Immigration Museum Chief Is Macron's Surprise Education Choice

Pap Ndiaye, a historian specialising in minorities who currently heads the museum of the history of immigration in Paris, is President Emmanuel Macron's surprise choice to head the French education ministry

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th May, 2022 ) :Pap Ndiaye, a historian specialising in minorities who currently heads the museum of the history of immigration in Paris, is President Emmanuel Macron's surprise choice to head the French education ministry.

Whereas most of the top ministerial posts in Macron's new cabinet that aims to take the government into parliamentary elections next month went according to script, Ndiaye's nomination was a surprise to most observers.

His appointment carries on a tradition for Macron of taking prominent French personalities from outside politics to lead ministries, after he named star defence lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti justice minister in 2020.

Ndiaye is a historian with an international profile, specialising in the social history of the United States and minorities, who was named to lead the Museum of the History of Immigration last year.

He will now need to use all his experience and knowledge for taking on the new challenge of the education ministry, which has seen major tensions in the last years between his predecessor, Jean-Michel Blanquer, and teachers.

Born outside Paris to a Senegalese father and French mother, Ndiaye was for many years a professor at the elite Sciences Po university in Paris.

"In the field of history, he is someone who has been innovative and able to show a new way of understanding the past," said historian Pascal Blanchard.

"He's a teacher who knows what it's like to be in front of a class of students," he told AFP, adding, "In a diverse society, it is important to have someone who is attentive to diversity."