France's new education minister, Amelie Oudea-Castera, is under increasing pressure over her decision to have her children attend a private school, overshadowing President Emmanuel Macron's bid to renew his second term, AFP reported.
Opponents have questioned her insistence on sending her one child to a private school because of understaffing at his state facility in an increasingly bitter and personal dispute.
Oudea-Castera was one of the main winners in last week's reshuffle, with the former French junior tennis champion given the education ministry alongside her previous portfolio as sports minister.
At the head of the new superministry, she will lead preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, as well as deal with one of the most sensitive issues in French politics.
She said she chose to switch to the private sector because of the "many teaching hours without a serious substitute" for her son's public school teacher.
Speaking to reporters during her first school visit as minister, she said she was "fed up like hundreds of thousands of families" across France.
All three sons of Oudea-Castera, who is married to the president of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Frédéric Audet, instead attended the prestigious École Stanislas, a Catholic school near her home in Paris.
The private school has been under investigation by the Ministry of Education since last year over reports in the press of homophobic and sexist behaviour. /BGNES