The Senate dominated by the right-wing opposition adopted Wednesday, October 20, at second reading, a bill LREM creating "
the function of school principal
", with some modifications, in particular on the financing of administrative assistance and material.
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Deputies and senators will now try to agree in a joint joint committee on a common version of the text, in shuttle service to Parliament since June 2020. In the event of failure, the National Assembly will have the last word.
Criticized on the left and by primary unions, the bill provides in particular that school directors have a "
managerial job
" and benefit from "
a delegation of powers from the academic authority
" to the proper functioning of the school.
For the unions, it "would
fundamentally disrupt the functioning of schools
".
"
Strengthen the collective dimension
"
"
We are not in the process of creating a system of corporalization, we are in the process of strengthening the collective dimension with a role of pilot, it is true, and I fully assume it, of the principal.
», Declared the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer.
In primary education, the 45,000 principals are school teachers who have no hierarchical superiority over other teachers.
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In the Assembly, the presidential majority chose to keep a provision introduced by the Senate at first reading providing for the principle of a
controversial “
functional authority of school directors
”. It is not "
a circumlocution which would mask the recognition of the hierarchical authority
", insisted Sonia de La Provôté (centrist).
President Emmanuel Macron told him in September that he wanted to experiment in Marseille from the start of the 2022 school year, in 50 “
laboratory
”
schools
, the freedom of choice of teachers by directors.
"
No, the school of the Republic is not a business,
" reacted the socialist Marie-Pierre Monier.
"
Without going as far as the President of the Republic, we have given this text the consistency it should have
", praised Max Brisson (LR).
Additional resources?
It “will
bring fairer recognition of the work accomplished
” by school directors, according to Bernard Fialaire (RDSE with a radical majority).
The main modification made by senators at second reading concerns the financing of the additional resources which may be granted to them.
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In the version adopted by the deputies, the text opens up the possibility for the State and the communities to provide means allowing administrative and material assistance, within the framework of their respective competences.
The Senate excluded the municipalities from the system, considering that these tasks fall within the competence of the State.
For the LREM reporter Julien Bargeton, “this
is one of the major points of divergence
” between deputies and senators.
Senators also reinstated several training provisions.