Question 14264 — nursery and primary education

Summary

Mr. Jean-François Coulomme alerts the Minister of National Education to the alarming situation of orphan schools. In its report for May 2025, the Court of Auditors recalls that France is one of the OECD countries in which the educational level of students from more disadvantaged backgrounds has been declining for 20 years and where social inequalities have the greatest impact on educational outcomes. To act, the country has been pursuing a policy since 1981 priority education which today concerns 21% of students and which tends to meet the objectives of the education code. Priority education is currently organized in networks: the REPs first, but also the REP+ which, subject to greater academic and social difficulties, logically concentrate more resources. The REP or REP+ classification therefore constitutes significant assistance for the schools concerned, resulting in reduced numbers in classes; specific project financing; teachers' service time allocated to pedagogical reflection; the implementation of parenting support actions; recognition of the commitment of teachers through a bonus. How can a school with an extremely low social positioning index and bringing together all the most unfavorable indicators of schools classified as REP+, can it join the priority education network to access these resources? The answer is simple: your home college must itself be classified REP or REP+. And this is precisely an aberration. This choice to label schools according to a network logic, that is to say according to the labeling of the college to which they are attached, has led to situations of so-called "orphan" schools which do not benefit of the REP classification even though the sociological reality of their audience would justify it. These orphan schools are the forgotten ones of the Republic while their students with the same profiles as those of the REP+ are not entitled to any state aid and the teaching teams work there in the most difficult conditions in the country. In the absence of revision of the priority education map, which was to be done every 4 years, the The ministry responsible for national education has created additional mechanisms since 2018, such as local support contracts (CLA). The Court of Auditors indicates that the whole now appears complex, difficult to read and struggles to respond to the diversity of needs. The Minister announced for his part that in the absence of this revision of the priority education map, specific measures would be taken for around twenty middle schools and 66 schools from the start of the 2026 school year. These unclassified nursery, primary or elementary schools which present significant social vulnerabilities will in particular be the subject of “particular attention paid to the number of students per class”. It will also be possible to open an additional school teacher position and set up compensation for special, transitional missions pending the overall revision of the priority education card, for all school and college teachers”. 66 schools? It's indecent. The 2019 Territory and Success mission report, commissioned by Mr. Blanquer, counts nearly 500 orphan schools educating more than 55,000 students. For his part, the MP will only cite one: and like the majority of orphan schools, it is located in a priority district of the city (QPV) in an urban municipality, that of Chambéry. This is the Biollay school, which is sadly representative of orphan schools: nearly 340 students attend this school from the very small section from nursery to CM2; 26 foreign languages ​​coexist there; its IPS (social positioning index) is 76.7, the sixth lowest of schools in the Savoie department; 10% of students have a disability; more than 50% are students in need special education (EBEP). However, despite this alarming situation, the Biollay school is excluded from the priority education aid network because its home college is not certified and it therefore does not benefit from any consideration of its particular situation. The teaching team fights every day to try to help these forgotten children of the Republic, without any recognition from the State for their investment. This breach of equality undermines the founding principles of the Republic. As the solemn affirmation of Article 1 of the Constitution reminds us: working for equality is a duty for the State and for everyone. In the event that the Biollay school is not one of these famous 66 schools which will benefit from a special status outside the REP, what does the Minister intend to do for this school and all the others who would not have the chance to be selected? He asks him when the Government will finally put an end to the problem of orphan schools, revise the priority education map and allocate resources in line with the reality on the ground.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.