The reform of the initial teacher training, several times announced and then left out, was presented this Friday, March 28 by François Bayrou and Elisabeth Borne. It provides for several changes for aspiring teachers in the first degree (nursery and elementary schools) and the second degree (colleges and high schools). “Our idea, our orientation is to find the spirit” of the old “normal schools, to give the future teachers a multidisciplinary training focused on the fundamentals. And for that, will be initiated for the start of the 2025 school year a deep reform of the training” of the teachers, explained the Prime Minister.
A Bac + 3 competition…
The reform plans to reduce teacher competitions to Bac + 3 instead of Bac + 5 today. A recruitment competition will be organized at the end of the license, for first degree and second degree teachers.
This reform will be implemented next year with a first renovated competition in the spring of 2026. The two competitions (at the end of M2 and end of L3) will initially coexist the spring of 2026 and 2027, before the disappearance of the competition at the end of M2 in 2028.
Currently, to teach in the first degree, you have to take the recruitment competition for school teachers (CRPE), accessible after a master’s degree (Bac + 5), before being an intern for a year then holder. In the second degree, the CAPES competition must be obtained (certificate of aptitude for the teaching of second degree teaching), also accessible after a master’s degree (or aggregation, which will not be concerned by the reform, after a master).
… then two years of training
Once the competition is in pocket, future teachers will now have professional training in two years, in Master 1 then Master 2, with remuneration. They will become students civil servants in M1 and will receive 1,400 euros net, then trainee officials in M2 and will earn 1,800 euros net, in the first as the second degree. In exchange, they will have to undertake to exercise the profession of professor for a period of four years.
In M1, they will spend a third of the time, almost 12 weeks, in an observation internship with accompanied practice (welcomed by teachers in their classes), then teach 50 % of the time in M2 (in liability internship). The additional cost linked to the implementation of this reform is estimated at 26 million euros in 2026, 294 million in 2027 and around 500 million per year from 2028.
A new license
To prepare for the first degree competition, a specific license to prepare for school teachers will be set up from the start of the 2026 school year. Emmanuel Macron had said in this regard to want to make “21st century normal schools”.
The content of this training is “under consultation,” said the government source. This “school teacher license” (LPE) will contain both disciplinary and practical lessons, with “at least 10 weeks devoted to learning within schools”, and, on the theoretical side, a priority given to “appropriation of fundamental knowledge and all the disciplines provided in the 1st degree”. Holders of other licenses “will also be able to take the competition”, but with more tests, we explain.
Currently, aspiring school teachers can follow any license and then prepare the competition via a MEEF Master (Teaching, Education and Training Trades), provided within a National Institute of Professors and Education (Insped). For the second degree, they follow a license in their discipline and then can also follow a MEEF Master.
Disciplinary licenses will now integrate specific modules to prepare the competition at the end of L3 in the second degree. Masters MEEF will gradually disappear by 2027, replaced by the new masters.