Two new competent colleges to the west of Toulouse advocate social diversity
Encouraging social diversity in college is a priority for the Department of Haute-Garonne, the community in charge of managing the colleges. In this department with a socialist majority, we are proud to defend the values of “equal opportunities” and “living together from an early age”. The president of the department, Georges Méric, recalls that more than 56 million euros have already been invested for five years forend ghettoization“at college and to develop social diversity.
Over the past four years, 1,140 students from the Mirail district have been educated in seven so-called “privileged” colleges in Toulouse, further from their homes, to encourage social diversity. School transport by car is offered with “reasonable” travel times according to the Department.
Here are the new colleges
This start of the school year, among the new colleges that are opening their doors – in Beauzelle, Seysses, Cintegabelle, Toulouse Saint-Simon and Toulouse Guilhermy – the establishments Saint-Simon and Guilhermy have a vocation for social diversity. These establishments will welcome children from various social backgrounds from Thursday.
For Saint-Simon, 400 students from the more privileged and suburban Saint-Simon district, as well as a few children from Bellefontaine, a district made up of HLM and more disadvantaged.
For Guilhermy, 450 students from the former Badiou (at Reynerie) and Bellefontaine at Mirail colleges, two closed establishments which will be demolished, but also children from Cugnaux and Tournefeuille.
“A mini laboratory of living together”
Benoist Couliou, the principal of the new Saint-Simon college which opens this new school year, speaks of a “mini living-together laboratory“:
Vincent Gibert, vice-president of the Department in charge of Education defended the policy of social diversity in college, the results of which are good: the success rate for the college patent in June was 63% for these students distributed in establishments so-called “advantaged” (13% more than the previous year) and 80% of students chose a high school close to their home college, “proof that they have integrated” according to the chosen one.
Saint-Simon college: not so mixed that parents regret it
At the new Saint-Simon college, will be welcomed mainly young people who live in the Saint-Simon district and a few young people from Bellefontaine, those from the public elementary school Paul Dottin. But parents from the Bellefontaine district, met by France Bleu Occitanie, regret that their children cannot be automatically educated in this new establishment. A mother tells us that she asked for an exemption for her son, which was refused; he will therefore win to take the bus, to get up earlier to make the journeys, she laments.
The student recruitment sectors have been concerted, the school map has been defined “in consultation with citizens“, defends the Department. Students from Bellefontaine will thus be educated in Guilhermy and in so-called “favored” establishments in Toulouse so as not to recreate an establishment without mixing in Saint-Simon.
“Moi my daughter was already at the Nicolas Vauquelin public college in Mirail, with children from Bellefontaine, from La Reynerie, so I am happy that the mixing continues”, testifies this mother of Saint-Simon, whose daughter will return to class of 5th in Saint-Simon.
“Parents from Saint-Simon, for fear of social mixing, tensions, a lower level, have enrolled their children in private establishments. But I think that mixing origins from college enriches everyone. the kids. The ones that went private, I don’t think they’ll come back into the public.” – A mother from the Saint-Simon district
The Department says, without giving figures, that disadvantaged parents go to the public for this start of the school year, with the opening of new establishments. By 2027, twenty-two colleges will have been created in the Haute-Garonne department.