“The profession of teacher cannot be learned in two days”
Faced with the lack of teachers, the Toulouse academy has hired contract teachers, some of whom have no teaching experience. Pierre Priouret, mathematics teacher in a Toulouse high school and general secretary of the SNES-FSU Toulousedenounces the significant use of contractors and especially their lack of training.
The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, assured that all establishments would have “a teacher in each class” at the start of the school year. Is this the case?
There is not far from a teacher in each college and high school of the Toulouse academy. In any case, this corresponds to the first feedback we have on about thirty establishments. We’ll be fine-tuning all of this over the next few days, but for now we’re seeing what we feared.
How to explain the lack of teachers in the Toulouse academy for the start of the school year?
There are several factors. The first is the poor performance of secondary competitions. We didn’t fill up. There were not enough candidates to cover the needs at the start of the school year. This explains a large part of the difficulties we are experiencing. Then, there has been a sharp deterioration for several years in the attractiveness of the teaching profession.
We therefore have fewer and fewer candidates, laureates and even contracts because many are recruited by other employers in much better salary situations. People avoid or flee the teaching function. The job is scary. Student numbers are high. In addition, a teacher is hired at 13% above the minimum wage for recruitment at bac +5 level. It’s actually unattractive.
There is also a problem of dissemination within National Education…
Many teachers try to leave her and do not succeed. It’s a job where you are poorly considered, poorly paid, where you give a lot, the responsibility is immense and the workload too. When people have a better opportunity they smoke. You can have a passion for the job, but when you lose 25% of purchasing power in 15 years, it’s complicated to support your family.
The phenomenon of diffusion is not massive, but it is a reality of the profession. Last year, we had 400 requests for conventional break from teachers in the Toulouse academy. And I’m not talking about those who resigned without compensation. There is an impressive movement of colleagues who are looking for ways out to make other chosen ones better considered and remunerated.
How to encourage more new teachers?
We must act on wages immediately, then build pools of personnel likely to integrate the National Education. For this, we need students who project themselves into the profession of teacher. Over the past five years, 7,900 jobs have been cut. The students therefore understood that there would probably be no places for them. We must give visibility to long-term recruitment and also help students finance their studies.
We are thus explaining a system that worked in the 70s and 80s when there was the same recruitment problem. It is to pay the students, to pre-recruit them from the license, to pay them to study in exchange for a commitment on their part to serve national education, to pass the competitions and to remain a civil servant for a certain period. time. Failing which, they would have had to repay the sums they would have received.
Contract workers facing the shortage of teachers in the Toulouse academy
To make up for the lack of teachers, the Toulouse academy has hired contract workers. They are 260 in the first degree and 930 in the second. Is it too much for you?
It’s way too much. These are permanent missions. He will have to recruit permanent staff to cover the hours to be provided in front of the students and the replacements for the staff when he falls ill.
Despite these hirings, 170 secondary school positions are still vacant. The rector announced “better figures than those of last year”. Is that the case ?
We had 800 uncovered teaching positions last year. There we have at least 200. So the numbers are lower, but the problem is more serious. Last year, these vacancies were linked to internal difficulties at the rectorate. Clearly, the physical persons existed except that they had not been affected. They were therefore reachable and available to take up a position.
This year, it’s a breeding ground problem. There is a lack of contract staff. It is thus necessary to seek the people, to make the contracts then to assign them. Moreover, there were around 1,400 contracts last year. The rectorate thus knows that it will have to recruit another 500 in total. 200 are missing immediately and 300 more will be needed to cover the sick leave that will inevitably happen.
Unlike the second degree, there is no lack of contract in the first. All positions have been filled. How to explain it?
The rectorate had recourse to the complementary list, that is to say that it recruited 68 students who had not passed the bar of the competitions but were not very far from it. This possibility does not exist in the second degree or very little.
I think the rectorate also prioritized the first degree for a simple reason. When a math teacher is absent, students have three or four less lessons in a week. When a primary school teacher is absent, there is no class all day. The impact is not at all the same. This also explains why the first degree has always had much more efficient replacement systems than those of the second.
Among the contract workers hired within the academy, some have no teaching experience. They are 150 in number in the second degree. Before taking over a class, they will complete a two-day crash course. What do you think ?
I don’t know if you agree to get on a plane driven by a pilot trained over two days… Training a teacher takes five years, two of which to ensure disciplinary mastery. Then there is a year of training during which the teachers are part-time. It was therefore considered that it took at least six months of training before being able to take a class, so two days is nothing…
Not even two days moreover, since there is a day of self-training on an online site. So it’s almost like opening a book. The profession of teacher cannot be learned in a book, nor in two days. There is a real deskilling of the trade which is being carried out.
The rector assured that contract workers without experience will “not be in charge of difficult classes or exams”. Do you believe it?
He can issue the recommendations he wants, the reality is not that at all. The services were organized well in advance and moved during the summer because we made adjustments according to class sizes. The contractors will be where there are holes left.
Moreover, the rector can make this commitment for the start of the school year, except that the real problem will arise in a month or two when winter arrives and the teachers will fall ill. The contractual substitutes will have to take the classes without teachers whether they are in examination or not.
Implementation of a protocol for contract workers this year
A protocol for contract workers was implemented this year with the trade unions. In addition to an increase in the recruitment index, it provides for recruitment over 12 months instead of 10. Is this a big step forward?
It is a commitment to pay for summer vacation. What the rectorate did little or nothing. It was indeed not really in the nails of the regulations for lack of budget. This year, he obtained an extension which allows him to undertake to pay for summer holidays as provided for by the regulations. This is nothing exceptional.
In reality, the rectorate will just put itself in the rule because it has the budget to do so. But he puts it forward as an argument to try to attract contract workers. Many had also ended up no longer applying to the rectorate because they were tired of not being paid on summer holidays as they were nevertheless entitled to.
Does this protocol for contract workers satisfy you?
We can only welcome the progress for contract workers. But this poses a fundamental problem. The Ministry assigns public service missions, which are long-term missions normally carried out by civil servants, to contractual staff. This therefore creates precariousness and also weakens the profession because contract workers are recruited at bac +3 and therefore not at the same level as teachers. They are also not trained at all or very little.
We had thus asked within the framework of the negotiation of the protocol that the contracts can be recruited according to a contract which remunerates them for more hours than they do not guarantee in front of the pupils. This would have allowed a training system to continue in the first weeks of taking office and prevent them from quitting. These are people who want to try teaching, it is very commendable. But every year, we have contract workers who stay two days in the establishment and leave running because they are not prepared, there is a lot of work and it is a job that is not easy. don’t improvise.
Insufficient health protocol for the teacher
For this year 2022-2023, the health protocol has changed. It is alleged since there are now only three alert levels, instead of four, and a base level. What do you think of this new health protocol?
We are at the base level for the start of the school year. I think the government didn’t dare to call it level zero because it didn’t feel good. In other words, nothing is planned. The only practical recommendation is to break down the classes. We will therefore open the windows when we can. I am not an epidemiologist but if a wave is confirmed, we will take it head on.
There should have been a facility equipment policy to ensure air quality. There are standards that are not respected at all. It is a big project that the local authorities must take charge of, without compensation from the State. The sinews of war is money and opening the windows is not expensive. But the effectiveness remains very limited…
Is there a fear of having to do another distance learning course?
Yes, because we have not yet fully recovered the learning that was broken during the first confinement. Some students have not completely regained student posture and have significant gaps that have not yet been filled. The closure of an establishment is a disaster. But nothing is done to prevent it.