French minister rejects state school for son
Macron’s new education chief faces calls to quit after putting her child in private institution
FRANCE’S new education minister is facing calls to resign after pulling her son out of a state school and enlisting him in an exclusive private institution 15 years ago.
Amélie Oudéa-castéra took over the post from Gabriel Attal last week and now runs a “superministry” which is also in charge of youth and sport.
But the 45-year-old is already embroiled in controversy after being forced to defend her move to place her three sons in Stanislas, a private select school in Paris.
Her eldest child, aged three at the time of the 2009 move, was switched to the private institute from a state school.
Described as “a Catholic, elitist and conservative institution” by Le Monde, Stanislas has been under investigation by the education ministry since last year over media allegations of homophobic and sexist behaviour.
The minister, who is married to Frédéric Oudéa, president of Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical giant, said her decision was made out of “frustration” at staff shortages and the lack of cover for absent teachers in the state system.
“At some point, we got fed up, like hundreds of thousands of families who chose to look for a different solution,” she said. Her response infuriated teachers and unions. Guislaine David of the Snuipp-fsu union, said: “First day at the head of the ministry and already she’s attacking state schools.
“It’s hallucinatory. If teachers weren’t replaced, it’s because thousands of jobs were cut.”
Ms Oudéa-castéra later apologised, admitting that her words “may have wounded some teachers in state schools”.
She promised “to be always at their side, as I will be at the side of the whole educational community”.
But on Sunday the row deepened when the Libération newspaper interviewed her oldest son’s former teacher at the state school she pulled him out of in 2009 after a few months.
She said she was “horrified” to hear the minister’s claims, arguing they were “totally false”.
The problem was rather that Ms Oudéa-castéra was a pushy parent who wanted her son to skip a year, according to the teacher.
She said the request was declined on the grounds he was “not mature enough”. Ms Oudéa-castéra said yesterday that she “categorically denies the claims reported by Libération”.
“We have to close this chapter of personal attacks and personal life,” she said during a visit to a Paris school, saying she had “tried to respond as sincerely as possible".
Members of the Left-wing opposition called for her to resign.
Rodrigo Arenas, an MP for the LFI party, said: “If the minister really lied... [she] has no place at the head of the education ministry.”