Amélie Oudéa-Castéra case, new episode. The Minister of National Education, at the heart of a controversy related to her children's schooling, arrived this Tuesday fearfully before noon at the Littré public school (Paris), from where she had taken her eldest son to put him in private school.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra greeted by boos as she arrives at the Littré public school, her son pic.twitter.com/b7e3mNgyTl
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 16, 2024
It was an eventful arrival, as Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was greeted on site with a concert of boos, whistles and pots and pans by dozens of people demonstrating "in defence of public schools".
A controversy that has barely settled
Since Friday, as soon as she has been installed in her new position, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has been forced to justify the enrolment of her three sons at the Stanislas school, a prestigious private school in the capital's beautiful districts. A choice motivated by "packages of hours that have not been seriously replaced" in the public, she explained on Friday during her first trip. These remarks were seen as a provocation by the unions, to the point that Amélie Oudéa-Castéra immediately beat her neck, saying she "regretted" having "been able to hurt some teachers".
But the second salvo was not long in coming: on Sunday evening, the newspaper Libération undermined the minister's defence, contradicted by a former teacher. The latter denied the absence of teachers invoked by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra for having put her eldest son in the private sector after a few months in a small section of kindergarten in a public school in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. The teacher, now retired, said the parents wanted their son to skip a grade, a request that the public kindergarten, named after Littré, had opposed.
Read also"Benevolence", "conservatism", "factory of elites": Stanislas, the school where the children of Oudéa-Castéra go
These revelations have been seized upon by the opposition. "It's a lie that disqualifies her from continuing to hold this position," said Manuel Bompard on franceinfo, while Fabien Roussel, a communist, said on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that "it's time to resign."
Days go by and Ms. Oudéa-Castera's lies pile up.
Teachers are not doormats on which she can wipe her feet.
It's time to resign, Minister. https://t.co/yChFl6ZD4F
— Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) January 15, 2024
In a letter to the minister published by Libération on Monday evening, parents of students or former students of the Littré school defend this school and criticize "general", "reductive" and "stigmatizing" remarks. They express their "deepest attachment to the school of the Republic and in particular to our Littré school, which has been so unjustly called into question for the needs of your personal and individual situation".
"We must close this chapter of personal attacks"
During a visit to the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Monday morning, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who is also Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games, said she did not want to "go further in the field of personal and private life". "There are attacks that I have tried to respond to with as much sincerity as possible. We need to close this chapter of personal attacks and personal life," she said.
But his colleagues struggled to hide their embarrassment. Government spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot kicked the can down the road on France Inter: "I don't know if she lied, I'm just saying that she explained why her son went to private school." It is in this very tense context that the Minister of Education began her meetings with each of the unions to discuss her department's priorities.
VIDEO. "We got fed up": Amélie Oudéa-Castéra explains why her children are in private schools
"All the teachers felt hurt and humiliated," said Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU, the largest secondary school union, after her meeting on Monday. In the absence of a "public apology," a "clear answer," or a "commitment," the FSU "cut the meeting short." Élisabeth Allain-Moreno, from the SE-Unsa, said the minister had "apologised": "she was sorry, she was aware that it had really hurt the profession" and "she acknowledged a mistake". The unions have called for strikes on 25 January and 1 February.
The controversy is thwarting the executive's plans, less than a week after the change of government that was supposed to give it a new lease of life embodied by Gabriel Attal. All the more so since the former Minister of National Education has assured that he will be the "guarantor" of the "absolute priority" given to schools. Emmanuel Macron, who considers that the subject "is part of the president's reserved domain", is due to specify this Tuesday evening during a press conference how he intends to carry out the "rearmament" of the country, which could involve announcements in terms of education.