CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
Gabriel Attal and Éric Dupond-Moretti at the Beauvau hotel of the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, March 1, 2023.
SCHOOL – Suggest to parents whose child “starts hanging out with bad people” that he be sent to a boarding school, far from his neighborhood, to “find a frame” rather than ” to sink into the spiral of delinquency and sometimes crime “. This is one of Gabriel Attal’s proposals against minor violence set out last week during a speech in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne) and which should lead to the adoption of measures within two months.
The outlines of this proposal will be clarified this Monday, April 22 during a trip by the Prime Minister to Nice to visit one of the establishments participating in an experiment of this sending to boarding schools. The Imperial Park high school must accommodate “around sixty young people during the holidays, to put them back on the right path”indicated Gabriel Attal Thursday evening on BFMTV.
“ There are tens of thousands of boarding school places in our country that are desperately empty.underlined the Prime Minister. I see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to quickly and effectively cut a young person away from bad associations. » According to the Ministry of Education, in 2022-23, just over 175,000 boarding places were occupied out of the nearly 230,000 places recorded in 1,618 establishments. That is an occupancy rate of 65.9% in middle school, 79.1% in high school, and 77.5% in vocational high school.
“ Not just a repressive object”
And to develop: “My idea is simple: before a young person really falls into delinquency, when we realize that he is starting to hang out with bad people, to hang out in the street, we will suggest to parents that their child be sent in boarding school, far from his neighborhood and those who pushed him to dive. »
As for the details of this measure, such as its possible mandatory nature, they remain to be defined. Sending a teenager to boarding school will be registered “ as part of a consultation with families and all stakeholders “, specified Matignon, “ nothing imposed or repressive”.
“ Boarding school should not only be seen as a repressive object (…) It is a chance for the young person to escape from a family environment, a social context and to have better chances of succeeding. Like what is done, for example, in excellent boarding schools. It’s a way to bounce him back and help him succeed. », Pointed out the Prime Minister’s office.
During the holidays or all year round
Sending young people to boarding schools can be done according to “ at least two formulas »: during the holidays or throughout the school year. “ A formula where, during the holidays, boarding schools are open so that young people can be removed from their environment and supervised, from an educational point of view and the values of the Republicspecified Matignon. It is this option which will be tested from Monday. » The young people will be supervised by “actors” of “the city, youth or reserve police”.
The second formula, for the year, will consist of “ allow young people to go to boarding schools, establishments far from home to integrate into normal schooling.” It will be reserved for “young people whose environment we see is starting to become problematic. Without notion of violence, but precisely to avoid this slide, this shift towards violence or towards a deeper questioning of authority. »
As early as February, the Snes-FSU, the leading middle and high school union, denounced “ the Gabriel Attal version of the boarding school: a tool in the fight against delinquency “. “ Over the past 20 years, boarding school has reappeared in political discourse, not always for the better, being the subject of ideological issues. », regretted the union.
According to Olivier Raluy, CPE category secretary of the SNES-FSU teachers’ union, Gabriel Attal today defends ” the idea not as an educational boarding school but rather as a place of recovery “. “ For us, the boarding school is part of an educational project (…). It is above all a place of socialization, of academic success, it is a vector of social promotion “, he told AFP.
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