Gabriel Attal announces that level groups will be created in secondary schools for French and mathematics at the beginning of the school year in September. The entire class will be “the exception”, the Prime Minister says. A few days ago the Minister of Education argued for flexibility.
Gabriel Attal had promised to “bring the cause of the school to Matignon”. He keeps his promise. He maintains his wish to set up level groups at secondary school for French and mathematics at the start of the school year in September. The level groups will be “the rule”, the entire class will be “the exception”, the Prime Minister confirmed in an interview with the France-Presse agency.
Gabriel Attal explains that for the two subjects there will be “three groups depending on the difficulty of the students.” The goal: “That we can inventory the level of the students, so that we can switch groups.” He continues: “Students must take their French and mathematics lessons in the level groups for at least three quarters of the year.” For Gabriel Attal; “the rule is the group, and the exception, highly regulated, is the class.”
Will the name “level group” be retained? “What difference does the name make, as long as there is a measure,” the Prime Minister says. On human resources, he simply replied, “We will continue to add resources.” The official texts will be published on Friday.
A measure that is disputed by teachers
A week ago, Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, advocated flexibility in the creation of level groups. Should we see this as a disagreement between the Prime Minister and his Minister of National Education? Gabriel Attal refutes any “divergence”.
On the part of the education unions, we reacted poorly to Gabriel Attal’s announcement.
For Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the main second-level union, “it is very annoying to see that Gabriel Attal continues to stick to his decision to make the level group the rule” and “remains detached from the reality of what is happening.” happens in the classroom.
According to Jérôme Fournier, national secretary of SE-Unsa, “saying that the classroom is the exception is relative flexibility” and “we continue to think that groups are harmful to students,” he said.