Universal national service: the government is considering a 12-day internship in second class

The government is still walking on eggshells with universal national service. In order not to offend the youth organizations in full mobilization against the pension reform, the executive had preferred not to rush to generalize it. Questioned by our readers at the end of April, Emmanuel Macron confirmed that it could not “be made compulsory across the country overnight”.

But he had pleaded for a “gradual increase in load”. Since then, the Secretary of State for Youth Sarah El Haïry is still looking for the right formula to gradually develop the system. But each hypothesis creates a stir. Thus the reactions are strong after the new track proposed by its services.

It would be, as revealed Politics And France Info, a 12-day course, during school time, for second-year students. “We are at the start of the discussions”, ures the Secretary of State to Le Parisien who began to discuss the idea with the first unions received this week. High school teachers, on a voluntary basis, will be able to apply.

“A stay that would cause the students to lose ten days of cl”

Informed of this idea, the secretary general of the SNES-FSU does not look favorably on a “stay that would cause the students to lose ten days of cl”. “We have the feeling that the SNU is becoming a republican green cl,” says Sophie Vénétitay. The same skepticism with the president of the PEEP, Olivier Toutain. “There are already difficulties in ensuring all the hours of lessons so if the SNU takes on school time, it will miss even more”, he explains to our newspaper.

“It is out of the question to remove twelve days of cl from our children, on the contrary it is necessary to add more”, also reacted strongly this Friday on France Info the deputy Insoumis Alexis Corbière. “But it won’t be twelve days when we learn nothing, replies the Secretary of State, we are working on the educational project”.

Unions and parents of students also point out that for the moment the SNU is reserved for young people aged 15 to 17, with French nationality. What will happen to foreign students in a second cl? they ask, emphasizing that if they could not participate in the system, we would be far from the promises of “cohesion” and ” Diversity boasted in Emmanuel Macron’s project.

“Of course non-French students will be able to participate,” defends Sarah El Haïry, who ensures that the legal terms will be modified. Other criticisms emerge, such as the fear that these stays will only take place between young people from the same cl, or from the same department, once again far from the promise of bringing together students from different regions. There too, the entourage of the Secretary of State promises that cles and departments will be mixed. It also puts on the table the idea that participating students can promote it to Parcoursup.

Implementation rather early 2024

After the first information reporting a system put in place next September, it is now more a question of the “end of the first quarter”, or the first months of 2024… So nothing well defined yet. “This is a track under study because consultations and discussions are underway with the trade unions. But absolutely nothing is recorded, nor arbitrated at this stage, ”confirms Matignon.

A multilateral meeting with the unions, the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye and Sarah El Haïry is to be held in mid-June.