a draft decree on the methods of short-term replacement of teachers was presented to the unions

While the official decree on the modalities of short-term replacement of secondary school teachers will be presented next week, France Inter learned, on Tuesday, of a draft decree proposed to the unions upstream.

According to this project, each teacher who will sign the pact will have to communicate to his head of establishment at least one slot of one hour per week where he undertakes to be available and where he will be likely to be called to replace a of his colleagues, in addition to his regular class hours. The teacher will be required to honor his commitment except in the event of a medical appointment or care of a sick child. For a volume of 18 hours over the year, this additional mission will be paid 1,250 euros gross per year.

Another point addressed in the project: the methods chosen and the hours of availability of the teachers will have to appear in an annual plan, which the head of the establishment will present at least twice a year to the board of directors and will transmit to the rector of the academy. An academic referent in charge of steering and monitoring will be placed with each rector.

As a reminder, the teacher “pact” detailed by Emmanuel Macron last April, provides for an increase in remuneration in return for new missions for volunteer teachers. These additional working hours are primarily intended to ensure short-term replacements in secondary education.

Three ways to replace an absent teacher

In detail, an absent teacher can be replaced in three different ways: another teacher (teaching the same subject or not) can teach for an hour and advance in his program. Or, a digital pedagogical sequence – followed by the students in class – could be set up thanks to courses from the Cned (National Center for Distance Education). Finally, a time of accompanied study can be organized, during which the pupils will have for example an assignment on the table left by the absent teacher.

These measures should make it possible to resolve short-term absences in colleges and high schools. A report by the Court of Auditors from December 2021 showed that for these absences of less than 15 days, a replacement solution was found in 20% of cases. In total, this represents 2 million hours of lessons lost over a school year. Also according to the report, a third of these absences are due to personal reasons: illness, health examination, sick child. The other two-thirds, on the other hand, are linked to professional obligations: continuing education, participation in an examination board, school outings.