job cuts within National Education scandalize unions

The government justifies these 4,000 job cuts by the drop in the number of students which is expected to accelerate in 2025.

Job cuts that are not happening. The world of education is in turmoil after the presentation, Thursday, October 10, of the finance bill for 2025. The government plans to cut 4,000 teaching positions, including 3,155 in primary schools in nursery schools and public elementary schools. The government justifies these job cuts by the drop in the number of students.

At the start of the 2025 school year, there will be 97,000 fewer students in the public and private sectors. The demographic drop has been a reality in classes since 2017, with a drop of 300,000 students. And according to projections, this trend will continue until 2027. Given these figures, “we could have eliminated 1,000 additional positions”puts the Ministry of Education into perspective.

Comments that anger Guislaine David, co-general secretary of SNUipp-FSU, the first nursery and primary school teaching union. “It really depends on the policy we want to pursue. We have a demographic decline in France, that’s undeniable. But do we want to take advantage of this decline to repair the school because it’s not going to not well at the moment and we are always asked to do more?she asks. That is to say, we must resolve the problems of inclusion and harassment or reduce educational inequalities. The boat is already loaded for teachers while on the other hand, we are not necessarily given the means to do things correctly.”

It is about“a monstrous bloodletting for National Education”, “an absolute shame”deplored in a press release Snalc, the union of national education and teaching staff in middle and high schools. “It’s accounting logicdeplores on franceinfo Isabelle Lafargue, general secretary of the Peep parents’ federation. There are fewer students so positions are being eliminated. We don’t think about how to better support students who are already at school and who are in difficulty.”

“We are going to remove teaching positions in the first level, but the resources must be put in the first level. This is where we must put all the effort.”

Isabelle Lafargue, general secretary of Peep

at franceinfo

“Rather than touching the posts, there were plenty of solutions”affirms on franceinfo, Audrey Chanonat, national union of management personnel of National Education (SNPDEN), who cites as an example, “the abolition of the universal national service” or the costs of “attempts to generalize the uniform”. “Hundreds of thousands of euros which could have made it possible to preserve positions. These are political choices”deplores the national secretary of SNPDEN.

In return for the 4,000 cuts in teaching positions out of 850,000 in total, the government is announcing the creation of 2,000 AESH positions (supporting students with disabilities). A measure “greeted” by the SNPDEN, “but it’s not a revolution, these positions had to be created. So it’s a bit of a budgetary pirouette”underlines Audrey Chanonat.

The Ministry of National Education assures that there will always be as many teachers in front of the students and that the supervision rate could even be improved. In the first grade, which is the most affected, there are between 21 and 22 students per class on average. “The lowest level ever reached since it was measured”underlines the ministry. But these figures are an average and do not reflect reality.

An average which erases the big disparities depending on the sectors. We can still find 30 students per class in kindergarten for example. Conversely, in rural areas, some multi-level classes have only around fifteen students. It’s them “who risk toasting and closing”according to SNUipp-FSU which recalls that more than 1,300 positions have already been eliminated over the last two years and that thousands of classes have disappeared. The union denounces “public school scuttling” and a “chronic lack of investment”.

However, the ministry assures that the National Education budget is the largest in the State, with 63 billion euros in 2025, an increase of more than 800 million euros compared to 2024. But the unions teachers point out that we are starting from a long way, since 700 million euros have been cut from the budget in 2023.