Villejuif: the educational city project attracts the wrath of teachers

Like him, dozens of teachers and school directors from the town were present on Monday noon in front of Villejuif town hall. Some were able to meet in the wake of the mayor (PCF) Pierre Garzon, who wants to test this device for schools around the Karl-Marx college, in a priority district of the city policy, located in the south of the town.

In the evening, the elected representative also exchanged with parents, teachers and representatives of the associative world.

“Foster educational continuity”

The “educational city” system was created in the wake of the Borloo report and tested for several years in Grigny (Essonne), more recently in Créteil Mont-Mesly, Orly-est and in the Bois-l’Abbé district, on Champigny-Chennevières. For its defenders, it aims to strengthen, in the same district, the synergies between the different actors of the educational community, namely the State, local communities, parents, associations, extracurricular workers, social workers, schools and colleges. The objective is to promote educational continuity and success, within and outside of school, from early childhood to professional integration.

Its detractors present it as a Trojan horse of the Minister of Education to impose his reforms. “We ask that the mayor overstep this labeling project,” says Luc Bénizeau. We must not put a finger in the gear of the territorialization of the school, otherwise we will fall into another world. “

The role of the principal of the college worries

At the head of one of the schools concerned, Nathalie Miszczak is worried at the idea of ​​”seeing school principals come under the control of a local potentate”, namely the principal of the district college. She recalls in passing the experiment mentioned recently by the Head of State during a trip to Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). That of seeing school directors themselves choose the teachers for their team. “I do not believe in coincidences,” slips this worried professional.

Knowing these fears, Pierre Garzon wants to reassure himself on the action of this head of the establishment: “He has a coordinating role, but he does not constitute the hierarchical top deciding everything for the schools of the educational city”, underlines- he does.

The elected official shows his willingness to co-construct this project with the various local actors and thus “remove all ambiguities”. Meetings and other times of discussion, why not with Philippe Rio, the mayor (PCF) of Grigny, will be organized in the days and weeks to come.

The application must be submitted before October 30, with a view to certification for a period of three years. “We are going to write together, in black and white, what we want and what we don’t want for this experiment, particularly in terms of pedagogical autonomy”, explains Pierre Garzon, well aware that this point feeds a lot of questions.

Potentially significant funding

The mayor of Villejuif is of course interested in the funding to which this labeling gives access. “This can represent from a few tens of thousands of euros to several hundreds of thousands of euros, depending on the project,” he emphasizes, recalling that Villejuif does not have the financial means of other municipalities in Val-de. -Marne better off. It is therefore important, according to him, “to seek funding to help the city districts which suffer from impoverishment and unequal access to knowledge”.

“Rather than destroying everything, we should put more money for public schools, for teacher training and remuneration, for the hiring of school nurses and doctors, and so on. », Points Nathalie Miszczak. Pierre Garzon naturally agrees with this expectation of resources. He hopes to obtain substantial results through this labeling, which would finance in particular what the city is already doing in educational matters outside of school.