NATIONAL EDUCATION REFORM. With France Info, a minister gave leads for a reform that Emmanuel Macron, soon to be a candidate for the presidential election, was considering proposing. What measures are envisaged? Why such measures?
Does Emmanuel Macron want the CAPES to end? That’s what France Info suggests, reporting the words of a talkative minister on the tracks of the program concerning National Education of the almost candidate for the presidential election, this Tuesday, February 15. The current President of the Republic seems to want to reform the status of teachers from top to bottom, as revealed by the aforementioned minister, who assures the continuous news channel that “we must tackle the structure of the ‘administration”. Among the measures envisaged by the outgoing president is in particular the abolition of the CAPES (Certificate of Aptitude for Teaching Secondary Education), a diploma allowing one to become a secondary school teacher (middle and high school).
The civil servant status of teachers could also be dismantled: with France Info, the minister at the origin of these revelations casts doubt on a potential abolition of lifetime employment for this professional category – abolition which would induce that teachers could lose their jobs, under conditions not yet specified. Finally, said Minister suggests that the Ministry of National Education, that of Higher Education and Research and that of Culture could merge, giving rise to a “super ministry”. At its head will perhaps be the current Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery, Bruno Le Maire, who, according to The voice of the Northwould be valued for his skills as a negotiator with the unions.
A campaign promise?
With these lines of thought, Emmanuel Macron tackles a subject with a high stake, when we know that with the themes of purchasing power and health, education should be at the heart of this electoral campaign. In addition, talking about education means addressing not only teachers, but also National Education staff, parents of pupils, students in higher education and young people in general… so many potential voices that could prove decisive in the race for the Elysée. With above all, the key, the potential to tilt specific electorate, rather marked on the left – that of teachers who, denouncing an ever greater precariousness of their profession (overcrowded classes, (too) short training, recruitment of contract workers (who do not do not have the status of teacher) at all costs, salary too low for a high diploma…), want to put an end to the criticized CAPES. To do this, however, he will have to be skilful in order to compensate for the loss of lifelong employment. For France Infoin addition, through education, the outgoing president touches on “merit, work, the relationship to science, reindustrialization, through the upgrading of technical sectors”… Without going through the question of economy – skill that “the French already lend to the president”, assures the minister having confided in the continuous information channel.
A first CAPES reform
As a reminder, the disputed reform of the CAPES “Blanquer-Vidal”, ratified by a decree of January 25, 2021 (qualified by its detractors as a passage in force), had already caused a lot of talk about it, by changing the methods of the tests of the he examination – a motivational interview replaced a disciplinary test, completely changing the spirit of the competition. The professors of history and geography and by the professors of philosophy, two disciplines very attached to defending the disciplinary content against any pedagogical drift, had decried it in particular – French Culture then relayed the alert on “the biggest dismantling of the public service of education that France has ever known”.