why Michel Barnier’s idea of ​​calling on volunteer retired teachers is not unanimously accepted

“The Minister of National Education launches an appeal to retired teachers”. This is the title of an article from Worlddating from 1958. Objective at the time: to remedy the shortage of teachers, and in fact, absenteeism. Sixty-six years later, same problem, and same solution presented. In his general policy declaration, Michel Barnier declared, Tuesday October 1, that he wanted “finding answers to the challenge posed by replacing absent teachers”. He brandished this track: “Make more and better use of volunteer retired teachers.”

During a debate following his speech, facing Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister delayed and admitted that it was not a question of “the solution, obviously” but of“one of the solutions” under study. However, the measure has already been tested. In 1958, therefore, but also more recently, during the Covid-19 crisis. In April, the former Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, also proposed calling on retired teachers to ensure the establishment of need groups in French and mathematics, as reported by Public Senate.

But the use of this pool has never borne fruit, according to the unions. “This is clearly not a solution or an acceptable response. During the health crisis, we received feedback from our local teams. The rectorates in demand had at best one application for hundreds of needs”, says Catherine Nave-Bekhti, general secretary of CFDT Education.

“They have chosen to interrupt their activity, it is not to return there under the same conditions a few months later, unless there is a considerable financial advantage”, believes for his part Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of SNPDEN-Unsa. Contacted on this subject by franceinfo, the ministry has, for the moment, not responded to our requests. According to Catherine Nave-Bekhti, more and more teachers at the end of their career are retiring “with a discount, rather than doing the year too long”. “We are also alerted by those who, after the age of 50, request part-time work, which is very often refused to them”underlines the representative of the CFDT, whose union is also campaigning for a better health and prevention policy in National Education.

Philippe Watrelot, teacher and trainer retired since September 2022, already knows that he would not return to class if asked. “Retirement is a social achievement, you have to move on even if I did this job with great enthusiasm,” explains the former civil servant. He notices that “working conditions” are also “degraded” over the years. “Being a teacher obviously does not mean working deep in the mine. But there is a cruel lack of recognition which causes a lot of fatigue.”

Above all, the measure put forward by Michel Barnier does not allow us to approach the problem from the right end, according to these professionals. “We still have more than 3,000 positions that have not been filled in 2024”recalls Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the National union of high schools, colleges, schools and higher education (Snalc). As a result, positions are vacant from the start of the school year and “we empty the pool of replacement teachers very early” to compensate for these first shortcomings, explains Jean-Rémi Girard. Except that new absences may arise throughout the year.

According to a report from the Court of Auditors dating from the end of 2021, the replacement of school teachers is ensured in nearly 80% of cases. In middle and high school, this rate reaches 96%, but only for long absences, i.e. more than 15 days. In total, nearly 10% of lesson hours were “lost” at these levels of education during the 2018-2019 year.

To limit these absences, the priority is therefore to make young people want to take the competitive examination and to give better consideration to existing teachers – even if the latter are absent more for training reasons than for health reasons –, say the unions. .

“We have a big problem with salary and working conditions. In particular, class sizes should be reviewed”illustrates Jean-Rémi Girard. He also mentions the reform of the training, frozen since the dissolution. “We were not against it. There is something to be done with the bac+3 competition and the fact of gradually entering the profession over the following two years.”

Today, being a teacher has lost its prestige, as Philippe Watrelot laments: “If we go back to the time of Pagnol, the teacher, he was a notable person.” Bruno Bobkiewicz regrets a lack of recognition from the political class: “It is not by saying thank you from time to time that the problem will be resolved. Staff need us to promote what is positive at school.” In a survey carried out on his social networks in 2023, as he has done every year since 2017, Philippe Watrelot reports that the word which is more income to describe the past year is “contempt”. The same since 2019.

During his speech on Tuesday, Michel Barnier clearly mentioned the need to “reinforce the attractiveness of the teaching mission” but did not give any ideas on how to achieve this. “Everyone says it, but no one does it”Jean-Rémi Girard is wary.

The Prime Minister also estimated that teachers had less “need for major reforms and yet another overhaul of programs than for the proper functioning of their establishments”. A posture which contrasts with that of his predecessor, Gabriel Attal, whose reputation in the world of education was that of favoring political time over school time.