7% of teachers are currently absent from schools and educational establishments. A figure which “should not exceed 15%” specified Jean-Michel Blanquer. To compensate for the absence of teachers facing the Omicron variant, the Ministry of Education has implemented new measures.
Currently, 7% of teachers are absent from classrooms due to the Covid-19 epidemic. According to Jean-Michel Blanquer, this percentage “should not normally exceed 15%” he told the Senate on Wednesday January 5. If he recognizes that the month of January is “difficult”, he emphasizes that the figures put forward by the Scientific Council at the end of December were 30%. The Council estimated that “at least” a third of teachers could be positive or contact case of Covid-19 by the end of January. But the isolation rules have changed: teachers contact cases “go back to school if they are vaccinated after having taken a test“recalls the Minister of National Education.” We are currently deploying means to go beyond 9% of replacement means, and indeed go towards 12-15% “he added.
What measures to replace absent teachers?
In a January 3 press release, the Ministry of National Education issued new recommendations for education staff, in order to overcome the lack of teachers in the face of the spread of Omicron variant. After a new school health protocol, the ministry recalls that teachers are subjected to the same tests as other adults in schools and educational establishments, with consecutive tests, without the need to isolate themselves for vaccinated contact cases including the tests are negative. In addition, and following the report of the Court of Auditors, the government decides to postpone or suspend “all institutional requests likely to result in the absence of professors (training, etc.) “. The government also has expand the capacity to recruit contract workers and individual contractors, and this in all the academies of the 1st and 2nd degree. Since January 3, retirees from National Education have been recalled with adapted remuneration conditions. “The academies are diversifying their recruitment methods and are mobilized to initiate recruitments on the basis of reported absences, in order to respond quickly.“, specifies the ministry. school principals and school principals, their tasks are lightened so as to allow them to concentrate more on the management of the health crisis as well as on the pedagogical continuity for the pupils who would follow the distance courses.
Absence of teachers: the report of the Court of Auditors
On December 2, the Court of Auditors published a report entitled “Management of teacher absences”. She reveals that two thirds of teachers’ absences from college and high school are linked to service obligations. This report follows the visit of around forty schools by financial magistrates over the year 2018-2019, i.e. before the health crisis. It therefore calls for more systematic replacements between colleagues during these absences to offer better pedagogical continuity to the students. Thereby, two out of three times, if the teacher is absent, it is not because he is sick, but because he is in training, that he must attend an educational meeting, be a member of an examination jury, or because his establishment is closed to host the baccalaureate or patent exams. Although physically absent, the teacher therefore works nonetheless. We then speak of“institutional absences “ because linked to the obligations of National Education.
Colleges and high schools: 2.5 million hours lost and nearly 4 billion euros
According to the findings of the Court of Auditors, approximately 10% of course hours delivered in middle and high school were lost during the 2018-2019 school year. Absences considered to be of short duration (less than 15 days) which nevertheless represent 2.5 million hours. This equates to an increase of 24% from the previous year. Budget side, these absences represent no less than 4 billion euros.
Replacements: how to compensate for the absence of teachers?
Faced with this observation and even though the absences of students and teachers have increased over the past two years due to the health crisis, the Court of Auditors asks the Ministry of National Education to to propose “a real strategy” for “limit” and “compensate for short absences“. The suggestion of the magistrates? Rather than recruiting replacement teachers, allow school heads to encourage more replacements between colleagues within the same college or high school by offering them overtime. And for good reason, as the Court of Auditors explains “the head of the establishment is still also deprived of the means to find replacements apart from the volunteers”. This could therefore induce an obligation for the teacher to accept these replacements if necessary. Likewise, she stresses that the organization of examinations such as educational meetings could be planned so as not to take place systematically during class time. Finally, in case of absence, professors could be invited to videotape their lesson so that it is disseminated to students.