barely arrived, Anne Genetet (already) exasperates the teachers

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“Above ground”, “offbeat”, “she does not control her files”… At the head of National Education for just 15 days, the novice Anne Genetet is off to a rocky start, to say the least. Between “balls” and criticized choices, this unknown to the general public and teachers leaves the world of education cautious.

The former Macronist member of the French Abroad who, in the National Assembly, spoke on defense issues, made her first field visit to the Gabriel-Havez college in Creil (Oise) which in 1989 was the epicenter of the “headscarf affair” with the exclusion of three young veiled girls, the beginnings of four decades of controversy around secularism at school.

The minister spoke carefully with teachers and students about the various projects implemented in the establishment, on harassment, secularism or civil security.

No immediate exit from the road like Amélie Oudéa-Castéra

During this exercise, which was as detailed as it was scrutinized, she avoided the immediate departure of one of her predecessors Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who had justified the schooling of her children in a posh private establishment with “packages of “hours not seriously replaced” in the public, sparking an outcry.

Vilified since her appointment for her lack of knowledge of the educational world, the new minister, like “AOC”, had to face a first trial of disconnection, due to her past activity of consulting for expatriates recruiting domestic workers in Singapore in the 2010s.

“She gives the impression of clinging to the buzz to rebuild her image”

Striving to be attentive, she launched an invitation to the ministry of TikToker SenseidesMots, author of a petition proposing a change in school schedules so that “the most demanding classes” take place “only in the morning”. which collected more than 300,000 signatures.

Invitation immediately postponed after the publication of old homophobic messages from the TikToker whose content was denounced by left-wing deputies such as LFI Rodrigo Arenas, who requested “the cancellation of this meeting”.

Contacted by actu.frSophie Vénétitay, general secretary of SNES-FSU (main union in secondary education), for her part sees this as a message of “disdain” towards teachers.

Basically, she tells us: I prefer to receive a TikToker, rather than a democratically elected union. And besides, we don’t understand why his team didn’t see SenseidesMots’ controversial profile? She gives the impression of clinging to the buzz to rebuild her image.

She announces a time of contemplation at school… her backpedaling ministry

Friday, during his first interview on RTL, the minister got tripped up by announcing “a time of contemplation” for October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. Shortly after, his ministry had to backpedal, specifying that it was a commemoration of the deaths of the killed teachers Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty, planned for the following Monday.

A message that makes Sophie Vénétitay cringe:

There, it’s more than a dumpling. This reveals great confusion. She does not control the files of her ministry. We are talking about the assassination of two teachers, an event which hit us hard and which she is obliged to know about.

“Don’t change course”

Since taking office, Anne Genetet has been walking on eggshells in an educational world in crisis, scalded by unprecedented ministerial instability with five ministers since the re-election of Emmanuel Macron in 2022 (Pap Ndiaye, Gabriel Attal, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, Nicole Belloubet and Anne Genetet).

Eager to embody stability and appeasement, she affirmed during the transfer of power with her predecessor Nicole Belloubet that she did not want to “change course” on educational policy.

This is also what she repeated to the unions she received on Wednesday October 2. “She told us, ‘The ship is going to stay on course, I’m just going to change speed.’ She even assured us that the start of the school year had been successful,” chokes up the trade unionist, herself a SES teacher in Essonne, who emphasizes that “a teacher was missing in 56% of middle and high schools in France” .

It remains to be seen how much time will pass before the next blunder. “If she stays in office…”

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