An outgoing RN MP believes that French people with dual nationality should not be ministers. And takes the example of the socialist Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
Roger Chudeau explained that during her time at the Ministry of National Education, she “wanted to introduce Arabic learning for students in CP.
The former elected official is rekindling a controversy that is almost ten years old. At the time, there was no plan to impose Arabic in primary school for all students.
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Sometimes presented as the “RN’s education minister”, outgoing MP Roger Chudeau caused an uproar after an intervention on BFMTV. He considered that French people with dual nationality should not be appointed ministers.
He then took as an example the former Minister of National Education, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (2014-2017), Franco-Moroccan. The latter, assured the representative of the National Rally, “wanted to introduce Arabic lessons in CP”. On social networks, Jean Messiha gave his support to the RN parliamentarian. “Najat Vallaud-Belkacem introduced compulsory Arabic lessons in primary schools when she became Minister of National Education”a https://twitter.com/JeanMessiha/status/1806609189155852399 the Reconquest candidate in the legislative elections. Misleading words.
An optional language, such as Turkish or Portuguese
Marine Le Pen quickly disavowed the outgoing elected representative of her party, considering that his remarks on dual nationality were a “personal opinion” unrelated to the official RN line. His position also caused a reaction from Emmanuel Macron, who mentioned a “dissolution of minds and consciences”.
If he later assured that it was a “strictly personal opinion and in no way binds the RN”, Roger Chudeau has rekindled a controversy that is actually already old. His attacks on Najat Vallaud-Belkacem take us back to 2016, when she held the post on rue de Grenelle. In the ranks of the right, she was accused of wanting to generalize the learning of Arabic in schools. The outgoing MP, on BFMTV, for his part slipped in that she was “the only minister” to have “propose” teaching “early” of this language across France.
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Eight years ago, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem wanted “teaching Arabic” be done “from first grade”as soon as the State has the “means to do it”. It was, in his words, about promoting “a diversity of the offer of modern foreign languages”. Be careful, however: it was not a question of generalizing Arabic lessons to all CP pupils, but of developing a system which was called at the time “Language and Culture of Origin Teaching”, or “ELCO”.
Offered under conditions in certain classes from CE1, this program was aimed at the children of immigrant workers. Participation was optional, and allowed students, outside of school time and in addition to other learning, to benefit from 1.5 to 3 hours of weekly lessons in a foreign language. Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Serbo-Croatian or Spanish were among the possible choices, as well as Arabic. The minister wanted a change so that this learning could begin earlier in schooling, while retaining an optional nature.
“I believe that in our country, if there is one thing to do, it is to diversify the languages that students learn at school, because all these languages have their legitimacy and their interest”proclaimed Najat Vallaud-Belkacem at that time. “Is there any question of imposing the learning of Arabic in CP? The answer is no”, she insisted in response to the controversies targeting her. If a reform project had been carried out, so – among other things – that these “ELCOs” were provided by French teachers, the system ended up disappearing a few years after controversies. On February 18, 2020, Emmanuel Macron announced the end of these courses, which were taught to 80,000 students across the territory.
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