The State Council has decided. The highest administrative court annulled, on Thursday, November 28, the decree of March 15 by which the “need groups” – initially called “level groups” – were created in mathematics and French in secondary school at the beginning of the year school year 2024, as well as the attached note.
Among the various arguments raised by the eight annulment appeals presented to the Council of State, the judges maintained the reason of the incompetence of the Ministry of National Education to introduce this measure, rejected by the entire educational community, through a simple decree. . The education code provides that the minister is competent to modify the content of teaching, but neither the subjects, nor the schedules, nor the programs have evolved with the creation of needs groups. With this renovation, rue de Grenelle has “adopted rules relating to the organization of the teaching of French and mathematics at the university, which are the responsibility of the Prime Minister acting by decree”the judges write in their decision.
To continue, this emblematic provision of the “clash of knowledge” policy, desired by Gabriel Attal during his five-month mandate at the head of national education and continued by his successors, will therefore require a new text: a decree, signed by the head of government.
The cancellation will take effect on July 6, 2025.
The administrative judges thus followed the opinion of the public rapporteur who, on November 20, had requested annulment for the same reason. However, the cancellation will not take effect until July 6, 2025, at the end of the current school year. The justices believe that the consequences of an immediate application of their decision would be “manifestly excessive.”
The Council of State, on the contrary, rejected the arguments according to which the reform of needy groups, as implemented, contravened the principle of autonomy of establishments established by the education code. The provisions of the March decree, the judges write, do not “There is no obstacle for schools and teachers to choose the teaching methods they consider most appropriate.” […] » and leave the number of groups, their composition, as well as the organization of the year to the discretion of the establishments.
Likewise, the decision rejects the argument of ignorance of the law on the single college. The magistrates consider that the article of the education code according to which “Universities provide common education” not prevent “teaching arrangements”, and that needs groups do not equate to creating differentiated teaching “streams” because schedules, programs and expectations remain the same for all students, who can also, in theory, change groups during the year.
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