The return announced by the Minister of National Education to the four-day week, with the freedom granted to mayors to organize extracurricular time according to their possibilities, desires, and means, has given wings to Christian Estrosi, who had been one of the most active critics, bordering on institutional insubordination, of this “soon-to-be former law”.
The Mayor of Nice wasted no time; he called on the Minister to revert, as soon as the school year starts in September, to the “status quo ante”.
His request is strongly backed by the overwhelmingly majority support of the school councils and the “non-opposition” of the Rector of the Academy, Emmanuel Ethis.
“The re-establishment of a four-day school week would allow students to return to a more relaxed work pace and enable the city of Nice to offer young people, in collaboration with sports clubs and local associations – who have been strongly impacted by this reform – extracurricular activities that are more adapted to the reality of the area,” is the formal motivation.
In fact, it’s quite curious, since the genesis of the reform was exactly to allow young students to have schedules spread over 5 days instead of four, thus supposedly “more relaxed” and less stressful according to the educational psychologists who recommended it.
Well, as often happens, the same concepts can be used to support opposing arguments…that’s life!
