“The rules are the same”: the Minister of National Education justifies his choice to educate some of his children in the private sector

He chooses to be transparent. The new Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, declared to BFMTV this Thursday, October 30, that he has “children who receive their education in both the public and private sectors under contract.”

Asked in detail about the training of his children, Édouard Geffray explains “having them on both sides”, that is, in the public sector and in the private sector under contract. Does this mean that the Minister of National Education does not have confidence in public education?

“If I did not have confidence in public schools, I would not have dedicated a third of my professional life to it and today I would not be a minister,” he declares, calling himself “guarantor of the university of education (…) and of the protection of students” and “of being there for all the students of this country.”

Édouard Geffray also states that “the teachings are by nature the same and must be the same” in public and private education. “The rules are the same,” the minister insists on our antenna.

Édouard Geffray, experience in National Education

These comments come as the issue of the education of the children of the Ministers of National Education becomes central. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, predecessor of Édouard Geffray, had sparked controversy upon her arrival to the government, justifying her decision to transfer her children to the private sector, to the Stanislas high school in Paris, due to her “frustration” with “packages of hours” of teaching not replaced during the absence of teachers in public schools. Comments that aroused the anger of the opposition and teachers’ unions.

Director of François Bayrou’s short-lived cabinet at the Ministry of Justice in 2017, Édouard Geffray was then general director of human resources at the Ministry of National Education, before being appointed director of school education by Jean-Michel Blanquer. A position he held from 2019 to 2024. From Pap Ndiaye to Gabriel Attal, he will have met several Ministers of National Education, until his own appointment by Sébastien Lecornu on October 12.