“We are very far from the mark”, estimates the SNPDEN

The national union of management personnel in National Education reacts to Gabriel Attal’s decision as part of the so-called “shock of knowledge” reform to cancel the reduction in the number of teachers initially planned for the 2024 budget.

The Minister of Education announced that the reduction in the number of teachers initially planned for the 2024 budget is canceled to allow a better rate of supervision of students by teachers as part of the so-called “shock of knowledge” reform. “We are very far from the mark”, said Thursday, December 21, on franceinfo Audrey Chanonat, national secretary of the National Union of National Education Management Personnel (SNPDEN). Gabriel Attal also confirmed that level groups of fifteen students in French and mathematics will be set up in schools where the results are the lowest.

“There will not be enough teachers to take care of all the groups in all the colleges”, estimates Audrey Chanonat. SNPDEN has calculated that for the next two years, “19,000 positions were needed to be created”. The national secretary of the management staff union also warns of the way in which “these level groups will be made”. If the students “remain in this group of fifteen permanently, from sixth to third grade”they are going to be according to her “permanently labeled in difficulty”.

franceinfo: Is Gabriel Attal’s announcement not to cut positions a good surprise? ?

Audrey Chanonat: That we are no longer eliminating positions is indeed a good surprise for us and above all for the students concerned. On the other hand, we strongly question the scale. The ministry’s figures do not correspond at all to those that we had calculated at SNPDEN. We had calculated that for the next two years, 19,000 positions would need to be created. So we are very far from the mark and we are wondering about the necessary resources and how these resources will be able to be distributed between the establishments.

“There will not be enough teachers to take care of all the groups in all the colleges. Our calculation shows that the ministry’s figure does not correspond to one more level group, every three classes, this does not is not possible.”

Audrey Chanonat, national secretary of SNPDEN

at franceinfo

Does the implementation of these level groups between now and the next school year continue to cause concern for you? ?

She keeps. But it is above all the question of means which will be absolutely preponderant for us. No means, no implementation. Quite simply because we won’t be able to. We are awaiting decisions from the ministries and the criteria for allocating resources. Will there be more teachers who will be sent to establishments in greater difficulty? Will it be more evenly distributed? We wonder. And then we have to see the impact on schedules. That can be managed. This is a technical issue that school leaders can get started on. But will it be enough to make all these struggling students succeed? Questioning.

Is the question of the number of students per group, with the principle of fifteen students maximum for the most difficult students, fundamental? ?

Reducing the number of students to have groups of students in difficulty can be a good idea. The question we ask is how these groups will be created? If the students in difficulty, while they will be more or less the same in French and mathematics, remain in this group of fifteen permanently, from sixth to third, this group will progress less quickly than the other groups and the gaps are likely to widen further. We asked the ministry to let us make the groups with a lot of flexibility so that students in difficulty are not permanently labeled as having difficulty, otherwise it will not work.