New measures to deal with the lack of teachers. “We are going to open an exceptional tenure competition in the spring of 2023” contract teachers, announced the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, Friday, August 26. “An organization as vast as the National Education needs a steering wheel of contract teachers”also said the minister, a few days before the start of the school year.
The profession is experiencing an unprecedented attractiveness crisis, with more than 4,000 unfilled positions this year in teacher competitions in the country, out of 27,300 open positions in the public and private sectors. “There is a lack of 1% of teachers in primary education, 8% in secondary education, it’s a bit too much, I readily admit ithad declared, the day before, the Minister of National Education, questioned on France 2. It’s not an optimal situation, I grant you that.”
Faced with the shortage of teachers, the Ministry of Education has gradually increased the use of these non-tenured teachers. Their number has almost doubled in 12 years, first and second degrees combined. In 2008, there were 20,000 contract teachers and they represented 2.8% of the workforce. According to the latest figures dating from 2020, there are now more than 38,000 (more than 5% of teachers).
Other measures were announced during this press conference. The large kindergarten classes will all be split into a priority education network “at the start of the school year in September 2024”said Pap Ndiaye. “Today, 75% of classes are”, says the minister. The CP and CE1 classes are already split into REP and REP+. Outside the priority education networks, “almost all of the large section classes, CP and CE1” is capped at 24 students.
“140 colleges commit to the start of the new school year in September 2022 in the experimentation of two more hours of sport per week”, also announced Pap Ndiaye. “to learn better and to fight against a sedentary lifestyle”says the minister.