“We cannot accept that generations of students are being sacrificed,” says PEEP.

According to Laurent Zameczkowski, vice-president and spokesperson for the federation of parents of public education students, there is also a shortage of “educational assistants, school doctors” and “school nurses”.

“We cannot accept that generations of students are being sacrificed”launched Friday, September 6 on franceinfo Laurent Zameczkowski, vice-president and spokesperson for the federation of parents of students in public education (PEEP). According to a survey carried out by the secondary school teachers’ union, the Snes-FSU, there is a shortage of at least one teacher in 56% of French middle and high schools at the start of the school year.

“We absolutely must find a way to stop the situation”explains Laurent Zameczkowski. Education ministers come and go, but none have managed to stem the shortage of teachers at the start of the school year. According to him, there is also a lack of “education assistants, school doctors” or some “school nurses”. Actually, “There are gaps almost everywhere”he assures. A phenomenon that affects all subjects: “At one time, we were mainly struggling to recruit for scientific subjects, for example mathematics teachers. Today, it has spread to almost all subjects, we can no longer find music teachers”he says.

Hiring contract workers has its limits, assures Laurent Zameczkowski. “You have very good people who are gifted, who have a natural aptitude, but the contract workers, for the most part, are people who have not been trained, who have not received the pedagogy. Inevitably, there are difficulties” he explains.

In the first level (nursery and elementary school), pools of teachers available to carry out replacements have been set up. But this does not yet seem to be the ideal solution. “Unfortunately, even in the first level, despite this pool, we are quickly caught off guard because often, in order to ensure the start of the school year, we will directly tap into this pool”he adds.

While a new Minister of Education should be appointed by Michel Barnier, Laurent Zameczkowski has no particular preferences on the profile: “What matters is finding solutions,” he said.