In the National Assembly, the debates around the law consolidating the republican principles (ex-law against separatism) have started. One of the articles concerns family education. Parents who have chosen this method of education are worried … with good reason.
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“Every child on French territory must go to school”
“The school is the backbone of the Republic”
School is good for children.
Three sentences taken from Jean-Michel Blanquer’s presentation to the deputies meeting in a special committee, to study the bill on the values of the Republic, and which summarize the government’s position on what education should be.
Jean-Michel Blanquer in front of the deputies.
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What about children educated as a family?
They are currently 62,000 children to be educated by their parents outside the school system. A number transmitted by the mystery of national education, and which includes children registered with the CNED, who therefore do their learning at a distance and are not traditionally included in the mechanisms of family education
For the government, family education is sometimes a pretext to recruit children into sects or underground schools. A reality difficult to define insofar as the Minister of National Education does not advance any figures or data, only “field assessments“.
To put an end to these phenomena, the bill therefore intends to abolish any alternative choice to the school of the Republic.
A total turnaround on the part of the minister who, in June 2020 had thus responded to Senator Jean-Marie Bockel who asked him whether he should go so far as to ban or further condition home education :
“Freedom of home education has a strong constitutional basis, which must however be balanced with other principles […]. I think we have to apply the rules that we established in the 2019 law. The implementation begins; we are in the ascending phase, but the objective of 100% of controls carried out has not been reached. There is therefore still concrete progress to be made. However, legally speaking, I believe we have struck a good balance. “
The LR deputy of Maine-et-Loire, Anne-Laure Blin, member of the special committee responsible for discussing this bill, does not hide her perplexity in the face of this dogmatic speech.
” It is paradoxical, we are discussing on the basis of a text which relates to the values of the Republic and which in fact will restrict freedoms. “
“Where in my opinion this poses a problem is that we refuse to trust families. They are immediately suspicious. The state wants to fight against underground schools and radical Islam, to which I subscribe, but he has the wrong target. Rather, it should equip itself with the means to seek out children who are outside the school system and who are in danger.“
Jean-Michel Blanquer’s position is unambiguous: tomorrow’s freedom to teach will be subject to a system of restrictions and derogations. “We had a declaratory regime and we are moving to a prior authorization regime ”.
Several specific circumstances, which they will have to justify, will allow families to opt for home education. Whether their children are great sportsmen or intensely practice an art. Families of travelers, those still whose child suffers from a handicap, or who live too far from a school establishment.
But no accommodation is planned for ordinary families.
Those who, out of philosophy, out of envy, because they believe that school is not necessarily good for their children, have chosen to educate them at home.
Families headlong against the bill
Faced with what they consider to be an attack on their life choices, the families in the region who run the home education networks and schools outside the contract are mobilizing. After demonstrating in Nantes, and launching a petition, they dismantle figures to support the arguments of the Minister, by establishing a photograph of the reality of family education.
On this subject, the editorial staff recommends
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© Collective for freedom of instruction in Pays de la Loire
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© Collective for the freedom of education in Pays de la Loire
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For many, the ban on homeschooling looks like a tragedy. Many parents, mothers in particular, have given up their careers, their desires to educate their children. The balance and harmony of many families are organized around this mode of education.
Beyond that, we can ask another question. Is it for the State to direct the education of children?
Through this subject, which may seem anecdotal because it only concerns a minority of citizens, and which goes far below the media radars, the State seems to want to strengthen its omnipresence and its role of surveillance even among the youngest.
“At the moment we are only at the very beginning of the legislative review”, adds Anne-Laure Blin, who hopes that the debates will make it possible to relax the government’s provisions.
The 70 parliamentarians gathered in the special committee chaired by François de Rugy will discuss the “spirit of the text” in January.
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