During the oral question session in the Senate on Tuesday, March 9, Finistère Senator Michel CANÉVET, interviewed - in place of his colleague from Indre-et-Loire Pierre LOUAULT-, Sarah EL HAIRY, the Secretary of State for Youth and Engagement on the issue of class closures and inter-communal educational groups (RPI). The issue of rural schooling is all the more important given that we are at the stage of developing school maps and it is important to take into account the difficulties faced by students in rural areas, especially when they have previously made the effort to set up inter-communal educational groups", stresses Michel CANÉVET.

Acknowledging the government's willingness to be "vigilant about the schooling of students in preparatory courses", he adds that "one can see on the Indre-et-Loire of course, but it can be extended to many departments, the difficulties in maintaining classes in these areas. Sometimes you have to multiply the levels which is detrimental to a good learning of the acquired especially in CP classes. While the senator acknowledges "the efforts that were made by the government last year to maintain classes and ensure that no class closures would occur", he nevertheless stresses the need for this to happen "more significantly in these territories, because when classes are lost, it is difficult to reopen them, and it is difficult not to see an exodus It is difficult for elected officials who are attached to their school." For the Minister, primary school is "a necessary pillar for the start-up in life and priority of the government". Based on a series of figures: creation of 11,900 positions in a context of sharp demographic decline with a drop of 150,000 students in the 1st degree, duplication of the classes of CP and CE1 in priority education, the beginning of the duplication of classes in large kindergarten sections, a cap of 24 in CP-CE1 classes, an increase in the number of teachers per 100 students) , it reminds that "priority must be given to fundamental knowledge: reading and counting". And to insist that, "since the beginning of 2019, in accordance with the commitment of the President of the Republic, no school closures in rural areas can take place without the agreement of the mayors, and this is maintained. « . This observation is shared by Michel CANÉVET, who also wishes to draw the government's attention to "other teaching networks, because if we can be satisfied with the reality of IPRs, we must also take into account not only public education, but also other educational networks that can be dense in certain sectors, such as Brittany, so that they can also have special attention from the government"