The new Academic Director of National Education Services (Dasen) in Lot-et-Garonne succeeds Patrice Lemoine, who left in the middle of the school year, called, in January, to the office of the Minister of National Education, where he is now a “school for all” advisor.
Alexandre Falco began his career in National Education as a sports teacher. A habit he kept. He himself readily admits to running or walking daily, even in the evening “with headlamps”. And in the morning, he arrives by bike at his new offices on rue Roland-Goumy. “I know the benefits of sport. This year, it is a great national cause”, and, with the Olympic Games looming, “it is a year that can be a milestone for adopting a more active lifestyle”. Like these “numerous” schools which offer sports sections.
Moreover, as team captain, Alexandre Falco intends to have these principles adopted by the staff of the Academic Inspection…
And for the department? “I am going to apply what I did in my previous positions: meetings with local people and elected officials. I want to move around as much as possible and listen in order to understand needs and enter into dialogue. » Here again, it is his sense of the collective that speaks. “When we do things together, we do them better, serving students and families. And teachers who need consideration. »
“Attention to rural schools”
“This is not uncharted territory. I was a regional educational inspector in sports in the Bordeaux academy. So I had this responsibility for Lot-et-Garonne,” he recalls. The new Dasen keeps the memory of a territory “ideally located between Toulouse and Bordeaux”, which has changed a lot in terms of its infrastructure. Arriving from Lozère (48), “I am thinking of joining a territory in which men and women are committed to equal opportunities, that is what motivates me, so that young people can choose among the possibilities”.
It is not by chance that he made his first official outing the day after his arrival at the Antoine-Lomet vocational high school for a business school seminar. Which, like all vocational high schools, builds its training offer. “It’s about finding a balance between training provision and the needs of the region in order to engage in inclusive training.”
Equal opportunities requires success in primary school
But, and this comes from his previous position and his origins in a small village not far from Lyon, “I have particular attention to rural areas”. Places where “sometimes mobility can be scary”. While waiting to realize this attention, “I am working in continuity with what has been done. The teams have remained the same”, and it is with them that Alexandre Falco has been working for three weeks.
But some major principles are already emerging. Particularly at primary school level. “To enable equal opportunities, it is success, from primary school onwards, that is crucial, acquiring fundamental knowledge as early as possible,” believes Alexandre Falco.
The new Dasen will make its first return to Lot-et-Garonne in September. Finally, arriving during the year gives him a little more time to discover the people and the territory. He has already met with the union organizations of school heads. Those of teachers will follow in the coming weeks. Time to take ownership of a department in which he has chosen to come.
