“On the edge of despair”, teachers distraught by the abolition of tertiary sectors

Fifteen days after the presentation by Emmanuel Macron of the reform of the vocational high school, the announcements still do not pass with most of the teachers of these establishments and particularly, for those concerned by the next closures of sectors. The Head of State notably targeted the specialties of management, administration, sales, commerce or even reception, as being the least “inserting”, that is to say that the students have difficulty finding a job directly afterwards.

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Laurence Robert, 57, teaches administration management in Joigny, Yonne. For the past few days, she has been asking herself a lot of questions, with her colleagues: “Unfortunately, the majority of colleagues in management-administration are between 50 and 62 years old. They therefore see this with anguish and wonder what to do. Retraining now? But it’s a bit late. The youngest colleagues , those under 40, are already strongly encouraged by the principals to reorient themselves now, and not to wait to pass other competitions.

A feeling of contempt

“The big concern is for colleagues my age where frankly, there, we are on the verge of despair”, continues the teacher. The Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye evokes the possibility of training to become a teacher in colleges or in schools. But for Laurence, this shows ignorance and contempt. “The skills are not the samelaments the teacher. Frankly, it’s not considering the schools’ fellow teachers, nor considering the students.”

“Me, I don’t know how to teach students to write, I’ve never done that and it wasn’t my job at all. offered.”

Laurence Robert, vocational high school teacher

at franceinfo

“The teachers are terribly anxious”

In these threatened sectors, the teachers are mostly women, at the end of their careers. The Snetaa-Force Ouvrière union estimates that around 800 teachers will have to retrain. Its secretary general Pascal Vivier receives a lot of calls from panicked colleagues: “Since the announcements of the President of the Republic, the teachers, mainly in the tertiary sector, are terribly anxious to know what will become of them. So, we need calm and tranquility!”

“Let’s stop the provocations! Already, let’s listen to these staff and above all, a lot of empathy is needed for these teachers who have done everything they could as a service to the students most in difficulty.”

Pascal Vivier, Snetaa-Force Ouvrière union

at franceinfo

The number of people who will have to retrain is impossible to specify today. The disarray is all the greater for the teachers who had already had to retrain, a few years ago, when the former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had also closed sectors of the tertiary sector.