 2020 to the government.
Recalling that the sons of executives still represent 80% of promotions, this report proposed to introduce positive discrimination, via a special competition.
Above all, he recommended removing the famous exit classification which, since 1945, has distributed positions to young enarques, and allows the 15 best to access the major bodies (the Council of State, the Court of Auditors and the Inspectorate of Finance ).
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“The alternative to classification is sometimes cooptation. This is not desirable, ”
Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister of Public Service, explained in an interview with
Le Monde
in October
.
The minister also said that she was in favor of specific access routes to the ENA, and to all the schools forming the administrative staff, for candidates from modest backgrounds.
In charge of the reform of the senior civil service, she also specified, after the publication of the decree on the reform of the ENA, that these
"adjustments to the content of education"
did not constitute
"the reform
of the ENA.
'set to be announced in 2021'.
