The bell rings, the students jiggle with impatience.
As long as he doesn't come ... A quarter of an hour goes by, it's official: "The teacher is absent."
Problem: these absences are repeated, raising fears, in times of epidemic wave, a real shortage of teachers.
Three days after the start of the January school year, 7% of teachers were absent, also struck by the contagiousness of the Omicron variant.
In the words of Minister of Health Jean-Michel Blanquer, the peak could reach 15%.
Before adding: "
Are we helpless when it comes to replacement problems?"
This is the main subject
"
Read alsoWhy National Education is struggling to recruit
Because the non-replacement of teachers is one of the reasons for the teachers' strike of Thursday, January 13. According to the Ouyapacours site, created by the Federation of Student Parents' Councils (FCPE), the city of Paris has recorded 1,923 hours not replaced since the start of the school year. A report from the Court of Auditors dated December 2 reveals that 2 million hours of lessons were lost in secondary for the 2018-2019 school year. Either before the Covid-19 crisis. "
We have always had replacement problems, but with Covid-19, we are breaking records,"
said Guislaine David, co-secretary of SNUipp-FSU.
“The difference is that mixing is prohibited: we can no longer accommodate students in other groups. So there is no choice but to send them home
, ”she explains.
In recent years, the number of substitute teachers has continued to decrease, leaving room for the recruitment of contract workers.
Problem: they too are missing.
“The rectors have sent letters to the former teachers asking them to come back.
But it is not successful.
Retirees have no interest in coming and contaminating themselves in classrooms where the virus is circulating
, ”says Guislaine David.
As for the young future teachers, "
they prefer to revise their competitions which take place in the weeks to come"
, advance Jean Klein, secretary of the Unitary National Union of the personnel of direction (snU.pden-FSU).
Ads on Le Bon Coin
It is up to school directors, principals and principals to find replacements.
“The rectorate suggested that we call on pole emploi or our circles of acquaintances to offer them CVs. Normally, it is not up to us to carry out recruitment missions
, ”annoys Jean Klein. In its establishment, a class found itself without a German teacher for several weeks, for lack of a replacement.
"The absent colleague must have solicited all those around her and ended up giving the name of a former university professor, who agreed to come and give lessons
," he says. In the old high school where he worked, a professional section of mechanical engineering did not have a teacher in this subject "before the last two months of the year", when
"The principal went himself to canvass a retired engineer to give lessons before the baccalaureate".
Read alsoCovid-19 at school: the psychological and emotional state of children worries
Result: on social networks, classified ads abound.
"If ever among you is someone who knows a teacher from schools without a current position, we are looking for a replacement to teach in Segpa"
, writes a teacher on Facebook
.
The Principal sent us an email asking to see in our contacts ....
Another posts:
"URGENT! If you know someone who can teach English at a college."
THANK YOU".
So much so that ads were posted on the Leboncoin classifieds site.
“The school recruits a teacher in German, for a non-full time: 10.5 hours per week on the three levels (second, first, terminal). The possibility of teaching in a calm environment ”
, one can read on the site.
"The teacher has been absent since November: in two months, national education has found no one to replace her",
explains Lucie Brossard, executive assistant in this high school in Maine-et-Loire
. “We tried everything: recruitment sites, social networks… And the Bon Coin, even if so far, we still haven't found it.
“Since then, with covid-19, two new teachers have been missing from this small establishment.
For Jean Klein, this massive use of contract workers poses two problems. “
On the one hand, the autonomy of the establishments would only make sense if we had educational freedom: this is not the case. We are just free to recruit for the work they don't do!
», He thunders. Then, contract workers show uneven levels.
“A teacher took a competition, and was trained for. This guarantees a certain level. However, contract workers have extremely disparate levels of experience
, ”he regrets.
“There is a real need for trained teachers. Why not go find students on the complementary list for the competition, who are sensitive to pedagogy? "
, asks Carla Dugault.
"
Rather than people who have intellectual background, without having specific training with students,"
she concludes.
