“A National Education Inspector contacted me on LinkedIn to tell me that my profile interested it. After an interview of an hour, he offered me a position as a math and science teacher in a vocational high school Yvelines right next to my home, “explains Loïc Fabiou. Here is how this former electronic technician and quality controller joined the ranks, more and more provided, of contractual teachers in November 2024. “It is thanks to my status of non -titular that I could choose where I wanted to exercise. This that some colleagues who come from the south of France could not do and are there by default, far from their family. A lot of administrative constraints, “continues the young man.
On specialized social networks, devoted to the conditions of exercise of the profession, the testimonies of teachers who renounce the status of civil servant, deemed less and less advantageous, multiply. This often causes the ire of some of their colleagues winners of the competition. “What is the point of doing years of extensive study to ultimately be less well treated than a beginner who has only a license, and sometimes unrelated to the discipline taught, for any baggage?” Emilie*, holder of the English capes who exercises in the Hauts-de-Seine. The irritation spreads all the more since the number of contract workers continues to increase. In secondary school, the latter represent 10 % of the workforce, an increase of 40 % since 2012, noted in 2023 a report from the Court of Auditors. In some academies such as Créteil or Versailles, 20 % of teachers are contract workers. The shortage of volunteers due to the growing lack of attractiveness of the profession largely explains this phenomenon. In 2024, more than 3,000 jobs, out of the 27,589 open, were not filled with teacher competitions.
“The proportion of contract workers among teaching staff is much lower than the rest of the State Public Service, where it is 20 % outside operators”, seeks to put the Ministry of National Education into perspective. However, the new recruitment challenges “require changing human resources management by integrating contract workers either only as a temporary replacement response but as a precious and sustainable resource,” said rue de Grenelle. According to the ministry, in 2024, almost 70 % of contract workers are either on a permanent contract or in fixed -term contracts of 12 months. The purpose of this lengthening of contracts is to attract more candidates.
Ads on the right corner
Speed datings organized by rectorates, classified ads published on sites like Le Bon Coin, job offers posted on LinkedIn…. All means are good for attracting volunteers. “It has been 19 years since I teach in the Créteil Academy and that I live in Paris. As the capital regularly loses students, that the posts of civil servants are removed in the shovel in all the subjects, I am not ready to ‘Be transferred to it despite the number of points that I was able to accumulate thanks to my seniority, “explains Arnaud Fabre, spokesperson for the movement of red pens. “Paradoxically, the Academy recruits contract workers in French and Latin to ensure the number of hours not provided”, continues that which denounces a “form of uberization of the profession”.
After working for a few years in tourism, Aurélie* chose to convert by turning to teaching. Her English license in her pocket, she becomes an education assistant then a contractual teacher in Lot-et-Garonne. “At the head of a recomposed family, and having one of my children in alternate guard, I could not take the risk of being sent very far,” said the young woman. Non-turners benefit from the same point system as holders, which allows them to multiply their chances of seeing their changes of transfer granted. “I have waited to have enough to be guaranteed to stay in my department, not too much requested because in rural areas quite isolated, to pass the internal competition,” she explains. Everything is often a matter of scholars. Many teeth and accept the vagaries of the profession of contractual while waiting for six -year course which will allow them to pass in permanent contracts as provided for in the texts. But this plan does not necessarily always take place as planned. “While I approached Grail, I was made to mutate a general establishment to an agricultural high school, which depends on another ministry than that of National Education. This has given the meters to zero”, Indigines Antoine*.
Escape the very heavy machinery of National Education
Jean-Sébastien Cras, member of the SNALC (the National Union of High Schools, Colleges, Schools and Higher), has been practicing as a contractual teacher for 17 years. “I did not want to embarrass myself from an IUFM training. According to my colleagues, these establishments called today” Insped “, are imbued with ideology and gives little practical advice. All these beautiful words do not are not very useful when one is directly propelled into establishments in the priority education network of Ile-de-France deemed difficult, “said this teacher graduated with a master’s degree in modern letters. At the time, those who made this choice to remain contractual were still very minority. “And among them, many were waiting to be able to take the internal competition. This was the case with one of my colleagues, divorced and mother, with whom I used to work in Brest who, once received, had the unpleasant surprise of To be immediately transferred to Créteil, he exclaims.
Another advantage: its status allows it to refuse certain posts. “As the day I was offered to manage multiple levels in French and Latin and a class of UPE2A [NDLR : Unité pédagogique pour élèves allophones nouvellement arrivés]mission for which I was absolutely not trained, “he said. Many also welcome the” very heavy machinery and sometimes above ground for National Education “: even if they also have Accounts to be returned to the inspectors, these teachers are mainly evaluated by their school leaders, as close as possible to the reality on the ground. Several colleges or high schools. ” The craziest, it was a quarter-time proposal 25 kilometers from my home for a monthly salary of € 460, with travel costs of around 200 €. No additional service possible in another establishment and obviously no compensation for my journeys “, continues Jean-Sébastien Cras.
Franck*, former digital project manager who teaches mathematics in Seine-Saint-Denis chose this contractual status so as not to fall into the routine. “It would not be possible for me to stay in the same place for 5 or 10 years, I need to see new heads regularly. After 8 years of exercise, I had to meet at least 600 colleagues and more of 10,000 students, which allowed me to enrich my teaching practices, “he explains, even if he also points out, many disadvantages, such as having not benefited from any training Prerequisite, the difficulty of getting your overtime or the contempt for certain school heads and aggregated colleagues. To this are added the periods of deficiencies during the holidays. “The contracts that start in early September and stop at the end of June become more and more the norm, but it is a real shortfall for us,” he sighs.
All also know very well that they are on an ejecting seat. “As we installed the reform of the school, the hours of mathematics has decreased sharply. The rectorate of Versailles has brutally separated from its contractual specialists from this discipline at that time,” recalls Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the SNALC. More recently, on December 12, the SNES-FSU had indicated in a press release “a wave of non-renewal of contracts in several academies”, denouncing “management in the incoherent and unacceptable little week”.
The next day, the Minister of National Education, Elisabeth Borne, had specified that it was not a national decision and asked that they be renewed. For Nicolas Glière, spokesperson for red pens, contract workers would often be blinded by short-term advantages and would participate in the precariousness of the profession. “In reality, everyone is getting in this story: the contract workers that we treat like dressings, the holders who feel injured and the students who suffer from this system,” he summarizes. “Even if some are doomed to become excellent teachers, we can imagine that putting unleashed beginners in front of the classes is not without consequences,” he insists. A aggravating factor at a time when we keep pointing the decline in the school level in France.
*The first name has been changed
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