Shortage of teachers: how to replace teachers?

[Mise à jour du 27 juin 2022 à 16h22]. At the start of the school year in September, the number of missing teachers should be glaring. Published last week, the admission results for the competitive examination for primary school teachers (CRPE) reveal, in fact, that there is fewer admitted than positions : according Release, there are 11 school teachers missing in the Grenoble academy, 14 in that of Nancy-Metz, 62 in Paris, 660 in Créteil and 1,006 in Versailles. The situation is no better in high school because 102 candidates for Capes in economics and social sciences were selected for 121 available positions. And the results of the Mathematics Capes should not be better… Faced with this worrying lack, Pap Ndiaye proposed this June 25 a system of compensation for hours between colleagues. “We want to ensure that an absence of the history-geography teacher, for example, is compensated by, say, his French colleague. But be careful, not for the French teacher to do history and geography! He will use these hours to do a double dose of French, and when the history-geography colleague comes back, he will compensate by taking over the French hours.“, explained the Minister of National Education in the Parisian. A proposal that does not at all convince unions like the SNUEP-FSU, which represents teachers in public vocational education, who would like the National Education to recruit rather than overload teachers in post.

The teacher competition lacks candidates

If all the candidates for the classic competitions have not been selected to become a professor or teacher, it is still necessary that the profession still arouses career ambitions. And faced with the lack of attractiveness of teaching, the drop in the number of applicants for teaching competitions is glaring, proof that the profession attracts the younger generation much less. The external mathematics Capes, which has 1,035 positions, received only 816 applicants in 2022 compared to 1,706 eligible the previous year. As for German teachers, there are 83 eligible for 215 positions, or half compared to 2021. The competitions are therefore far from filling up, and the approach of the start of the school year raises fears of a lack of teachers. A vocational crisis that urgently needs to be addressed for some academies, which now use recruitment methods that are miles away from institutional protocol.

Job dating to become a teacher: the Versailles Academy creates controversy

Teachers who have completed higher education and passed competitions to become a teacher or school teacher find themselves facing new colleagues, with a much less formal profile. Their position? They will have obtained it with only one interview of 30 minutes, during a job dating organized by the Academy of Versailles. The condition: to prove obtaining a bac +3, two years less than according to the official rules which require a master 2. The left and the teachers’ unions did not fail to react to this nonchalant selection, strongly expressing their disagreement. On his Twitter account, the SNES-FSU sees it as a way of contributing to “make our professions ever more precarious and to sell off the public service” and requires a “revaluation without compensation and not this pitiful smoke screen”. Similarly, the parents of the parents’ group “Forgotten Schools and Families” protested against this casting method, “Indignant and angry“, they directly challenge the new Prime Minister Elisabeth Born and the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye via their Twitter account, on the authorization of this hiring.

If the idea of ​​a single 30-minute interview to become a teacher arouses a media outcry, this one is accompanied by other conditions … which nevertheless seem undemanding. In addition to proof of a bac +3, the Academy of Versaillescontacted by the Women’s Journalspecifies that to become a school teacher, a study of the file is also carried out following the job dating, carried out by two inspectors. A response is then given to the candidate within a maximum of fifteen days following the interview. As for obtaining a post of teacher in the second degree, “an interview with an inspector and a head of establishment or HR staff is carried out. If a favorable opinion is given, then a second interview with a discipline inspector is offered to the candidate. specifies us the academy of Versailles.

What is the free recruitment of teachers?

In Marseille, where the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye went on June 2, 2022, it is the free recruitment of professors by the establishments themselves, which has been tested. Again, this recruitment method is not very convincing. The CGT Éduc’Action sees it as a way of clouding an entire system by promoting clientelism, and of territorializing the school. In fact, the richest municipalities could afford the best teachers, leading to educational and social inequalities.

Only 22% of teachers would recommend their job to a young person

Fatigue, anger, depression, resignation, isolation…Here are the terms that stand out when teachers talk about their craft and their mindset. After several years punctuated by the Covid-19, the teachers had to somehow adapt to the various health protocols, without feeling any real recognition and respect in their professional practice. According to a study published on May 23 and conducted by the Unsa Education union with 42,836 teachers, only 22% of them would recommend their profession to a young person. But that doesn’t mean they don’t like their job: 92% of them like the profession. However, “29% no longer find meaning in their mission, and 38% say they are ready to change jobs to the public, and 29% to the private sector” specifies the study. What should be improved according to them? Purchasing power for 68% of respondents, workload (45%), career prospects (41%) or hierarchical relations (23%). Finally, 87% disagree with the political choices and 9 out of 10 teachers believe that they are paid too little.