Since the return of the students to class, “we could see that this return to school was indeed the return to shortage and the year of DIY“, denounced Sophie Vénétitay, secretary general of the SNES-FSU, Monday, September 12 on franceinfo. “There were 62% of establishments in which at least one teacher was missing at the start of the school year.“, assures the union, after a survey of a sample of colleges and high schools.
franceinfo: The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, had promised, before the start of the school year, that there would be “a teacher in front of each class”. Is this the case?
Sophie Venetitay: We conducted a survey as soon as the school year started. On September 3, we were able to observe that this start of the school year was indeed the start of the shortage, since on a representative sample of colleges and high schools, we came to the following conclusion: there were 62% of establishments in which there was a lack of least one teacher at the start of the school year. Very concretely, this means that on September 1 and 2, we welcomed our students by giving them timetables with Mr. X and Mrs. Y. For some lessons, we had no teachers in front of the students.
National Education is facing an unprecedented crisis in the recruitment of teachers. To remedy this, it has recruited thousands of contract teachers, sometimes with very little experience. Are they up to it?
First of all, these contractors are our colleagues. They are with us in the staff rooms. We went back to school with them. Now, it’s true that we can clearly see, when discussing with them, that they lack training. Moreover, they themselves tell us.
“We already have feedback from contractual colleagues who resigned in the first days, because they realized that they were not ready enough, not equipped to face a class.”
Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of SNES-FSUat franceinfo
For the moment, these are a few isolated cases, fortunately moreover, but that should nevertheless put us on the alert that teaching is a profession that can be learned. You can’t improvise yourself as a teacher in a few days, with two half-days of training.
Another teachers’ union, the Snuipp-FSU, is worried about the rest of the year. He fears that there are not enough contractors left available to carry out replacements in the coming months. Do you share this concern?
Absolutely. The school year does not end on September 1st. Pap Ndiaye may have promised a teacher in front of each class at the start of the school year, the following 36 weeks ago. From now on, we are told, for example, in the Lyon academy, that it is difficult to deal with replacements for sick leave. In a few weeks, we will have other leaves, some of which are predictable, such as maternity leave on which we do not know today if we will be able to put a replacement. It was the return of the shortage. Obviously, it will also be the year of DIY.