Anne Genetet, a moon landing at National Education at the worst of times – Libération

In his first interview with Releasethe new Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, claims to be able to prove shortly “that by working on files, we develop skills”. She who said she was driven by humility during the transfer of power (succeeding Nicole Belloubet, for those who would have lost the thread), admits today “dismayed” by the virulent criticism that followed. We can always sympathize, because we shudder when reading the words of those who have crossed our political path in the past and testify to Release of their experience. Obviously, the minister doesn’t have many friends, which in politics can prove fatal. Born from an anti-system civil impulse, macronism is deflating before our eyes like an all-political balloon. We had to squeeze this one in, buy the silence of that one and National Education is so little considered that we can put anyone there who doesn’t annoy the other camp too much. Any person, and it was Anne Genetet, who is only the sad illustration of this drift. According to Suetonius, the Roman emperor Caligula appointed his horse to the post of consul, a now classic image of the victory of politics over competence. Genetet is the 36th Minister of Education under the Fifth Republic and it is likely that some of her predecessors were just as unsuitable as she is. But its landing – we are tempted to see it as a moon landing – on rue de Grenelle falls at the worst time, when teachers and parents are on edge after series of reforms which have in no way improved the status of the public school, and when the global level of French students continues to decline. Our expectations being at their lowest, Anne Genetet can only surprise. But if we know the fate of Caligula, history has not recorded what happened to his horse.