“We make the choice of public school but we see families around us who go to private schools because there are teachers, because things are turning.” Jeanne is exasperated. In front of the rectorate of the Academy of Versailles, she decided Thursday, December 2 to express her discontent, in front of a banner where it is written “non-replacement, struggling students, angry parents.” Last year, in her child’s establishment, in Chaville (Hauts-de-Seine), there was no SVT teacher for two-thirds of the year. “By not filling these positions, it is a message sent to families: ‘Get by, take private lessons, go private'”, she annoys.
For the past year and a half, a German teacher has been replaced from time to time, haphazardly. “In 4th year, they barely have a 6th level”, laments Gaëlle, another mother of a student. My son is lucky that I speak German and that I give additional lessons, that I follow up. “ Gaëlle organizes herself with other parents to do the same with their children, “But no more because I’m not a teacher either! It’s not normal and it creates really glaring inequalities.”
It’s about absences punctual short-term or long-term (illness, maternity), or even unallocated positions. According to the Court of Auditors, which publishes a report Thursday, December 2, nearly 10% of school hours in middle and high school were lost during the 2018-2019 school year. This is 24% more than the previous year. To remedy this situation, the Court of Auditors recommends in particular that teachers replace each other, within the same college or even high school. “There is nothing new about this”, notes Samir Alioua, president of the FCPE in Essonne, but for him, this is not the right solution. “The FCPE’s claim is that there are recruitments, these are not DIY situations where we ask a teacher to replace his colleague for example., retorts the chosen one. We demand massive and immediate recruitments. “
To try to account for these shortages of teachers, all those times where the students have no one in front of them, the FCPE has launched a collaborative website, since the start of the school year, where families can declare non-replaced absences of teachers. They currently amount to 17,000 hours lost, across France. The finding is particularly glaring in Île-de-France, but also in Bouches-du-Rhône, in Hérault, or even in Moselle, Ain and Côte-d’Or.
Parents of students exasperated by the repeated absences of teachers – the report by Noémie Bonnin
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