what are the principles, funding and controls for personal training in France? | EUROtoday

In January, the controversy over the education in a Catholic academic institution of the kids of the previous Minister of Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had make clear the political debate between the general public and the personal sector, but additionally the excesses of sure establishments (absence of social range, lack of state management, conservative drift, and so on.).

Three months later, the topic is relaunched by a parliamentary report offered Tuesday April 2 earlier than the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education of the National Assembly – began effectively earlier than the controversy – which requires reform of the system. Paul Vannier, La France insoumise (LFI) deputy for Val-d'Oise, and Christopher Weissberg, Renaissance deputy for French folks established exterior France, denounce opaque financing and inadequate controls; they suggest sanctions within the occasion of breaches of obligations.

To higher perceive the controversy, we should have a look at the group and present functioning of “private education” during which two million of the twelve million college students in France are educated.

What is personal training?

In France, freedom of training is likely one of the fundamentals of the Republic. The legislation imposes an obligation of training: all kids should profit from it in a college or of their household. The prerogative of the Church for hundreds of years, educating step by step turned public beneath the French Revolution, Napoleon and the Republic and broke away from faith by turning into secular on the finish of the nineteenth century.^e century.

Faced with monetary difficulties after the Second World War, personal training was anxious a few lack of velocity, despite the fact that institutions then accommodated 15% of main college college students and 40% of secondary college college students.

On December 31, 1959, the legislation on relations between the State and personal institutions, often known as the “Debré law”, legally regulated the system. It establishes a contract between personal institutions and the State. Support is supplied to establishments that preserve their “own character” in return for a sure variety of commitments resembling respecting the applications outlined by nationwide training and guaranteeing the reception of scholars with out distinction of origin, perception and opinion. Other legislative provisions, such because the so-called “Gatel” legislation handed in 2018 which goals to higher regulate personal colleges exterior of contracts, then supplemented this legislation.

Three kinds of personal academic establishments

Unlike public colleges which should welcome college students from their geographical space, personal colleges can select their college students, and set further academic prices (canteen, examine, and so on.). There are three kinds of institutions:

• Private institutions beneath affiliation contract

There are 7,500 throughout France: they’re contractually linked to the State and symbolize the overwhelming majority (greater than 9 out of ten) personal institutions. Historical heritage, 96% comes from Catholic training, with a really sturdy presence within the West: 40% of the employees on the Rennes academy, 38% for the Nantes academy).

When a personal college, school or highschool has concluded a contract with the State, it offers classes in accordance with the principles and applications of the Ministry of National Education. The overwhelming majority of the 142,000 personal academics are “contractual masters”. Recruited by aggressive examination as within the public sector, they’re employed and paid by the State however the remuneration differs considerably (social safety contributions within the personal sector are larger than these within the public sector). However, they don’t have civil servant standing, and are lined by the final retirement system.

Heads of personal institutions beneath contract are extra autonomous and versatile of their administration, and endowed with extra in depth powers than their public counterparts. “Some establishments have chosen to recruit fewer nurses to be able to recruit a psychologist”, notes a report from the Court of Auditors printed in June 2023. Another distinction, “unlike the heads of public establishments, heads of private education establishments are not required to report to the rectorates all serious problems or incidents occurring in the establishment. »

• Private establishments under simple contract

This type of contract only concerns primary schools and less than 5% of schools. Teachers are subject to the same training and remuneration conditions as their public counterparts (without being civil servants). These schools must have been in existence for five years to request to be contractually linked to the State.

The simple contract allows the school to make adaptations to public education programs, depending on the profile of the students enrolled (in medical-educational institutes which welcome disabled children, for example). Municipalities have the possibility of paying these establishments a municipal flat rate but are not required to do so.

• Private establishments outside of contract

Non-contract establishments were enrolling, at the start of the 2022 school year, nearly 82,500 students in nearly two thousand establishments – twice as many as in 2012.

These primary, middle and high schools have not signed a convention agreement with the State, and in fact do not receive any subsidy from national education. Families who wish to send their children to school there must therefore pay to access this training. The head of the establishment himself recruits teachers, who are paid by the establishment.

They have autonomous management, but must establish an opening declaration with the rectorate. They are free from the content and schedules of the lessons provided. Students must still acquire “ the common base » of knowledge.

How are private establishments subsidized?

As summarized by the Court of Auditors, the “funding provided by the State (…) is preponderant in the economic model » private establishments under contract.

In 2022, the Ministry of National Education spent 8.1 billion euros on contracted establishments. This public money finances almost 90% of teachers' salaries, and certain operating expenses (textbooks, educational documents, direct aid to students, etc.).

Private establishments can also benefit from other subsidies. In 2022, 1 billion euros were allocated by all other ministries, 3.1 billion by local authorities, 1.8 billion by public administrations.

In their information report on the financing of private education under contract, deputies Paul Vannier and Christopher Weissberg “believe that the compensation required from private establishments is (…) far from being up to the funding they receive as part of their association with the public education service”. As an instance, they cite “the deterioration of social and educational diversity, or their low participation in the implementation of certain public policies”.

What controls can the State train?

All personal institutions are topic to controls:

• THE administrative controls are carried out beneath the authority of the prefect and the rector of the academy. They make sure that the director and academics have the required diplomas and confirm that the operation of the institution respects obligatory training, public order, well being and social prevention and the safety of kids and younger folks. .
• THE academic checks are carried out beneath the path of the academy rector. It ensures that the teachings permit kids to accumulate information of ” common ground “ of abilities that each pupil should grasp by the age of 16.

Non-contract institutions are inspected the primary 12 months and “other checks may be organized subsequently, unexpectedly or not”explains the Ministry of Education on its web site.

Establishments beneath contract with the State are topic to those identical controls, however in additional depth since they need to respect the tutorial necessities supplied for of their contract. Their academics are evaluated beneath circumstances akin to these of the general public. The training code additionally authorizes monetary management to confirm the compliance of the usage of public funds.

In the occasion of breaches and non-compliance with the legislation, a proper discover is distributed to the top of the institution. If the state of affairs will not be remedied inside a set interval, the prefect might pronounce, by reasoned order, the momentary or everlasting closure of the institution or lessons involved. The dad and mom of the scholars are then ordered to ship their kids to a different institution.

Despite this authorized framework, “these controls are not or barely exercised”because the Court of Auditors highlighted in its June 2023 report:

• monetary management of personal institutions beneath contract “is not implemented”;
• academic management “ is “practiced” in a minimalist method”;
• administrative management “is only mobilized occasionally when a problem is reported”.

The Court of Auditors additionally deplores monitoring “not very rigorous” contracts concluded with these personal buildings, “certain rectorates do not have these documents on the basis of which substantial sums are nevertheless paid”.

This harsh statement is confirmed by the parliamentary report of April 2024, which deplores controls “very largely insufficient” : “At the current rate – five checks [financiers] per year for 7,500 establishments – the frequency of inspection of a private establishment is once every fifteen hundred years… Public educational establishments are, for their part, subject to approximately ten times more inspections”, write the 2 deputies. As for administrative controls, they’re primarily based solely on “rare reports”as for the Averroès Muslim highschool in Lille or the Stanislas school in Paris.

The authors of the report remorse the absence of an actual “scale of sanctions”which doesn’t permit a gradation between a easy formal discover and a termination of the affiliation contract with the State, the latter remaining ” extremely rare “.