While a collective of parents of students has just launched a second legal action against the State on this subject, the objective of the Head of State, on the horizon of the next school year, seems unattainable.
Empty classrooms and chalk on the edge of the blackboard. This is the illustration of what the parents of the collective #OnVeutDesProfs denounce, dissatisfied with the non-replacement of teachers and the hours of lessons lost for their children. They have just launched, Monday, May 22, a second collective legal action against the State. The subject is far from new: since 2009, the Ouyapacours site, launched by the FCPE, identifies the courses that jump, for lack of teachers to ensure them.
In recent weeks, Emmanuel Macron has made this educational deficiency his hobbyhorse. During a television interview on France 2 and TF1 on March 22, the Head of State promised that absent teachers will be replaced. “overnight” from next school year. He reiterated that promise during a speech on April 17. To concretize this commitment, he notably announced the establishment of a “pact”, which provides for up to 500 euros net additional per month for teachers who agree to engage in new missions.
These missions include the “short-term replacements”. But can they really overcome “the schedules with holes that rot the lives of students and families”, as stated by the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye? Meeting this challenge seems difficult to achieve, as the foundations of the current system are so fragile and the reluctance of teachers numerous.
80% of short-term absences not replaced
To understand what the executive ideally hopes to fill, we must look at the organization of the replacement of teachers in France. Dn the primary level, substitute tenured staff can be mobilized from the first half-day of a teacher’s absence. In the second degree, everything depends on the duration. Beyond 15 days, incumbent replacements or contractors may be called. In the event of an absence of less than 15 days, the headteacher may call on the absent teacher’s colleagues, paid overtime. It is precisely on this point that the government wishes to change the rules.
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While in-house replacement already exists, the “pact” presented by the ministry incorporates a novelty: if the teacher commits, he will have to provide 18 hours of replacements. Until now, teachers could choose this number of hours. But the overtime will now be paid 69 euros instead of 45 euros, said Pap Ndiaye, who is counting on “a small third of volunteers”. Bruno Bobkiewicz, secretary general of SNPDEN-Unsa, the principal union of principals, believes that “not everything can be covered”.
“You have to be honest: the short-term replacement, we already do very little.”
Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of SNPDEN-Unsaat franceinfo
“If a teacher calls at 7:30 a.m. to report his absence, there is no one in front of the class at 8 a.m.”, explains Bruno Bobkiewicz from experience. According to a report by the Court of Auditors published in 2021, 80% of short-term absence in the second degree are not replaced. A figure which makes it possible to measure the extent of the task which the executive is trying to tackle. Especially since, to achieve this, it will first be necessary to convince 130,000 secondary school teachers (ie one third of the public workforce) to work more for better pay.
“Work more to exhaust yourself more”
This “pact” put in place for teachers amounts to “work more to exhaust yourself more”judge at the microphone of franceinfo Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first union of secondary school teachers. “For a teacher, ensuring his own lesson hours already requires a lot of work” outside the classroom, recalls Bruno Bobkiewicz. According to a ministry briefing, half of full-time teachers report working at least 43 hours a week.
For Jérôme Fournier, national secretary of SE-Unsa, union of primary and secondary school teachers, “committing 6 p.m.” will hold back many teachers. “There should be the possibility of cutting in half, a quota of 9 hours would be easier to distribute”believes this union representative. Like Unsa, Sgen-CFDT is not against internal replacement, but adjustments must be made. “It’s an interesting lever, but it must be done by hourly compensation, such as taking away an hour of class from the teacher over the year”, Judge Antoine Laniray, Academic General Secretary (Lyon).
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In addition to the fatigue caused by these potential replacements, the risk is also educational. “The English teacher will replace the math teacher, not to do math, but to do English”, explained Pap Ndiaye. According to Jérôme Fournier, the replacement must above all be ensured by “a teacher from the same class”, who knows the students. “Maybe the children will have enough hours, but they will not have it in every subject”warns Fatna Seghrouchni, co-secretary of the SUD Education federation (first and second degree), a union opposed to the entire “pact” presented by the executive, which will not allow, in any case, to fill certain hours ” lost”.
Misleading numbers
Still, contrary to popular belief, teachers do not explode absenteeism figures. Two-thirds of absences are not really absences, because they are linked to the functioning of national education (school trips, training, etc.). “The proportion of teachers absent due to ordinary illness on a given day is lower than that of employees in the private sector and other ministries”confirms the Court of Auditors. However, she points to a “under-resourced preventive medicine” in this ministry, “87 doctors for 900,000 teachers”.
“We have a profession that is becoming more complex and colleagues who are increasingly weakened. There is a whole prevention to be reviewed, especially for young teachers, who often start in difficult establishments.”
Jérôme Fournier, national secretary of SE-Unsaat franceinfo
If Emmanuel Macron has chosen to focus on short-term replacements, gaps exist elsewhere. The Court of Auditors notes, for example, that “teacher absences of more than 15 days are replaced at more than 96%”. But for the remaining 4%, how long does this absence last? “In a high school in Hérault this year, a French teacher was absent without being replaced from the February holidays to those of Easter”, reports Jérôme Fournier. Above all, he believes that the figure of 96% is “misleading”. “The long-term replacements retained by the rectorates correspond, for sick leaves, to colleagues who have leaves of absence of more than two weeks from the start. This does not count teachers who have renewed leaves of one week”, explains this union representative.
A report by the Department of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance (Depp), published in 2020, also reveals strong disparities in the number of substitutes depending on the subject. The proportion of replacements is, for example, higher for literary disciplines (7.4% in plastic arts) than for scientific or professional disciplines (3.3% in physics and chemistry).
Substitutes who take positions on a year-round basis
“We go through a lot of contract workers, who are more inclined to quit overnight, especially if they have received a better offer elsewhere”, explains Antoine Laniray. Where have the starting substitutes gone? “We draw from among them to put them on positions for the year. As a result, they are no longer available to replace colleagues”explains Jérôme Fournier.
In primary education too, it is difficult to replace absent teachers. In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Julie believes that 50% of teacher absences are not replaced in his establishment, reports France 3. Nationally, the Court of Auditors indicates that 80% of replacements are provided from the first day of absence.
“The ‘pact’ focuses on the occasional replacement of teachers, but it is the tree that hides the forest (…) We must recruit.”
Antoine Laniray, Academic General Secretary of Sgen-CFDTat franceinfo
The forest in question is the classes without teachers from the first day of the new school year in September. “What Emmanuel Macron is proposing is a cover-upabounds Fatna Seghrouchni. In Ile-de-France, there are classes where students have not had technology since the beginning of the year. According to SNUipp-FSU, 8,000 teaching posts are to be filled next September and a thousand will remain vacant. He will miss at least as many teachers in the second degree, estimates the Educational Café.