FBM: It’s back to school this morning. In our department, more than 53,000 students will find classrooms, from kindergarten to high school, in the public and in the private sector. Many teaching posts were vacant before the school holidays. Will there be a teacher in front of each class today?
Denis Waleckx: “Absolutely. There will be a teacher in front of each student. Today, we didn’t even need to use contract workers in the first degree, which is very good news for Mayenne. It shows that the department remains attractive. We were able to fill all the positions with tenured professors who came to the department, who had asked for the department. And then, we also called on the complementary lists. These are additional trainees.”
FBM: So these are teachers who have passed the competitive examination, who are not contractual teachers?
DW: “The only contractor we recruited in Mayenne is a Ukrainian teacher. He speaks French very well, but also Ukrainian and Russian”
FBM: Teachers, at the start of their career, will receive a salary of at least 2.100 euros per month from the start of the 2023 school year. This is a promise from Emmanuel Macron. Do you think that will be enough to end the teacher shortage?
DW: “There is a lack of attractiveness, so it does not only affect the education sector. Everything that is, we can say, help for people in general. But we lack educators, we lack animators. We are in a period of unemployment and particularly in the donation in the department which is decreasing. It’s good news. But at the same time, we know that it does not only affect the education sector. Afterwards, and the minister said it very well, you actually need a shock of attractiveness. You have to give back. We must restore meaning and value to the teaching mission. Obviously, this involves raising salaries. I think it also goes through recognition, true recognition of the nobility of the teaching profession, labor conditions. I think I’m very, very sensitive. I believe in working conditions and I think it is important to remember, for example, that the supervision rate in the first degree is 21 students per class. In college, it’s less than 24 students per class.”
FBM: You talk about the working conditions, the carers of children with disabilities, they often have precarious contracts with very low salaries. As a result, the rectorate has difficulty finding AESH to help students with disabilities. Shouldn’t their salary be increased as well?
DW: “You know, it’s not my direct responsibility, but anyway I am for the betterment of status. If this is your question, know that the Minister himself is convinced of it, we cannot remain with a statute which is becoming precarious, if I may say so. I remind you that a few years ago, it was subsidized contracts, today it is public law contracts and they are transferred etc. He receives a minimum wage but often they are part-time. So what we tried to do is effectively for those who want to get closer to full times in order to be more full times than they currently have. I’m just coming back to what you were saying about the need to make the profession of teacher attractive because indeed the working conditions and also I believe in societal recognition. I believe it is important. Finally, I who often go to classes, I see involved teachers who love their work, who really show intelligence, innovation, who are extremely aware of societal and educational issues. And I think it’s important to restore value and make known what is being done in our classes, which is often quite admirable. I believe it is important. “
FBM: And indeed, there is urgency because this year, we remind you, everywhere in France, there were 4,000 vacant teaching posts. So it’s a return to school without health protocols to respect. It hadn’t happened for two years. Are barrier gestures still recommended?
DW: “Completely, they are recommended. You are right to say that one has no no binding health protocol, but we still have a health protocol that reminds the importance of barrier gestures. Moreover, we can think that, beyond the pandemics, we have learned the hygiene gestures of washing our hands. I believe it will stay. It’s part of the achievements. We are going to say about the major crisis that we have just gone through and which will remain. I think that indeed, after the protocol levels, we are not immune to an epidemic resumption. I think it’s important to say that. I take advantage of being on the radio to say it. We are not immune, but we are prepared, I believe. And the fact of having published in July the three more restrictive levels of protocol, it is indeed important, that we prepare for the possibility of a recovery despite everything. “