Manufactured
On April 17th, the Facebook page of La gauche m’a tuer (The Left killed me) which presents itself as a right-wing media outlet, published an article dating from June 2015 which states that the French Minister of Education, Najat Vallaud Belkacem, wishes to cancel philosophy classes for high school students specializing in literature and socioeconomics.
“Najat Vallaud Belkacem cancels philosophy for students specializing in literature and socioeconomics. Share massively”, states the Facebook page of La gauche m’a tuer which cites a ministerial decree which appeared in the French government’s ‘Official Journal’ on June 21st, 2015. A first draft of this decree concerning new timetabling in high schools omitted philosophy, history and geography classes for students studying literature and socioeconomics. The Ministry of Education immediately acknowledged “an error” and published a rectified version of the timetables two days later. However, on April 17th La gauche m’a tuer republished its June 2015 article without mentioning the correction.
(Translation: Corrected Official Journal high school timetables, with philosophy, history and geography)
Initially modified in order to integrate moral and civic education, the new high school timetables allocate 8 hours per week to philosophy classes for students specializing in literature, and 4 hours for those specializing in socioeconomics.
