Parents of students and teachers demonstrated all over France before the holidays: they denounce the class closures announced for the start of the school year in September, defended by the government which argues for a drop in demography. In December, the Ministry of Education presented the distribution by academy of positions in public education for September 2023, marked by more than 1,000 job cuts, in particular in the Paris academy, where the supervision rate is better.
While this announcement may seem paradoxical after the emergency organization of teacher recruitment competitions six months ago, what is it? In primary school, a sharp demographic decline is again expected, with a drop in enrollment of some 63,700 pupils (there had already been 50,000 fewer pupils at the start of the 2022 school year), after the peak in births at the start of the school year. 2000s. In kindergarten and primary, there were 6.5 million children at the start of the 2021 school year, compared to 6.8 in 2016. According to National Education projections, this figure could continue to fall for reach 6.1 million in 2026. In this context, public education will experience a drop of 667 posts for the start of the 2023 school year (calculated in “teaching resources”, taking into account the fact that trainee teachers are halfway -time and others full-time).
The second degree (colleges and high schools) is not spared. It also recorded a demographic decline, but very slight (-840 students), which will however be accompanied by a reduction of nearly 500 positions (in teaching resources). In the field, teaching teams and parents of students expressed their dissatisfaction before the rectorates or the prefectures, during departmental councils for National Education (CDEN), before the February holidays.
The most affected Paris academy
With 155 posts removed in primary and 182 in secondary, Paris, which is losing inhabitants, is the most affected academy. The rectorate has planned the disappearance of 162 primary classes (178 deletions for 16 openings), or 3% of the total. About fifty are also planned in college and ten in general high school. “We have never seen that. Even during the Sarkozy years, we did not close so many classes at once”, annoys AFP Sylvaine Baehrel, president of the association of parents of students FCPE Paris. A petition Don’t touch my class is online.
“This project is not acceptable.” The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, challenged the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye in a letter. “Being a student in Paris is an opportunity and I want it to remain so,” says Anne Hidalgo, who wants to meet Pap Ndiaye “soon” to “find together the path to educational progress in Paris”. In ten years, Paris has lost 27,500 students in the first degree, including nearly 14,000 between 2019 and 2022 according to our colleagues from the World. At the start of the 2023 school year, 3,100 fewer students are expected in Parisian schools. Same trend in colleges and high schools, although on a smaller scale.
But the capital is not the only one to see its workforce reduced. Brittany and Lille are not to be outdone, with respectively 60 and 150 fewer jobs in the first degree, and 30 and 160 in the second. It should be noted that the Lille academy will lose around 7,000 primary school pupils at the start of the next school year.
However, according to the teachers, these job cuts do not take into account the difficulties of everyday life. “Why not take advantage of this demographic decline to hold classes with few students, in order to facilitate learning?” Asks Sylvaine Baehrel, regretting that with these closures, “the number of students per class will necessarily increase”. Among the fears of establishments affected by closures: the increase in numbers in the remaining classes, the creation of multi-level groups or the decline in the quality of education. According to a recent study by the statistical agency of the ministry, the Depp, pupils in elementary school in France are on average 22 per class, against 19.3 on average in the European Union. In college, it’s 26 students on average, against less than 21 in the EU.
In a gathering of some 200 people in front of the rectorate of Paris in mid-February, Annoushka Chaillet, mother of a 9-year-old child in CM1 class, explained “not understanding that such a steamroller passes on the classes of the North- Is Parisian”. “We had schools that were working very well, which are going to become schools that are suffering, it’s absurd”. According to the FCPE Paris, the less favored neighborhoods in the North and East of Paris (18th, 19th and 20th arrondissement) are the most impacted by these closures. In the establishments of the North-East of Paris, there are about sixty closures, including 41 in priority education.
“Not yet final”
Other departments are closing: 26 classes in Morbihan, 104 in Haute-Garonne (including 25 in Toulouse), 73 in Oise… Jeff Di Giovanni, co-president of the FCPE des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , does not take off: “Since the announcement of the new school map, which closes six classes in the department, mayors, parents of students and children are very mobilized”. “The goal is to try to dialogue as much as possible with the prefecture, we must not let go because alterations are still possible”, he assures.
Mobilizations follow one another to prevent job cuts everywhere in France. On February 1, the parents of students at the Jules-Ferry school in Plounéour-Ménez, in Finistère, mobilized to prevent the abolition of a teaching post. On February 3, it was the public primary school of Saint-Porquier (Tarn-et-Garonne) which gave voice. The next day, the same rant in Champagnac-de-Bélair (Dordogne), against the abolition of a post at the primary school in Villars.
Conversely, the academies of Versailles, Créteil, Montpellier and Nice should see an increase in the teaching resources allocated to them. They are part of the academies where the number of staff should drop the least and where there are currently the most students per teacher. In front of the deputies in the National Assembly, the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye tried to reassure the many questions asked about the school map. “The scheme presented is not yet final,” he said during questions to the government. “Adjustments will still be made by June, and also in August, a few days before the start of the school year”, gave hope to the minister. Who says to look carefully “the most problematic situations, including in rural departments”.