School textbook for French course features interview with Ecolo’s co-president Rajae Maouane: Minister for Francophone education Désir (PS) opens an investigation

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1. **The aim is to determine whether the textbook complies with the rules prohibiting, among other things, political propaganda in schools.**

   **An interview with Ecolo’s co-president Rajae Maouane is causing controversy. It is not because of what it says, but because of where it is published: it appears in chapter 7 of the new French textbook “Tangram”, which is the basis for the work of secondary school pupils in the French Community (FWB), and is spread over almost four pages, on pages 192, 193, 194 and 195 as part of an exercise. The textbook is used extensively by students in secondary 2 and 3.**

   When we leafed through it, the manual in question did not contain any other interview with a political representative, which raises questions about the neutrality of a supposedly apolitical textbook.

   Another questionable point is that the interview in question was conducted by two of the authors of the textbook, Isabelle Denayer and Isabelle Koziel. It is therefore not an interview conducted by a traditional media and included in the syllabus as an example, but an interview specifically conducted for the occasion.

   Rajae Maouane invites the students to contact her, to share a coffee or to “evolve together”. This is followed by a review of her political battles (feminism, discrimination, etc.), her role models, her priorities and even her love for certain artists or sportsmen.

   **An investigation opened by the minister Caroline Désir**

   Contacted by our colleagues at LN24, where Martin Buxant devoted his editorial to the subject on Wednesday, the publisher of the manual, Plantyn, did not wish to communicate at this stage.

   For her part, the PS Minister for Education Caroline Désir has opened an investigation, we learn. “Based on the information we have at this stage, the situation clearly warrants a thorough investigation. The Minister has therefore immediately instructed her administration to analyse the textbook in order to verify its compatibility with the charter to which publishers are subject and with the principles of the law on the school pact, which prohibits all political propaganda in schools. If this investigation reveals that the legislation is not being respected, a procedure to withdraw the textbook’s approval will be initiated.

   **Jeholet: “No place in schools”**

   The minister-president of the French Community also reacted, saying that a publisher “who spreads political propaganda in school textbooks has no place in schools”. He added: “And to have accepted this interview is at best clumsiness, at worst a mistake.

   **Rajae Maouane: “An honour for me”**

   On the social network Twitter, the co-president of Ecolo (and local councillor in Molenbeek) reacted to the growing controversy. She detailed her approach: “I received a request for an interview on my background, my interests and my political priorities. Of course, I responded positively. I knew that this request was part of a project to write a school textbook in which there would be a sequence entitled “Be Belgian once” (Sois Belge une fois). However, I knew nothing about the other personalities interviewed. It is an honour for me to be interviewed in this context, as other politicians have been before me,” she says, on her own initiative.

   On the other hand, she distances herself from the final treatment of her interview: “I am of course not responsible for the editorial choices of the editors and publishers, whose editorial freedom I respect 1000%. On the other hand, well beyond the question of my party, it is important for me to show young people that politics can also be the domain of young people, but also of women. Creating inspirations to strengthen democracy is important to me, so that the political class is as representative of the population as possible.”

   Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)