The Minister of Education has been defended before the National Assembly on Tuesday, as a result of opposition criticism on his departure in Spain on the eve of the start of the school year.
Le Monde
Jean-Michel Blanquer regretted the symbolism of his departure on vacation in Ibiza on the eve of the first school year, without formulating Mea Culpa, Tuesday, January 18th. “It turns out that the place I chose, I should have chosen another,” said the Minister of Education at the National Assembly, at the matter of the government.
Mediapart revealed Monday night that the minister was on Spanish Island when he announced a change to the health protocol at school. The disorganization generated in the institutions, with students to multiply the tests and directors crumbling under the administrative tasks, then the relief of this protocol on several occasions, resulted in a sense of ras-le-bowl among the staff of the personnel. Education – all full increase in contaminations by SAR-COV-2 related to the Omicron Variant. An ample strike had followed on January 13th.
“Do not let us lose in the accessory”
“Was I the right to take a few days off after this year? Asked the Minister of Education before the members. Are there any meetings or elements That I had to do in this period that I did not have done because of [of these holidays in Ibiza]? Would decisions would have been different if I had been elsewhere? “And to answer:” No, of course . “
“For two years, with the majority, with my teams, with all the teachers of France, we hold the politics of the open school, that’s what is essential and do not get lost in the Accessory “, supported Mr. Blanquer. “For two years, I have been working seven days a week for the educational management of the health crisis. Thanks to the work of all, including teachers, France has been the country of the open school. I took five days off . On the link every day with my department at the service of the school “, then repeated the minister In a message published on Twitter – He had to make new statements, Tuesday night, during the TF1 television journal.
For teacher unions, these holidays are “a terrible symbol”. “It’s even more the gap that already existed between the minister and his staff,” responded to the France-Presse Agency (AFP) Guislaine David, Secretary General of SNUIPP-FSU, the first primary school union. The revelations of Mediapart are published before a new day of mobilization and strike in schools, Thursday, to the call of several unions, to ask “strong answers” against the “chaos” generated by the CVIV-19 crisis .
In the face of these reactions, the government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, was content to ensure that the minister was “at his task”. “There is a rule that is fixed for the government with a vacation: you have to be permanently reachable, with its task. I have no reason to think that it was not the case for Mr. Blanquer” , he said.