Franco-Moroccan Educator Brings Global Vision to Moulins High School as New Principal

The Banville high school in Moulins is changing hands. Aymeric Hilali, 63, former principal of the Blaise-de-Vigenère school district, has been promoted to the head of the institution. One of his ambitions is to "open up" the establishment through outside speakers. "I attach particular importance to the relationship between the socio-economic environment and educational institutions. We have undisputed skills, we have significant resources, and we rely on them. But there are also experts, in their particular fields, who can be a complement to our teachers to bring new insights," he has committed himself.

Aymeric Hilali is a Franco-Moroccan with a personal and professional background as dense as it is atypical. Moreover, he himself qualifies his career path as "absolutely not linear". He has notably been a lecturer at an English university, a life assistant at the Association of Paralyzed People of France (APF), a driving instructor trainer, and a boarding school teacher. After obtaining his baccalaureate in Morocco and a scholarship, he arrived in France in 1982 to study in Limoges. In 1987, he obtained French nationality. In 1995, he obtained a diploma as a vocational high school teacher (PLP). This was the beginning of his career as a teacher of English literature in vocational high schools. After passing the competitive examination for management personnel in 2003, he obtained his first position as deputy principal in the Allier department, at the Emile-Mâle college in Commentry.

A position he will also hold at the Célestins college in Vichy, before becoming principal at the Emile-Guillaumin college in Cosne-d’Allier. In 2017, he began a new professional experience as principal of Blaise-de-Vigenère, in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule. Today, he is leaving this school district to take over the leadership of the Banville high school, where he is succeeding Lydia Advenier, who has retired. He is happy to take the helm of this Moulins institution founded under Napoleon Bonaparte, which he knows perfectly. "This is a high school that counts in the department, not just in Moulins," he points out. "It has a real reputation. There is excellence among the students and in the teaching teams; there is also educational solidarity. And there is the prestige that goes with it."

The Franco-Moroccan continues: "A teacher told me: ’You are arriving at a historic high school’. It is true that it is impressive. It is a great privilege to be at the head of this institution where there is both a long history and a beautiful dynamism".